Round 3 of the British Supermoto Championship took place at Lydden Hill Circuit in Kent with every type of weather condition on offer over the weekend. The regular permanent riders were joined by three wildcard riders for this meeting in the form ex-World Motocross competitor Jochen Jasinski from Germany (Husaberg 650), young Aussie hopeful Joe Harvey (Aprilia SXV 450) and Belgian 2006 national S1 Champion Rob Simpson (KTM 450).
The Supermoto Circuit at Lydden Hill has featured a variety of layouts in its short history and is unusual in that regardless of which configuration is selected, high speed tarmac sections and 2 or even 3; off-road sections are always a feature of the famous Kent motorsport venue. After some fast laps during the sunny free practice sessions, timed qualifying saw a downpour.
Matt Winstanley (Robinsons of Rochdale KTM 610) went fastest quite early on and stayed at the top of the timesheets until near the end of the session, when Christian Iddon (Factory Aprilia SXV550) performed a banzai lap to claim the overnight pole, just before crashing heavily at Devils Elbow leaving his team with much overnight repair work to do. SR Off-road rider Sam Warren (Aprilia UK SXV 550) claimed third position, with the three ultimately separated by less than a second. The weather conditions were so bad on Saturday night, that the track layout was changed for Sunday's races, which to everyone's amazement were almost perfect for racing.
Open Class
Iddon claimed overall Open Class honours, with a hat trick of wins, a first in this year's exciting championship.
Warren took another hard fought runner's up spot with two 3rds and a 2nd and his duels with Iddon and Winstanley throughout the day were one of the highlights of the weekend. Ensuring that the long drive from Germany was worth the effort, Jochen Jasinski clinched 3rd overall despite starting the 3rd race from dead last, after stalling his machine on the grid - just as he did at Lydd in round 2.
Other Open Class notable performances were scored by up and coming David Hartley (Robinsons of Rochdale KTM) who was up to as high as 3rd overall in race 3 before tangling with a back marker and dropping down to 9th. His consistently impressive pace eventually brought him the Michelin “Rider of the day” Award. Hartley's team mate Matt Winstanley's weekend was ruined by a poor 3rd race result, netting him 5th overall at this meeting, but still a clear contender for the Overall title once dropped race results are factored into the equation.
450 Class
In the smaller engined 450 class, variety is the spice as life as yet another different overall winner stepped up to the plate in the form of Chris Hodgson (Robinsons of Rochdale KTM450).
Just behind him were the Aprilia mounted pairing of Keith Farmer (SMRacing Rocket Centre Aprilia UK SXV450) and Ricky Higgs (Aprilia UK SXV450) who tied on points with Farmer, the latter claiming the runner's up spot on the tie break ruling. Other 450 riders had mixed fortunes with the fast Kent track; Championship leader after Round 2 Lee Jones (Rocket Centre Aprilia SXV450) found himself battered and bruised after a high side in Race 1, whilst George Clements, the leading Japanese machine rider over the weekend on a Honda, claimed a hard earned 7th after a poor race 2 result.
Amazing that in today's age, both in the Open & 450 classes of this year's British Supermoto Championship, the famous Japanese marques of Honda, Yamaha and Kawasaki all have a very low profile indeed, whilst Suzuki single-handedly uphold Oriental honours with 450 Class, Overall Winner at Round 1 David McKee, who was unfortunately a non-starter at this round.
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