Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128223
FIM Supermoto World Championship Series Round 3: GP of Belgium until the finish, but Fiorentino continued his glorious day by winning moto two as well, and Lazzarini took second right behind him. SeeI had a great start (even if he was in the second row) and came out third on lap one. Then he aggressively pursued Lazzarini. Seel went down hard on the fast corner going into the starting straight. Luckily, nothing bad happened to him. His Husky's engine didn't stall out, so he was able to continue and salvage a 10th-place finish. Chambon was third and Kunzel fourth. Manzo suffered another bad moto, stalling his engine after making contact with another rider. He finished a disappointing 14th. SUPER POLEISUPER FINAL on Magnifique! Boris scores his first Supermoto GP win. mances. That said, Saturday's qualifying was crucial. Home rider Eddy Seel (the previous round winner) sat atop the order in the qualifying session, followed by his countryman, Frederic Fiorentino, Italian Ivan Lazzarini and Austrian Klaus Kinigadner. Chambon was down in seventh, sitting on the second row with German rider Jurgen Kunzel and the other Belgian, Gerald Delepine, while provisional standings leader Max Manzo had to start unexpectedly from the fourth row after suffering major bike problems. STORY AND PHOTOS BY MARIO MARINI SPA FRANCORCHAMPS, BELGIQM, JUNE 28-29 oris Chambon finally made it. He finally jumped up on the level he belongs to. After not performing the brilliant races everyone expected from him in the first two rounds, in Belgium at the third FIM Supermoto GP, Chambon finally found the favorable combination of ingredients to put things together the right way and win his first Grand Prix. The major obstacle for Chambon and the other contenders was the one-line circuit in Belgium, where passing was almost impossible. The Spa Francorchamps karting facility was not ideally suited to supermototype racing. Average speeds were slow, with lap times of 57 seconds, and the off-road section looked a little too short and tight to maneuver across. Although passing was hard, the races were really spectacular, with a lot of super-angled sliding action in most of the corners. No wonder the key to winning in Belgium was starting from the front row and possibly from the pole. In accordance with the new and dynamic World Supermoto GP format, the starting grid changes from heat to heat depending on the riders' perfor- B 36 JULY 16, 2003' cue I MOTO ONE The first heat saw Fiorentino taking the lead on his KTM, closely followed by Delepine and Chambon. Seel completely missed the start and failed to take advantage of his precious pole position. Lazzarini also got off the line late. Fiorentino pushed hard in the first laps and gained some ground on Delepine, who had to defend from Lazzarini once the fast Italian got going and made an impressive pass on Chambon. Fiorentino took the win, with Delepine and Lazzarini crossing the finjsh line almost at the same time. Delepine was able to hold on to second place. SeeI gained only a couple of positions after his poor start and was fifth. Manzo retired with a broken engine on the first lap. MOTO TWO The first heat's results dramatically e n e _·s mixed the starting order, with Fiorentino now on pole and Delepine, Lazzarini and Chambon with him occupying the first row. The mota one winner had another great jump off the starting line and rounded the first turn, which took the group into the dirt section right away, ahead of everybody else. It was here that Lazzarini on his factory Husaberg began to challenge the Belgian, and that challenge lasted It was Super Pole time then, with the top four riders of mota two to decide the Super Final's front row. Chambon put in his magic touch by performing a really fast lap. In fact, starting from the first spot really helped him in getting total control of the long, 24-lap main event. Off the start of the Super Final, the Frenchman crossed everybody else's line in the first corner to enter the dirt section comfortably by taking the safest route. Once out of the part where he usually isn't the fastest, he easily managed to put some distance between himself and second-placed Delepine. Chambon squeezed out every horsepower from his 630cc KTM and put himself in a really comfortable position, cruising all the way to earn a well-deserved and smart win. Among the other local stars, Delepine was in a good position to finally perform as expected, but the '02 series runner-up had bad luck. He BRIEFLY••• "II feels good" commented winner Boris Chambon at the end of the race. "It was really hard today. a kind of a lottery because the circuit didn't help too much, and passing was a real hard thing to do. I've never been able to get a good time in the timed qualifying, so today I started moto one from the second row only. Luckily things went really well. and getting the pole for the Super Final was extremely important. I gave all I had in Ihe first stages. and then I controlled [the Super Final] quite comfortably, but I was far from unfocused. as I wanted this win too bad." Boris Chambon also said that his win came while he was still adjusting to his new bike. -I rode Husqvama for so many years. and I took more time than expected to be able to control my KTM the best way." Chambon said. "One of the things I worked on a lot was the settings to gain more grip on comers. I was sliding too much, and that means less speed sometimes. But before the race we hit the right setup. and you could see that in the final result." Boris Cham bon is one of the few top supemnoto riders confimned as an entrant in select rounds of the AMA Red Bull Supennoto Championship. As fomner road racing star and current manager of the KTM World Supemnoto Team, Peter Ottl told Cycle News that Red Bull (main sponsors of the upcoming American Championship and KTM team and from the SPA GP partner of Youth stream at the FIM S 1 series) wants some of its representatNes of the world tour to race in the United States - at least one of the qualifying rounds. "A couple of our guys will race in U.S.... Ottl said. "Chambon will do the smaller class on a 45Occ. and factory Husaberg's Ivan Lazzarini will do the bigger. They will try to qualify for the final and will be back in Las Vegas hopefully to win the title. They won't do the first round [Laguna Secal. as we have the Italian GP in Monza the same weekend." Also. the charismatic Max Manzo has shown big interest in doing a race or two in USA if Vertemati will send a bike for him. At Spa major announcements regarding the '04 World Supermoto and World Motocross GP formats were made. The Supermoto will gain another class called S2 and will allow smaller bikes (up to 450cc). This new class will permit the development of a young generation for the World Supermoto. Plus next year it will be the class for the Supermoto Des Nations, which will most probably take place in Dubai. The interest of the Japanese manufacturers for the World Supermoto was also mentioned in the press conference by Youthstream president Giuseppe Luongo. Among the European factories, Aprilia should be the next to enter the series, starting from 2004. and numors report that Aprilia might have for a selected number of S 1 GPs some of its Moto GP and World Superlbike riders.