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FIM Supermoto W o rld Championship Series Round 9 : GP of France ~ed ~eb~undsl. From cash to crash S T OR Y A ND P H OT O By M ARI O MaRET, FRANCE, OCT. 4·5 WO crashes in two races was too much fo r Eddy Seel. The Belgian had to face the fact that in Austria a nd Germa ny he had thrown two deserved GP wins away despite prov ing he wa s the fastest among the FIM World Supermoto title contenders . B ut being the fastest doesn 't always auto matically m ean accompli shing the missio n . Being consistent he lps more m o s t o f t he ti me. At Muret, SeeI was co nsis ten tly fast, and he crossed th e fi nish li ne fi rst again. He sta rted by getting the pole on S a t u r d a y (w hen h e w a s a lso t he fastest in th e two free practices) . He was followed by Boris Cha mbon, Ger al d Delep in e and Iva n Lazzarin i. Th en th e Be lg i a n got the win in m oto one , second pla ce in moto two and dom ina ted the Su perPole and the SuperFina l. T M O T O TWO B o r i s Chamb on i s probably the smartest guy as far as strategy goes; the provisional standings show that. He has proven it again and again by scori ng solid wins wh en pos sib le and cruising safely wh en it becomes risky to push th e pace . But in Fran c e, in fr ont o f h i s crowd, he had to win at least on e race, and he won th e second moto in a convincing manner. Manzo took the ea rly lead but c ame u nder p ressure fro m Chambo n ear ly and See l later. It was too much, and he was passed by both of them - fir st by Chambon o n lap nu mber eight. SeeI had to wait a little longer before m ak ing h i s way past Manzo on his way to th e second place ; Manzo yielded th e spot o nly in the last o f th e 12 laps wh ile the two were speed ing through the fin al chi cane. Del epine was aga in fo urth , and anoth er French sp ecia list , Willi am Rubio , fifth. MOTO ONE Lo c al sta r Ch amb on go t a st rong j um p o ut off th e ga te on h is factory KTM and got in fro nt , onl y to be immediately challenged by an unusually agg ressiv e See I. The Belgian passed Chambon through the ch ic ane and from t here went on to ride his own race. Chambon finish ed sec ond , with Vertemati rid er Max Manzo th ird , a head of his t eammate, D el epine , who starting i n ninth pla ce and passed a good bunch of riders in the fi r st lap th rou g h the o ff-road segment. 26 N OVEMBER 5 , 2 0 0 3 ' cue A St and ing s l ead er Jurg en K u nze l wasn 't doing bad at a ll , but he los t th e front in a co rn er an d c ouldn' t do an y better than 16th o nce back into the battle . Lazzarini ex perienced bike woes (a n ele ctri c c able broke bef ore the startl), and he couldn 't even reach th e grid. That m eant, as per new GP ru les, that he wou ld ha ve to start from the last pl ace in both th e next rac es, m oto two and the SuperFinal. M A RI NI SUPERPOLEISUPERFINA L When Seel is in great form on a given day, it's difficult for anyone else to • e Husqvama's Eddy Seel rebounded from the two crashes that he'd suffered while fighting for victory in the last two Supermoto rounds by smoothing out and easily winning his fourth GP of the year at the French GP. ne""B tak e away th e best time in the Su per Pol e from him. And so it was that th e Be lgian had th e faste st tim e , w ith Del epine also putting in a good time f or sec o n d p lac e . Chambon and M an zo co m p le t e d the Sup erFinal front row . Wh il e Seel ha s st a rt ed fr om th e p ol e man y t im es thi s yea r , som e times some experiments with th e bike settings and poor tire cho ices have hind ered him fr om getti ng the ho leshot. This time everyth ing went perfect ly, and he exited th e first corner in front. Fro m t here he simply held th at pos ition un til the checkered flag waved . " Everythi ng went the way it should have today " SeeI said. "I came from good pra ct ices and ti me practices on Saturda y . In the first rac e I started third and passed Delepin e right awa y to th en go hunting Chambon, who I had measure of on lap seven . Then I managed the two - to three-seconds gap easily . In the second race I had to work ha rd to p ass Manzo, as he was n 't fast er th an me, b ut h e was protecting .t he best line very we ll. I did in the last corn er and got the sec ond to th en ge t th e SuperPole. In th e main event starting in front made it a lot eas ier for m e, as I c an j ust focu s o n puttin g m y p a c e a n d g o awa y reall y easy . You know sometimes th e differenc e betw een winning and goin g down is so in vi sible that yo u ca n't do an yth ing ." Th e win a llo we d See l to recov er som e ground in th e championshi p chase. Sec ond in France was Ch amb on , and with Kunzel struggling in m oto o ne and then try ing to make up for it th e rest of th e day, the French m an is back leading t he se r ies . He started thi rd in th e main and had an interesting battle with the other local, S eel' s teammate, Fabr ice Guyot. Ch ambon eventu all y passed Gu y ot , and Kunz e l fin ish ed a solid fourth ahead of Rubio. Ma nzo didn't have a good start because Cham bo n wh eelied a little b it and crossed his line. Manzo was working his way up to th e to p wh en De lepine lost his fro nt and forc ed the Itali an into an emergency deto ur thro ugh the g rass . Manzo would wi nd up sixth, but he jumped back up to fourth place in the sta ndin g s, tha nks also t o a poor overa ll result for Lazza rin i, the latter fi nishing ninth in the main afte r an amazing run from the last row. CN SP of f rance Murel, fran ce Results : October 4-5 , Z003 (Round 9 of 131 SU PERFINAL : I . Eddy SeeI ( Hus ) ; 2 . Bo ris Cham bon (KTM); 3. Fabric e Guyot (Hus); 4. Jurgen Kunze! (KTM ); 5. William Rubio (Hus); 6. Max Manzo (Ver); 7. Massim o Beltr ami (Hus); 8. Gerald Delepine ( Ver) ; 9 . Iva n La zza r in i ( Hbg); 10 . Devld e Gozzini (Hus) . FIM SUPERMOTO WORLD CHA MP IONSHIP SER IES POI NTS S T A N D I N GS ( All er 9 of 13 rounds): 1. Boris Chambon (3 03 /2 wins); 2 . J urgen Kunze l (298/2 wins); 3. Edd y See! (269/ 4 wi ns); 4. Max Ma nzo (2 15/1 win ); 5 . lvan Lazzarini (20 1); 6 . Gerald Delepin e (198) ; 7 . Fre deric Fiorentino (173) ; 8 . Fabrice Guyo t (156) ; 9 . Massi mo Belt ram i (154); to . Will iam Rubia ( 129). Upcomi ng Rounds : Round 10 - Lydd-Ashford, England, October 26 Round 11 • Pergusa, Italy, Novem ber 9