MEGARA, 20 October 2007- A wet track welcomed the FIM SuperMoto World Championship in this final GP of the season at Megara, Greece. The weather suddenly changed from dry to wet around midday, with heavy showers throughout the whole afternoon, making the track a very demanding course for the Superiders.

Thierry Van Den Bosch clocked the quickest time in S1, getting ready for what will be his last attempt to clinch the Title, while current series leader Adrien Chareyre will start from eight on the grid.

In the S2 class Christian Iddon was the fastest, ahead of second placed in the Championship Attilio Pignotti, Matthew Winstanley and Marcel Goetz, all taking part in tomorrow’s Superpole. On the other hand, series leader Gerald Delepine just missed his chance by finishing fifth.

In the European series, Chris Hodgson was the quickest in the S3 class, while Alberto Dall’Era was the poleman of the Open class, exploiting  latest two rounds winner Alex Tognaccini’s misfortune.

S1

With each of the three sessions seeing a different dominator, Thierry Van Den Bosch of Aprilia Off Road was the man on top of the time sheets at the end of qualifying practice.  VDB was three tenths faster than Megara’s specialist Eddy Seel, who won his European Title here in 2001, and won also one GP heat in 2005. The Rigo Racing Belgian could never improve on his second spot, but he shaped his laptime up, and eventually kept a very fast Ivan Lazzarini of Yamaha Evolution behind in third. KTM Italia Miglio’s Bernd Hiemer rounded off the top four, and will battle it out tomorrow morning to define his place on the first row during the Superpole.

While Van Den Bosch pushed his hardest today, unveiling his motivation for tomorrow’s races, when he will try to close the 27 point gap from Adrien Chareyre, the CH Azzalin Superider brought the bike home in eighth place, getting to grips with the demanding course. His brother and team mate Thomas rounded off the top five, showing his new blonde hair colour to the riders behind him, Massimo Beltrami and Kevin Berthome, with the latter having broken his silencer with a bunch of minutes to go.

Sylvain Bidart and 2005 World Champion Boris Chambon rounded off the top ten.

S2

Aprilia Off Road’s Christian Iddon was the most solid Superider of the day, topping the time sheets twice in three sessions. The track conditions looked quite similar to Torino’s GP, when the Brit clinched his maiden win this year, and Iddo was quick to get to grips with the fast course and the quickest in the hard fought qualifying practice, with the fastest 11 riders being within one second of each.

Second placed in the Championship Attilio Pignotti came very close to the pole, but missed Iddon’s time by 59 thousandths only. The KTM Italia Miglio rider secured a front row spot anyways, while his closest rivals in the Championship Gerald Delepine and third placed Davide Gozzini were respectively fifth and ninth fastest.

Robinsons Rochdale KTM UK’s Matthew Winstanley was third fastest, and will enter the Superpole for the second time in his career, after his maiden try last year at Piraeus, again in Greece. KTM Fabag’s Marcel Goetz was very close to the Brit, but eventually finished fourth ahead of Delepine.

The latter has a five point advantage over Pignotti, who will play attack tomorrow. Also Iddon and Gozzini have a chance to clinch the Title, with the Brit being 26 points behind, and the Italian being 17 points behind, but the latter will start from row three.

Fabio Balducci of TM Factory made a stunning debut on the S2 machine, which he tested only once before, and finished sixth fastest ahead of Luca Minutilli.

Simone Girolami was eighth, and Maxime Testu rounded off the top ten. Last year’s Greek GP winner Ales Hlad ended with a disappointing 25^th place, after an early session crash.

UEM-EUROPEAN SUPERMOTO CHAMPIONSHIP

Latest round winner Chris Hodgson clinched the pole, and is all set on a brilliant performance for tomorrow. The battle for the Title continues between Baptiste Rheims and Tommaso Iacoboni, with the Frenchman being second, right ahead of the Italian. Olivier Scheen rode to a solid fourth place ahead of the fastest home rider, Kimon Chadzigeorgiou.

Alberto Dall’Era was the fastest in the Open class, beating runner up Heino Meusburger by almost half a second. Lionel Deridder, currently second in the Championship, will start from third on the grid, ahead of Luca De Angelis, but sandwiched in between his rivals in the Championship. Richard Blakeman rounded off the top five. Latest two rounds winner Alessandro Tognaccini ended with a disappointing twelfth after a technical problem.

THE EVENT’S SCHEDULE

Sunday, October 21^st : EC Open Warm Up at 8:15 am; EC S3 Warm Up at 8:40 am; S2 Warm Up at 9:05 am with Superpole immediately after; S1 Warm Up at 9:45 am with Superpole immediately after; EC Open Race 1 at 10:40 am; EC S3 Race 1 at 11:25 am; S2 Race 1 at 12:25 am; S1 Race 1 at 1:25 pm; EC Open Race 2 at 2:25 pm; S2 Race 2 at 3:25 pm; S1 Race 2 at 4:25 pm; EC S3 Race 2 at 5:25 pm.

The FIM SuperMoto Grand Prix of Greece will be:

Broadcast live on Sunday, October 21:

• EUROSPORT 2 : S1 Race 2 at 15:00 CET
• AB Moteurs : S2 Race 2 at 14:00; S1 Race 2 at 15:00 CET
• Sport Italia : S1 Race 2 at 15:00 CET
• ART TV : S1 Race 2 at 15:00 CET
• MEDIA ZONE : S2 Race 2 at 14:00; S1 Race 2 at 15:00 CET

Broadcast delayed on:

• Sport Italia : Sunday October 21, S2 Race 2 at 17:00 CET
• EUROSPORT WORLD : Sunday October 21, S1 Race 2 at 16:00, S1 Race 2 at 21:30; Monday October 22, S1 Race 2 at 17:15, S1 Race 2 at 20:45; Tuesday October 23, S1 Race 2 at 8:00 GMT

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