Hail fellow well Mettet
By Dick Law on 18th Oct 10
Mettet is dead, long live Mettet.
It was thought by many that when the organisers of the annual Mettet Superbiker event switched this year from the public roads track, with its roundabout and roadside bar with the riders passing so close you could touch them, to the purpose built circuit the other side of the established paddock it would be its downfall - but the fact is, it's bigger, brighter, safer and better. And with entry numbers coming close to 400, and with a crowd of between 15 and 20 thousand paying to come through the gates, Mettet is the biggest Supermoto of the year by far.
The three-day event starts with five groups of Supermoto riders from all over the world all trying to set a time good enough to make it through to the semi finals with those who didn't make it have an LCQ race with the lucky top four qualifying, the rest get a consolation race and then to watch the rest of the racing.
Twelve riders from the semis go through to the final where the ‘seeded' established ‘prestige' Supermoto campaigners are added for a two-race event to decide the Supermoto champion. Add to that the ‘starbikers', top riders from other disciplines of motorcycle sport, who have their own two-leg race, with the overall top 20 from each class meeting at the end of the long weekend for a 20 lap shootout to decide the Mettet Superbike, who was this year Mauno Hermunen on his 450 Husqvarna who took the win by just under two seconds from team-mate, Adrian Chareyre.
Last year's Starbiker winner Mickael Pichon rocked his 450 KTM into the long, long sweeping lefthander that was turn one in the lead, but by the end of the lap that contained four off-road sections, Hermunen was in the lead, from Chareyre with former world champion Belgium's Eddy Seel on his 600 KTM third as Pichon slumped to sixth behind long-time rival Andrea Bartolini on another Husqvarna, with GB riders Gino Rea on a borrowed Honda in 12th, Matt Winstanley on his Honda, 17th and David Hartley 21st.
Last years winner, Ivan Lazzarini moved his Honda into third by the end of the lap and the three young riders in close company turned up the wick and lap after lap pulled away from the rest of the pack.
Seel was on his own in fourth and as Pichon closed back in on fifth place man Bartolini for a battle that would last right up to the last lap where they came together in the last off road to finish was down in the final results. At the end of the race, Hermunen crossed the finish line just under two seconds in front of Chareyre, with Lazzarini just over five seconds back.
Seel was still on his own in fourth with Romain Febvre sixth and the first rider to finish after going through all the heats, semis. Winstanley was the first of the Brits, finishing tenth from 17th at the start with Hartley 28th after a lap two crash that took him to almost last, while Rea slumped to 30th as he struggled with a strange bike that wasn't set up for him.
After the race winner Hermunen said, "After last year when I crashed and took my team mates out in the wet, it's nice for us to finish in the top two places. I pushed really hard at the start and when I had a bit of a lead I was playing for the fans, it was great fun and they like it a lot and cheer for me”
Second place man, Chareyre said, "The two heats were not too good as I had to fight from the back after I fell on the first lap and in the second they seemed to change the starting procedure and I thought I had a jump start and pulled back when the others went so I had to fight through again. In the final Mauno (Hermunen) was simply too fast.”
Stephane Chambon got the holeshot at the start of the first starbikers race with Bartolini in his wheel track as the pair opened up a small lead over Pichon and Gino Rea who was riding one of his KTM's at the time. Micky Dymond, on a 450 KTM, was chasing down Xavier Simeon for the opening couple of laps, passing him on lap three just before Rea started having trouble with his machine, and final pull out of the race on lap six. Pichon caught and passed Bartolini at the half way stage and started closing in on the leader Chambon as Dymond moved in to fifth. Chambon managed to hold off Pichon as he took the win by just over a second, with Bartolini third 18 second behind.
The start of race two was the same as the first with Chambon getting the lead from Bartolini and Pichon, but this time Pichon didn't wait as he took second on lap two, and took the lead when Chambon crashed out with four laps to go.
Josh Coppins, on a 450 Aprilia, was fifth on the opening lap but stayed out of trouble and climbed up to third by the end of the race, though he was three quarters of a minute behind the leaders.
Rea was having a better ride, though he was now on a borrowed Honda, starting fourth, with both Coppings and Darryl Atkins passing him with a couple of laps left in the race. So overall it was again Pichon as starbiker, from Bartolini and Coppins.
In race one of the Supermoto event Hermunen got the holeshot with Seel following him into turn one with Chareyre and Boris Chambon in there shadow, but four laps in Seel span his KTM out at the bottom of the off road hill and went down to twelfth place, while Winstanley was in seventh and on the pace of the leaders.
Halfway into the race Chareyre had second place all to himself as Lazzarini took over third place with Winstanley
in sixth and Richard Blakeman having the first of his crashes at the back of the field.
Hermunen took the first win by six seconds from Chareyre and Lazzarini, with Chambon fourth and Winstanley seventh.
Hartley and Richard Sharp were 24th and 25th with Blakeman, after his second crash at the same place, ending up in 31st.
FOR FULL REPORT AND PICTURES SEE T+MX OCTOBER 15.
INTERNATIONAL METTET SUPERBIKER
Mettet, BELGIUM
SUPERBIKER FINAL
OVERALL: 1 Mauno Hermunen (SF - Husqvarna), 2 Adrien Chareyre (F - Husqvarna), 3 Ivan Lazzarini (I - Honda), 4 Eddy Seel (B - 600 KTM), 5 Romain Febvre (F - 350 KTM), 6 Gerald Delepine (B - Kawasaki), 7 Marc Fraikin (B - Jawa), 8 Cyrill Scheiwiller (CH - Yamaha), 9 Boris Chambon (F - Honda), 10 Marcel Gotz (F - Honda), 11 Matt Winstanley (GB - Honda),... 16 Josh Coppins (NZ - Aprilia),... 28 David Hartley (GB - KTM),... 30 Gino Rea (GB - KTM).
Supermoto overall
1 Ivan Lazzarini (I - Honda) 20 + 22 = 42
2 Gerald Delepine (B - Kawasaki) 12 + 25 = 37
3 Jurgen Kunzel (D - Aprilia) 16 + 20 = 36
4 Cyrill Scheiwiller (CH - Yamaha) 15 + 18 = 33
5 Boris Chambon (F - Honda) 18 + 15 = 33
6 Adrien Chareyre (F - Husqvarna) 22 + 9 = 31
7 Eddy Seel (B - KTM) 9 + 16 = 25
8 Mauno Hermunen (SF - Husqvarna) 25 + 0 = 25
9 Maik Voorwinden (NL - KTM) 10 + 11 = 21
10 Dani Mueller (CH - Yamaha) 7 + 13 = 20
16 Matt Winstanley (GB - Honda) 14 + 0 = 14
Starbikers overall
1 Mickael Pichon (F - Honda) 22 + 25 = 47
2 Andrea Bartolini (I - Husqvarna) 20 + 22 = 42
3 Josh Coppins (NZ - Aprilia) 14 + 20 = 34
4 Darryl Atkins (NZ - Honda) 15 + 18 = 33
5 Broc Parkes (AUS - Kawasaki) 12 + 15 = 27
6 Sven Breugelmans (B - KTM) 13 + 13 = 26
7 Ken De Dycker (B - Honda) 11 + 14 = 25
8 Stephane Chambon (F - Honda) 25 + 0 = 25
9 Xavier Simeon (B - 610 KTM) 9 + 12 = 21
10 Mike Metzger (US - KTM, USA) 7 + 11 = 18
11 Max Nagl (D - KTM) 8 + 10 = 18, 12 Micky Dymond (US - KTM) 18 + 0 = 18. 13 Gino Rea (GB - KTM) 0 + 16 = 16, 14 Cedric Melotte (B - Honda) 16 + 0 = 16, 15 Sebastien Tortelli (F - KTM) 10 + 0 = 10,...
Superquader
OVERALL: 1 Michael Taylor (GB - 500 Drakart), 2 Maxim Cluydts (B - 490 Suzuki), 3 Christophe Cuche (S - 660 TM RST), 4 Mark Donnelly (IRE - 637 RST), 5 Stephane Morin (F - Suzuki), 6 Aaron Ebbitt (GB - 637 KTM), 7 Maxime Lombet (B - 450 Suzuki), 8 Martin Grutter (CH - 612 E-AVT), 9 Mark Troughton (IRE - 550 VLS), 10 Craig Kilner (GB - 500 Drakart),... 15 Matt Lawry (GB - 500 Drakart), 16 Niall McDermott (IRE - 485 TM), 17 Danny McDermott (IRE - 421 Yamaha), 18 Nail O'Hanlon (IRE - 613 KTM WTEC)