Mickael's Mettet magic
By TMX Archives on 18th Oct 07
MICKAEL Pichon, on a 450 KTM won, a fast and furious 21st running of the Mettet Superbiker event over last weekend while pre-event favourite, fellow Frenchman, Stephane Chambon, crashed out of the first of two races on his Kawasaki.
While the celebrities where chasing after Pichonin the Starbiker event, last year's winner in the Bestbiker - forproper Supermoto racers - Frederic Fiorentino won both his races on aKTM despite being pushed very hard by American import Cassidy Anderson,on a very quick 450 Honda.
The very damp and drizzly Friday was reserved forpractice but claimed a lot of bike parts and minor injuries as theslippery road conditions and the fast nature of the course caught outmany of the riders.
But as the riders, officials and helpers crawledout of their caravans, tents and campers, they were greeted by clearblue skies and bright sunshine which turned quite hot for the time ofyear as it rose high in the sky.
More practice - timed for the Bestbikers - andafter lunch qualifying heats with the top 11 going through to thesemi-finals, and for some, this is where it all started to go awry.
The fastest Brit in timed training, Lee Jones, was
second in his heat and challenging for the leadwhen it all went wrong: ''I was following the leader at the time whenhe hit the tyres at the edge of the track. His bike shot across theroad and I hit it. He rejoined the race, but I hurt my shoulder anddamaged the front of the bike, so we will have to qualify through therepechage.''
Jones' luck didn't get any better on Sunday. Aftergetting through to the semi-finals via the repechage, he was chargingthrough from the back of the grid when his chain came off.
Lucky for him, the race was stopped after adifferent crash blocked the off-road section and on the re-start he hadto do the same again.
However, all that effort was wasted. He came overthe big jump towards the end of the race only to find a rider and hisbike laying on the track without any flags showing. He landed on therider, crashed out of the race and that was it for his weekend.
2007 INTERNATIONAL SUPERBIKER Mettet, BELGIUM
STARBIKER (Multi-discipline)
1 Mickael Pichon (F - KTM) 25 + 20 = 45
2 Micky Dymond (US - Honda) 20 + 16 = 36
3 Josh Coppins (NZ - Yamaha) 16 + 11 = 27
4 Stephane Chambon (F - Kawasaki) 0 + 25 = 25
5 Kai Borre Andersen (N - Honda) 13 + 10 = 23
6 Frederic Bolley (F - Gas Gas) 4 + 13 = 17
7 Troy Corser (AUS - Yamaha) 11+6=17, 8 SvenBreugelmans (B - KTM) 8+8=16, 9 Didier Jadoul (B - Kawasaki) 9+7=16, 10Sebastien Le Grelle (B - Honda) 6+5=11, 11 Regis Laconi (F - Kawasaki)10+0=10, 12 Yves Demaria (F - Yamaha) 0+9=9, 13 Jurgen Van DenGoorbergh (NL - Honda), 14 Gunther Jesco (S - Suzuki), 15 Adam Lyons(GB - Suzuki) 2+4=6, 16 Karl Muggeridge (AUS - Honda) 3+0=3, 17 XavierSimeon (B - Suzuki) 0+2=2, 18 Michelle DiSalvo (US - Suzuki) 0+1=1, 19Fabien Foret (F - Kawasaki) 1+0=1.
BESTBIKER (Supermoto Riders)
1 Frederic Fiorentino (B - KTM) 25 + 25 = 50
2 Mauno Hermunen (SF - Husqvarna) 7 + 20 = 27
3 Eddy Seel (B - Suzuki) 20 + 6 = 26
4 Danni Mueller (CH - Yamaha) 9 + 16 = 25
5 Jean-Marc Gaillard (B - Honda) 13 + 11 = 24
6 Cassidy Anderson (US - Honda) 8 + 10 = 18
7 Gilles DeJong 3+13=16, 8 Markus Volz (D - KTM)16+0=16, 9 Jurgen Kunzel (D - Kawasaki) 10+5=15, 10 Eric Delannoy (B -KTM) 4+9 =13, 11 Damien Denil (B - KTM) 5+8=13, 12 Marc Fraikin (KTM),13 Manolitto Welink (D - Aprilia) 2+7=9, 14 Rony Fryns (B - Honda)6+0=6, 15 Chris Hodgson (GB - KTM), 16 Michael Paul (B - Yamaha) 0+3=3,17 Greg Kinsella (IRE - Husaberg) 0+2=2, 18 Robert Loire (US -Husaberg) 0+1=1, 19 Benny Carlson (US - Aprilia) 1+0=1.
SUPERQUADER: 1 Matthias Heidenreich (CH -E-ATV-HPS), 2 Alfred Wolber (D - RST KTM), 3 Christophe Cuche (CH - RSTVertemati), 4 Philippe Vanpevenaeyge (B - Yamaha), 5 Niclas Lundback (S- RST KTM), 6 Adam Hofmann (S - RSR), 7 Hans-Rudolf Herren (CH - WTECKTM), 8 Hans-Jorg Traber (CH - Yamaha), 9 Max Baumann (CH - WTEC KTM),10 Daniel Morger (CH - WTEC KTM), 11 Chris Thompson (GB - WTEC KTM), 12Thierry Calogero (B - Yamaha), 13 Niall McDermott (IRE - Gas Gas), 14Maxim Cluydts (B - Honda), 15 Steve Cavillott (B - Yamaha), 16Sebastien Guyette (B - Yamaha), 17 Frederick Frere (B - RST KTM), 18Tamas Bedo (HUN - KTM), 19 Mark Donnelly (IRE - RST KTM), 20 DanielMcDermott (IRE - Yamaha).
For full story and pictures, see T+MX NEWS, Friday, October 19, 2007.