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Lydd International Raceway, Kent, played host to the much anticipated first round of the 2008 British Supermoto Championship this past weekend. With initial weather forecasts of heavy rain completely wrong the whole weekend got away to a fast and furious pace in almost perfect conditions. The 2007 format remained in place with both classes (SM1 Open & SM2 450) combined in the main races but scored separately, this meant a very talented field of riders consisting of many UK World Championship riders, multiple British Champions Christian Iddon & Matt Winstanley, reigning 450 Champion Chris Hodgson, multiple Irish & P&O Champion Keith Farmer, even past reigning NORA national champions were in attendance.
Lydd's dirt section borders on supercross and very early on this caught a few of the lower end of the field out making qualifying difficult due to the number of riders on track. Keith Farmer, SMRacing Rocket Centre Aprilia UK, fresh from a good strong ride in the World Championship spent the first ten minutes side lined after a stone smashed the chain and its guards off his machine, a testament to new sponsor RK Racing Chain the whole incident caused no damage to the chain itself and it was secured back into place . Undeterred he plugged away and despite only getting one clear lap qualified 7Th position on the second row.
Race 1 saw Farmer start well and despite a little bumping in turn one was in the top six by the middle of lap one, his pace was strong enough to hoist him to fourth in the race and third in class by lap five and he began to settle into a pace. With four minutes remaining of the 15 minute plus one lap race the slippy circuit caught Farmer out with a small error and a off track crash dropping him to eighth place at the finish but fourth in class.
Despite the disappointment of race 1 Farmer again made a lightning start in Race 2 and this time disposed of the couple of riders in front of him on the grid to settle into an untroubled fourth in the race and third in class which he comfortably held till the flag.
Now more confident in the track and his speed Race 3 saw another good start and Farmer was quickly back to his customary Fourth in the race and third in class. However with seven minutes remaining it began to rain, lap times plummeted and despite many worried looks from the riders the race continued. With three laps remaining Farmer was hit from behind as he entered the dirt by another rider which damaged the bike and Farmer leaving him to remount and limp home for a lowly seventh place finish in class. The whole incident relegated Farmer to fourth overall in the Championship and more importantly robbed him of completing the Aprilia 1-2-3 in the open class that he now missed by just 2 points.
The team have stayed upbeat as this is not Farmers favourite circuit and hasn't been kind to him in the past, with strong performances in all three races he is confident that for the next round in three weeks time he will again fight for the podium.
Our other supported rider, Ollie Harrison had a good day as well, winning two of the three British SM4 Youth Races to head the Championship and despite a very physically demanding circuit he also jumped straight out into the SM3 (250) class for his debut on the SMRacing Rocket Centre Yamaha. Despite being the smallest and the youngest rider at just 14 in the class he rode three solid races finishing 7-10-7 putting him 7Th overall in that Championship, again a class with three World Championship riders.
With two free weekends before the next British Championship at Rowrah, Farmer will be competing on home soil at the Northwest200 invitational Supermoto on Friday May 16Th in preparation for the following two days of British Championship Supermoto. Ollie will take on some more bike time with the Yamaha and continue to train and compete at National Motocross.
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