Crail, on the far North East coast of Scotland held its first ever British Championship Supermoto event this past weekend. The ESKC had worked hard over winter and despite a fair drive for most of the Championship regulars the circuit met with general approval from riders and teams.

Saturday was a club organised training day, with very few teams been to this venue most made the trip up early to gain some valuable bike set up time. With uncharacteristic clear blue skies and sun the whole day looked to go well with all the main Championship contenders making improvements.

All this was to no avail however as come Sunday morning and the great British summer time bit back with a vengeance. Heavy overnight rain and cloudy skies greeted the riders and despite a dry line for the free practice session it began to rain harder for qualifying and this weather stayed on for the day making the track and Saturdays settings completely different.

Farmer, despite his confidence from Saturdays settings just couldn't get going, with a very slippy track and the Aprilia 550's power he just struggled to find pace and finished the session a lowly 9Th on the grid for the racing.

With some time before the main races the team set about making some drastic changes to the bike setup and with a toned down fuel map and suspension settings Farmer made his way to grid for race one. As he returned from the sighting lap his signal to the team seemed that the changes had worked, with the lights changing to green Framer shot around the outside and began a charge to the lead pack. This battle between four riders went back and forth all race long with Farmer eventually having to settle for fourth as the bike took on a little bit of water at mid race making it difficult to stay smooth.

Race two, Farmer made another good start and this time battled for the lead, with now even heavier rain and a huge amount of standing water on the track Farmer again suffered with the bike taking on water but despite this he finished a good solid second at the flag.

Race three and finally the rain had stopped but in doing so the off road section had now began to transfer around the whole circuit making it more like motocross. Farmer again started well and despite very difficult conditions showed great maturity and good riding lines to finish third.

After a very difficult weekend Team SMRacing Rocket Centre Aprilia UK and Keith Farmer now lead the British Supermoto Championship, good consistent finishes in difficult conditions on a very powerful bike show that Farmer is now a serious title threat, at nearly the mid point of the season and with his best tracks still to come the team  look forward to Rounds 5 & 6 in two weeks time.

Our young rider Ollie Harrison had what is probably his best day so far as well, the wet conditions suiting the youngster. In qualifying he amazed all the championship regulars with a fourth position and then backed this up in race one with fourth at the flag. Race two was his best race too date with second place behind the current championship leader and World S3 leader Ollie Pope. Race three and up till the mid point Ollie held top three, a crash in the dirt relegated him to fifth at the flag and this was enough to see his debut podium of third  in S3 after only five rides on the bike.

S4, British youth class was abandoned this weekend due to injured riders and a small entry so Ollie also still retains his Championship lead in this class.

This has perhaps been the most difficult race of the 2008 season so far with driving rain and mud throughout the whole day, both riders made late passes in all motos that secured there podium positions, many riders only made half distance before removing their goggles. Both team riders had perfect vision and would like to thank Ariete goggles, in any team it is a joint venture with all its sponsors and suppliers but on this occasion both riders commented on how outstanding this particular product had been late in the motos and contributed greatly to the results.