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Reproduced with the kind permission of: http://www.mcnews.com.au/
French riders Thierry Van Den Bosch (Team KTM Austria) and Boris Chambon (Team Husqvarna Italy) won one race each in front of 10,000 wildly cheering spectators, during the AMV French Grand Prix at Fougerés in France, the first round of the 2002 Maxxis European Supermotard Championship.
After a blistering qualifying session in the morning, last year’s Maxxis European Supermotard Champion Eddy Seel (Team Zupin Husqvarna) topped the timesheets, but a problem in the Polini SuperPole shoot out meant that he started from 4th on the grid. Instead Van Den Bosch claimed Polini Superpole just ahead of Chambon and the two top French riders proceeded to dominate the meeting.
The start of the first race was close, but Van Den Bosch claimed first place by the first corner and never looked back. Several times Chambon seemed tantalisingly close, but he never quite managed a challenge and at the flag the KTM rider pipped his archrival by just 2/100ths of a second.
Klaus Kinigardner (Team KTM Austria) claimed last step on the podium with a fine 3rd place and Team Zupin Husqvarna completed the top five with their riders Seel 4th and Belgian Eric Delannoy 5th.
The second race seemed as though it could be a re-run of race 1 with Van Den Bosch claiming first place again after another brilliant start. Chambon edged closer but made an error that cost him a couple of seconds and delayed his charge. Fate smiled on him however as Van Den Bosch was left stranded on the off-road section with transmission failure. Kinigardner moved up a step on the podium to 2nd and Delannoy leap-frogged his champion teammate to finish 3rd.
Certainly the most outstanding newcomer to this year’s Maxxis European Championship was privateer Ivan Lazzarini (Team Rigo Yamaha) who finished an outstanding 4th, just ahead of Italian Massimo Manzo ((Team Husqvarna Italy).
The next round of the Maxxis European Supermotard Championship is at Venray in the Netherlands and Boris Chambon takes a 9-point championship lead with him.
Results:
1. Thierry Van Den Bosch - KTM
2. Boris Chambon - Husqvarna
3. Klaus Kinigardner - KTM
4. Eddy Seel - Husqvarna
5. Eric Delannoy - Husqvarna
6. William Rubio - Husqvarna
7. Massimo Manzo - Husqvarna
8. Ivan Lazzarini - Yamaha
9. Adrien Chareyre - Husqvarna
10. Gérald Delepine - Vertemati
11. Achim Trinkner - Husqvarna
12. Elric Lambert - Husqvarna
13. Francois Vavasseur - Yamaha
14. Frédéric Fiorentino - KTM
15. Alexendre Thiebault - Husqvarna
