The Supermotoland Husqvarna race team kicked off their race season at round one of the Spanish Supermoto championship held at the Albaida circuit in Valencia.
Under the hot Spanish sun the team had 3 riders racing in two classes.
Loris Ford-Dunn was racing in the SM road (road only ) class and put on an impressive display by qualifying in pole position in timed practice. He lined up in the superpole race in pole position and had a good start to lead the race in the opening laps before another rider rammed him from behind causing him to crash. He remounted to finish 9th with a bent front brake lever preventing him from making up more places.
This meant that he would have to start from 9th position in the two main races as the superpole race determined grid positions. This scuppered his chances of running at the front of the pack as the start is so important in supermoto. he still managed a difficult 8th in race one and then an incredible 3rd in race two, to finish 4th overall in the weekends standings. If he had been at the front for the starts then it would of been a different story but another rider decided his fate in the superpole race and he paid a heavy price.
Nick Cronin had a great race weekend in the SMroad+30 class (road only for racers over 30 years old). He qualified in 5th position and finished 4th in his superpole race which gave him a great grid position for the feature races on Sunday. Nick then managed two 5th place finishes on Sunday to finish 5th overall in the race and championship standings. Nick suffered with race fitness in the hot conditions and will be training hard to increase his pace for the next race meeting.
Ryan Blackburn showed that all his winter training at supermotoland and on minibikes in the UK was paying off. His pace continues to improve at every race and he qualified in 7th for his Superpole race. There his race ended dramatically in the first corner as he was hit by another rider and taken down, ruling him out of the race. Undeterred he came back strongly on Sunday to finish 6th in both of his races giving him 5th overall in the race and championship standings. A great performance and continued improvement for the newcomer to racing.
The team now prepares for a test in Italy and then races again on the 25th/26th May at the DR7 circuit south of Madrid.
