Podium Joy for SHR Supermoto.

May 15 2011: Viterbo, Italy:

Silicone Honda Racing Team traveled to Viterbo, north of Rome, Italy for the Third round of the Italian Supermoto Championship. After making a steady start to the Championship the team were hopeful of pushing their way into the Top Ten with their riders Matthew Winstanley, Sami Salstola and Malachi Mitchell-Thomas.

All three riders took advantage of a full days free practice on the Friday to familiarize themselves with the technical Viterbo circuit and set the bikes up for qualifying the next day.

A blisteringly hot day greeted the team come Saturday and it proved to be a difficult day with most of the International S1 riders being very familiar with the track and showing what a World class field races in the Italian Championship, Matt could only manage 17^th, Sami 21^st and Malachi 24^th. Still as the saying goes ‘what a difference a day makes’ Sunday started as Saturday had finished, beautiful Italian sunshine warming the tarmac, the large field of riders and the spectators who had turned up to watch the action from juniors to GP stars. However in the distance a storm was brewing.

Mechanics started to get wheels fitted with wet weather tyres and race control alerted all to fact the programme was being brought forward an hour to try and beat the imminent rain.

When the call came for the riders to make their way to parc ferme all of them entered the holding area with slick tyres fitted to their machines but with wets as an option ready for fitting. Due to the drizzle the race was declared a ‘wet race’ and this gave the riders the option to run whatever tyres they saw fit. Matt and Mal fitted front wets only with Sami taking the decision to go with wet front and rear. To say parc ferme was a hive of activity is an understatement,  mechanics trying to change wheels with the speed of a Formula 1 pitstop is always an interesting sight. The race directors ushered the riders on track for the warm up lap just as the heavens opened, it seemed those that had chosen full wets would have a distinct race winning advantage. On the grid those riders on slicks were calling for the race to be delayed and it looked momentarily this would happen but the green light was given for the race to begin.

Despite a very wet track and having a rear slick on Matt fought from 17^th to 10^th by the end of the first lap and by the 5^th lap he was at the front challenging for the lead. A 3 way battle to the finish between Adrien Chareyre, Mattia Martella and Matt Winstanley ended with Adrien taking the chequered from Matt and Martella in 3^rd. Sami’s choice of full wets helped him to his best result of the year with a very creditable 10^th and a combination of Malachi’s inexperience, rear slick and needing to pit for fresh goggles meant he finished outside of the points in 22^nd.

By the time race 2 was due to start the track had seen so much rain that everyone was now running full wets and having to start from 17^th again it seemed unlikely that Matt would be able to repeat his amazing first race result, but a potential podium was the incentive he needed to fight to the chequered. Again his vast experience of wet racing saw him in good stead as he made up 10 places in 5 laps, each pass getting more and more difficult. The podium beckoned and Matt managed to move further up the leader board and crossed the line in 4^th which most importantly split the Chareyre brothers on the rostrum, with Matt standing on the second step. Considering his starting position of 17^th on the grid for both races it was the performance of the weekend by any rider and all admired his bike skills and aggression in such difficult conditions.

Truly World Class stuff from the ‘Wigan Whippet’ #251

With everyone running wets Sami found passing the field a lot harder in race 2 but was in a battle from start to finish he managed to finish 16^th picking up more valuable championship points. ‘It was very difficult conditions, so slippy, and every time in the dirt I have to follow the riders and get very muddy. It was a hard race,’ said Sami who finished the day 12^th overall.

At this level of competition life is never going to be easy for the 15 year old rookie Malachi Mitchell-Thomas and he was the first to admit he found the conditions difficult but as always perseverance pays off, showing a bulldog determination he kept going and brought the SHR 450

home in 20^th to earn another championship point to his tally and some valuable experience to boot, Malachi explains ‘last year I was racing a 250 in the British Championship I would never have believed this year I would be racing against current and former World Champions and have just held off Thierry Van den Bosch for 3 laps.’

What dreams are made of.

Next stop Pleven, Bulgaria for Rnd 2 of the World and European Supermoto Championship