Supermoto European Championship: Pleven crowns the 2020 champions
The final 2 rounds of the FIM Europe SuperMoto Championship for the SM Junior and S3, as well as the European SuperMoto Senior Cup, were held last weekend at the circuit of Dolna Mitropolia, in the city of Pleven, Bulgaria. These two rounds (from a total of 3) were of the highest importance for the riders, as in the beginning of the year, a special COVID rule was implemented in the regulations, allowing the riders to miss a whole round (due to the travel restrictions) and this would have not impacted they year’s standing. In other words, two worst results had to be subtracted for their total score, having in mind that nonparticipation is also counted as “worst” result.
This time, Pleven welcomed the riders in a totally different condition as compared to the July event which was at rainy conditions – cloudless skies with high temperatures above 30. With the “all asphalt” venue in Bulgaria this was a perfect setup for a good Supermoto weekend.
Junior podium
SM Junior
The Czech rider Jan Ulman (TM), following his doubly victory from July, came to defend his third title in the Junior class and did it almost flawlessly, securing the title on Saturday evening, with a first place at race one and a second in race two. Ulman was in perfect condition on Sunday and exited the championship with a 1:1 finish in both races. His biggest rival this weekend was the Russian rider Ivan Mosin, also with a TM 85cc machine, who made a mistake in the first heat, putting him to third and that costed him a lot in general. The second Saturday race was a success for Mosin with a win. Hi Sunday’s races were focused again on a victory over Ulman, but call it a “bad luck” put him again in 3:2 positions at the chequered flag in both races. With a position a bit behind the Ulman-Mosin duo was the Bulgarian Jivko Ivanov who managed to take full advantage of Mosin’s mistakes and this did him a good favour for the end of the year results. So, the top three for the season 2020 in the FIM Europe SM Junior Championship are as follows:
1. Jan Ulman, CZ, 100 pt
2. Jivko Ivanov, BUL, 88 pt
3. Ivan Mosin, RUS, 87 pt
Halmi Hakan
S3
Being probably the last season for the S3 (250cc) class, the season saw low number of riders and a strictly Bulgarian fight for the win. Following an impressive crash on Saturday, the title contender Radostin Mihaylov was not able to fight for the win on Sunday and everything left to do for his major rival this season – Hakan Halmi was to make the required number of laps and take the gold for the season.
1. Hakan Halmi, BUL, 100 pt
2. Radostin Mihaylov, BUL, 94 pt
3. Viktor Neychev, BUL, 42 pt
Senior podium
Senior Cup
Being the first ever season for the European Senior Cup and having in mind the pandemic situation, things were not very positive for the 40 plus SuperMoto riders at the beginning, but last weekend showed some quality riding for this group. The presence of one of the all-time favourite Senior rider from Russia – Alexander Latyshev was a guarantee for a proper SuperMoto racing and so it was. Big fights in the spirit of the fair play were witnessed this weekend between him and his “brother in arms” from Bulgaria – Krasen Kanchev, but after many passing, the Honda of Latyshev finished four times ahead of the KTM of Kanchev. Proper racing with a lot of adrenaline also for the third in the series – Vladislav Dimitrov (BUL, KTM). For the medals, the riders ended up like this:
1. Alexander Latyshev, RUS, 100 pt
2. Krasen Kanchev, BUL, 94 pt
3. Vladislav Dimitrov, BUL, 84 pt
