BAD LUCK finally caught up with Supermoto racing outfit SR OFF-ROAD in Venice on Sunday when a series of misfortunes took the shine off their World Championship adventure.
Sam Warren, the Derbyshire-based team's rider, qualified only in 15th position for the Italian Grand Prix and finished 18th after spinning off the track early on.
But an improved second race performance means Warren is still aiming for a top 10 finish in the world - beyond the wildest dreams of a team competing against the World elite for the first time this season.
SR Off-Road have rasied their expectations massively since starting on their round-the-world biking adventure earlier this year.
Now, depite an excellent morning warm up round where Sam and SR finished fastest in the world, team owner-manager Mick Spencer believes his team's racing weekend had been 'diabolical'.
"Aside from our excellent showing in the morning warm up, everything went against us," he revealed. "The team van took five hours longer getting to Venice than we had planned, the GPS system broke down and Sam Warren missed his flight due to a long delay on the motorway."
The delay meant that Warren caught his flight from Stanstead much later, giving him little time to prepare for his races.
"We recovered it really," added Spencer."Although we think it went badly, we still managed to finish amongst the factory KTM team in the second race just behind Thierry Van Den Bosche."
He added: "We're still on course to finish eighth in the World in Supermoto. When we go out to these places people are watching us to see what we're doing and everyone, especially the tyre companies, are taking notice of who we are. So we've come a long way for a team run from a shop in Wirksworth!"
Next month the team will drive their trusty van all the way to Greece for the next round, aiming to repeat their morning warm up performance in the two Supermoto races.
Added Spencer: "When we deliver these sort of performances the reaction is like Minardi being faster than McClaren!"
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