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THE INCREDIBLE Sam Warren notched up another result in World Supermoto in Austria yesterday (Sunday 19 June 2005)
The 22-year-old from Belper, Derbyshire finished fifth in a field of 30 world-class riders in the fourth round of the 2005 FIM Supermoto World Championship at Melk racetrack.
Though starting badly in the second race, he took the first right hand corner of the first lap on the outside, overtaking 10 riders in one go and coming out of the second corner in tenth position.
As temperatures soared to 40 degrees on the asphalt, Warren worked his way through the field from 10th position to fifth in the second of two races after previously finishing well in seventh.
After overtaking another rider at the end of Lap 1 he settled down to a four-way fight between Factory TM’s Valter Bartolini, KTM’s Marcel Goetz and Factory Aprilia’s Fabrice Lecoanet. Passing them, he then faced a battle for the finish line with Lecoanet and Bartolini.
Then Warren saved the best till last, notching up his fastest lap of the race in the final lap and on passed the duo on the last corner of the last lap to finish fifth.
“Sam had no idea how well he finished because he was so totally focused on what he was doing,” explained SR Off-Road manager Mick Spencer.
“Some of his racing was phenomenal. He was passing bikes on the straights at over 100mph to make sure he was first into a corner. It was really do or die stuff, but he always did it in a controlled way.”
Warren’s focus was reflected in his lap times which were mostly within two hundredths of a second of each other.
Warren’s performance means that SR Off-Road are now the No. 1 independent Supermoto racing team in the world in only their first season in competition.
“To finish top five in the world is fantastic. In your first season it is unbelievable,” admitted Spencer.
“We didn’t even realistically to expect to do this well, we are up against so many people talented people in the world – it’s like something out of a Boy’s Own story,” he added.
Mick revealed that a change to the bike’s front suspension could have been key to Warren’s spectacular performance.
We tried it in a the National Championship race at Three Sisters last week and Sam won every race quite easily, so we used it again [in Austria] as a calculated risk and it worked well again,” explained Mick.
SR Off-Road’s bike was also free from the technical problems that affected the team’s performance in Sosnova, Czech Republic in May.
Said Mick: “The team’s success is down to the usual things: hard work and perseverance – but everyone in the team works hard – we’ve got good engine people, good chassis people and a fantastic rider.”
“Sam is absolutely over the moon. Everybody is delighted. Sam puts so much effort into winning. He has total commitment to his racing.”
In Supermoto, Britain has been regarded as the sick man or Europe, but all that has now changed with Matt Winstanley and Christian Iddon racing alongside Warren.
“The best young Supermoto talent is now all British,’ claimed Mick.
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