Supermoto show spectacular

Italian Davide Gozzini did enough to secure a nail-biting S1 triumph over British champion Christian Iddon in the Australian Supermoto Championships held in Collie at the weekend.

After a scintillating undefeated three-race performance on Saturday, Gozzini was pushed all the way by Iddon on Sunday with the pair neck-and-neck over the course of the event.

In the second race on Sunday, Iddon id breakthrough for a first place, finishing ahead of Gozzini by 0.009 of a second.

Gozzini, who only seven days ago was racing for the World Championship in Spain, won the title with 147 points while Iddon was second with 135. Local rider Liam Robertson was third with 111 points.

A cross between motorcross and road racing, supermoto pits riders against each other on a track of both tarmac and off-road surfaces.

On Saturday, patchy rain played havoc with the riders at the Collie Motorplex with numerous tyre changes required during the day.

Two of the races were red flagged due to rain squalls, but in the end it was the two international riders who finished the three races in the top two spots.

Gozzini won all three races in a faultless display of Supermoto riding but was pushed hard by Iddon who did everything in his power to get past the Italian.

In Sunday’s second round, Gozzini and Iddon put on a display of Supermoto riding the like of which has not been witnessed in Australia previously.

With the wet conditions behind them, the pair treated the crowd to the most spectacular riding with brave inside passing moves by both riders in just about every lap.

Gozzini was quick to thank the team he was riding for, Franzone TM Racing.

‘‘It was great racing with Iddon, who made it hard for me, but in the end the Franzone TM Racing machine proved to be superior,’’ Gozzini said on Saturday.

‘‘Today washard with the weather changing from wet to dry and then wet again.

‘‘The track is fantastic and is a credit to all of the Supermoto Club of WA who have worked very hard to make this event possible.

‘‘This track is first class and is better than a lot of the tracks we use in Europe.’’

In the S2 class it was a proud day for WA, with Sandgropers Brett Stewart, Daniel Rowe and Dean Taylor finishing first, second and third respectively.