Joe Harvey
Stratton Motorsports Aprilia SXV550
British Supermoto R3 Lydden Hill 1st July 2007

Our first British SM race was held at Lydden Hill in Kent with weather as unpredictable as Melbourne at it's bext. We changed tyres several times during the day and even ended up with wet tyres in the last sunniest race of the day. Still Joe managed to improve both his position anbd laptimes during the weekend. He qualified 26th of 27 on Saturday and finished 22nd,21st and finally 19th , his laptimes dropping from 1m17secs on Saturday to 1m11 in R3 on destroyed wets.

hhttp://www.theresults.co.uk/theresults/Results/2007/motorsport/British_Supe rmoto_070630_Lydden_Hill_Results.pdf
Joe's report

The Lydden Hill circuit is set on a hillside with fast straights and plenty of dirt, there were 3 dirt secions which was easily the most that I had ridden at any circuit. The fast nature of the road sections and technical dirt sections created a challenging circuit.

Practise/ Qualifying

I spent most of saturday's practise/ qualifying sessions familiarising myself with the new machine and didn't get much time to put in some hard laps, but after I had become comfortable on the bike I began to feel confident on the mighty 550. When the time came to qualify for sunday's race the heavens opened and I was once again put in unfamiliar territory, so I wobbled round the flooded circuit to qualify in 26th place.

Race day

On sunday the weather took a turn for the better which put a smile on many a racer's face, I was keen to improve my results and felt that I would be able to do this a lot better on a dry track.

In race one I got a reasonable start and was able to move up a few spots as I avoided some first lap turmoil. I stayed in a similar position for most of the race and felt that I had learnt alot about the bike in race conditions. I finished in 23rd place and was eaker to do better in race 2.

Race 2 didnt start as well as I would have hoped, I was fine in the first turn and then passed a large amount of riders in turn 2 but came unstuck in turn 3 as I tried to go round a pack of fallen riders, I was collected by another rider with the same intention. I remounted and struggled to catch any other riders but managed to make up a few places from riders who had come to grief in some way. I finished in 21st place and thought that I could do much better if everthing went to plan.

The final race of the day happened to be my best race as I got a reasonable start, didn't crash on the first lap, and had some other riders to battle with. I was riding on a wet weather rear tyre in the dry because I was sharing the bike with team manager Shane Stratton and we didn't have time to change tyres as the races were back to back. So as I slid my way round the circuit I also posted my best time of the weekend which showed how much I had improved over the course of meeting. I finished the race in 19th position which was my best result.

British Supermoto Champinship
Teesside Autodrome
14th & 15th July

The Teesside Circuit is located in Middlesborough, a large in town in the North of England. The circuit is a famous go-kart venue and is the longest go-kart circuit in England, which makes it a perfect venue for supermoto. The track was a relatively low speed layout which meant that in order to go fast you have to hold a lot of momentum through the numerous turns and chicanes. The dirt section was very soft and with the rain on sunday it quickly turned into a hazardous section with numerous holes and ruts to claim any unsuspecting victim.
Practise/Qualifying

Because I had tested at the circuit the week prior I had a fairly good understanding of the layout and lines through the corners, but because of the numerous options the extensive bitumen offered there was little similarity to the circuit that we tested on to the one that we used on race day. So in practise I tried to get the sections that I hadn't learnt down pat before putting all the pieces together to create a fast lap time. I was instantly further up the field than I was at Lydden Hill and in the second timed practise I was tenth fastest overall which showed how much I had improved and how much the extra track time the week before had helped my speed. In qualifying I struggled to get a clear lap and was unable to post my best time ending up in 20th position which was a dissapointment as I had shown a lot of promise in practise but was unable to push hard enough to get a good qualifying spot.

Racing

Race 1
Race one did not start well as I was so far down the grid I was forced to queue up in traffic in the first few turns and was probably sitting in around 17th place when I had a huge moment when I saved a high side but ran off the track and low-sided on the grass, I slid for a long time as I was travelling at high speed but the bike slid off the grass and back onto the track where it was collected by another rider, I ran over to the bike and surveyed the damage and deciding that it was too badly damaged to keep racing and I pushed it back to the pits. We had a lot of work to do to get me back out on the track and the Halsion Aprillia Lincoln Team put in a huge effort to get the bike repaired and I was ready for the next race.

Race 2
The rain came down just before we went out on the track so we were allowed extra time to change to wet weather tyres and the rain did not ease so we raced the rest of the day in the rain. I got a pretty good start and moved up a few positions in the dirt section and stayed relatively quiet sitting mid pack until late in the race when my team-mate David Jackson came up behind me and pushed me hard for the last few laps so we had an entertaining finish to the race, ending with me in 15th and David in 16th.

Race 3
Race three started really well for me as I got a great start and moved up a few spots in the first lap and I was feeling confident in the wet conditions, the Aprilia was handling excellently and I was able to make some great passes on both the dirt and the tar and made my way up into the top ten where I had some good battles with Chris Hodgson and Richard Blakeman and finished the race in ninth place outright which I and the rest of the team were very happy with as this was fourth 450cc .

The Three Sisters circuit was a great track to ride, it had a bit of everything from tight S bends to long sweepers through to a fast straight and into a reasonable dirt section. I had fun riding the track because it had a lot of technical sections which were fun and there were quite a few places to pass. The layout made for some close racing which was good for the spectators who turned out for a good day in the sun, the weather held up for the whole weekend which was a great way to finish my trip.

Practise/ Qualifying

Practise went reasonably well for me, I had to take it easy on the big 550 for the first few laps because it had just been rebuilt so we didn't want to damage it before it even got to do a race. But after I had done a few easy laps I begun to get the hang of the circuit and in the second session I began to get going a bit more and when the time came to qualify I thought I could string together a reasonably fast lap time.
I qualified in 22nd place and had thought that I would do a little better but it seemed that i would have to pick up my pace even more if I wanted to get to where I thought I should be.

Race 1.

The first race started pretty well for me and I was moving up the field and was sitting in around 17th for the first couple of laps then I began to suffer from mechanical troubles and ended up pulling out of the race. We stripped the bike down and found that it had blown a head gasket, deciding that the bike was irrepairable with the parts that we had we decided to change the number panels and get the 450 out for me to ride in the remaining two races.

Race 2.

I spent the warm up lap getting used to the different power delivery of the 450 and hoped to get a good start from the back of the grid. I did get a reasonable start and moved up a few places on the first lap and made my way up to 21st place where I stayed until the end of the race. I thought I had done pretty well considering I had just hopped on the 450 and hoped for the best.

Race 3.

The final race of my trip to England was a pretty good way to finish up. I didn't get a very good start and managed to move back up to around 18th place where I stayed for a while until a rider past me on the tar section so I tried to stick on them and was keeping up with them and thought I could pass them back but I made a mistake coming off the dirt section and lost a lot of time so I lost that position and fell back into the clutches of Lee Cunliffe we had been having some good battles over the day's racing and it was good to have a dice with someone in my last race. Lee eventually past me but I was confident that I could pass him in the dirt but there was a fallen rider and yellow flags waving everywhere so I lost that chance. The next corner we came round the red flag was out and the race was cut short so it wasn't exactly the best ending but I was happy to have had a good battle and finish the race with no troubles.