Monday August 22, 2005 at 12:00am
The Supermono Championship, which sees a wide variety of machinery, competing under a very small set of rules, has seen entries increasing over the past few seasons.
With the Moto GP class being exclusively for prototype machinery, the Supermono Championship shares many similarities with this elite class. Until recently the class mainly consisted of four stroke single cylinder engines derived from trail bike engines such as XT Yamaha's, DR Suzuki's and similar Austrian Rotax engines.
Since Motocross has started using 4 stroke engines in their GP class, 450 cc engines have found their way from dirt bikes and squeezed into 125 Grand Prix frames, in some instances 610 Supermoto engines have managed to find their way into frames built around similar dimensions.
Different owners tackle the series with many different viewpoints, the bigger engines/bikes may be quicker but the smaller bikes have superior handling and braking. The race at Mallory Park saw the very small gap between the 2 thoughts highlighted superbly, Mark Lawes on an 800cc Suzuki on pole position, with Mark George on a 610cc Minimono second on the grid. During the race the two were locked in a close battle until midway through the 20 lap race, when George was able to stretch a lead, claim the win and increase his lead in the Championship, but with 4 races and 100 points remaining the title is still wide open.
For further information on the British Supermono Championship please log onto the website, www.supermononewsletter.co.uk.