WARREN ‘WHITEWASH’ AT MOTOGB LYDDEN HILL ROUNDS
27 June 2006 - Aprilia

Sam Warren and the SR Off-Road Aprilia team produced something of a masterclass at the MotoGB championship rounds at Lydden Hill with six wins from six starts to take a commanding lead in the series SM1 class.

The only minor blip on what would have been a perfect scorecard was missing out on pole position during qualifying at the Kent circuit to former Husqvarna mounted GP rider Jochen Jasinski.

The format for the weekend was for a championship round to be run on the Saturday and then another on the Sunday. Unsure as to just how Jasinski was likely to perform in racing conditions the SR Off-Road Aprilia team approached the first race on the Saturday with a degree of caution.

Warren though got the holeshot over the German and was able to control proceedings from there on despite considerable pressure to win by under a second. In the second race Warren got up the inside of Jasinski on the circuits long corner forcing an error as they approached the chicane on the first lap and was then able to power away to a relatively easy 10 second win.

The Saturday Superfinal saw the best riders from the SM1 and SM2 classes brought together and in the absence of Jasinski it was upto Ady Smith to challenge Warren. In the end though the Derbyshire rider maintained his stranglehold on the round taking the win over Smith and Kinsella.

Sunday saw a repeat of the SR Off-Road Aprilia’s dominance in the SM1 class with Warren cruising to a fifteen second win over Ady and Allen Smith in race one.

In the second race Warren fell in the off-road section but had by that stage built up such a lead that he was able to remount and maintain front position. He did however knock the hand-guard hard enough that it partially engaged the clutch which continually slipped for the remainder of the race. This didn’t slow Warren though as he finished four seconds ahead of Ady Smith.

The last race of the day was a repeat of the Saturday Superfinal. Warren controlled the race from the outset and was able to pick up the pace and back-off at will. He said that it had been a good weekend at the office with little incident.

“I couldn’t ask for anymore than six from six. I had a few headaches in the second race on the Sunday with the slipping clutch but was able to ride around the problem. In the Superfinal I used the pitboard to dictate the race pace which pretty much summed up the weekend.”

Team boss Mick Spencer said that it had been a fairly clinical display and a slight change of emphasis would now see the Aprilia outfit contest more rounds in the UK.

“These things are never easy but Sam and the team were able to control proceedings across the two days. We have been working very closely with Aprilia and I think we have now pretty much sorted all our teething problems and the SXV is really starting to show its potential.

As we are doing so well in MotoGB our emphasis in terms of our racing programme has now shifted a little and we will be concentrating on winning the series here in the UK and fitting in World Championship rounds where we can.”

The next outing for SR Off-Road Aprilia will be round four of the MotoGB series which will be held at the Ingliston Showground near Edinburgh on July 16.

www.aprilia.com

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