WA Under Lights

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The Supermoto Club of WA will crank up the entertainment value of its summer series on Saturday by staging round three under lights and including top wildcard riders -- and even a live band.
State superbike champion Matt Battista -- who won numerous WA motocross titles before switching to superbikes -- is entered for the event, which is round three of the club's five-round summer series sponsored by Bridgestone, Bel-Ray and Franzone TM.
Battista has not been seen in action on a supermoto bike before but he is a highly talented rider and is expected to be seriously competitive.
On Sunday, round four will start around 10.30am, that will be a real test of man and machine because riders will have to back up their performance from the previous night by running through a similar set of races about 12 hours later.
Inaugural club champion Darren Nash is also tipped to be making a return on Saturday after a long lay-off, as is young A-grade motocross rider Jye Schaap, who gave the lightning-quick David Gellatly a run for his money at round one.
Current club champion Brett Stewart will be there, along with other fast A-graders like Michel Drean, Jason Taylor, Dean Taylor and Ian Gray.
A feature race will be held at the end of the night with $500 in prize money which will be split among the top six finishers.
Unlike previous feature races in the series so far, the one on Saturday night will not be reverse-grid, that will make it an all-out speedfest from the word go.
A superpole-type qualifying system will be used to determine grid positions for the feature race.
Both the Saturday and Sunday rounds will also feature B-grade races, with the top six B-graders given the opportunity to participate in the feature race.
Juniors will be on from around noon on Saturday, with seniors on track by about 4pm.
A bar will be operating and food will be available.
Both rounds will be at the Wanneroo kartway on Wattle Avenue East, Neerabup.
Entry for spectators is free.

[Muzzard]

The largest crowd seen yet at a Supermoto WA State round was treated to some fantastic racing last Saturday night at the Wanneroo kart track.
Entry was free and hundreds of spectators lined the track and filled the grandstand on a perfect Autumn night.
In addition to the racing, Perth band Pale As Ashes performed between events, a bar ensured spectators could enjoy a drink and food was also available.
The event, round three of the Supermoto Club of WA’s summer series --sponsored by Bel-Ray, Bridgestone and Franzone TM -- also had a feature race, with the top six grid positions determined by a superpole qualifying session.A top-quality field ensured that racing was extremely competitive, with the fastest lap times yet seen at the Wanneroo track that dipped into the 1:03 territory.
The two quickest riders on the night were David Gellatly, who has recently switched from KTM to Husqvarna, and 17-year-old Liam Robertson (Yamaha), both of whom set lap times in the 1:03s.
The pair banged bars repeatedly in the three championship races and also the feature race -- which carries prize money but no points -- as Robertson hounded Gellatly, who is a demon starter and consistently got the holeshot.
Robertson won two championship races and the feature race but finished second on points to Gellatly, who won one championship race, came second in the other two and also the feature race.
Robertson missed out on valuable points by finishing fourth in one championship race after a fall.
Many eyes on the night were on WA superbike champion and multiple State motocross champion Matt Battista (Yamaha), who was giving supermoto racing a crack for the first time.
Battista finished fifth on points and seventh in the feature race.
Although he was smooth and fast, Battista was not up to the sideways, tyre-smoking pace of Gellatly and Robertson who are masters of the supermoto art of drifting it on bitumen.
Inaugural club champion Darren Nash (Yamaha) made a welcome return to racing after a long layoff and promptly showed that he has still got what it takes to run at the pointy end of the field and finished sixth behind Battista on points and third in the feature race .
Current club champion Brett Stewart (TM) finished third on points and fourth in the feature race, ahead of Jye Schaap (Yamaha) who finished fourth on points and fifth in the feature race.
Round six was held on Sunday and Gellatly was totally dominant, winning all three points-carrying races and the feature race.
Schaap finished second overall on Sunday, with Robertson third and Jason Taylor (Husqvarna) fourth.
Gellatly is the series points leader and is looking strong to clinch the championship at the final round on April 20 at Cockburn Kartway.

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