This series of photos is… a bit late. It was day in the French Supermoto Championship back in… 2012! It had been sitting in a (virtual) drawer until now. Waren used to ride for team “Les 2 roues”, and was fighting for the title against Sylvain Bidart and Aurélien Grelier.

Back then, each round was fought in 3 races after free practice, timed practice and a superpole. The result of the superpole determined the position on the first row among the 4 fastest riders in timed practice. Waren Bougard had finished second in timed practice on the Saturday. The weather was nice and sunny. In the superpole though, Waren finished fourth. Therefore on the Sunday he would be in fourth position on the grid.

I had the opportunity to follow Waren Bougard for the entire day on the Sunday, from the warm-up session at 8am until the end of the last race. The weather on Sunday was actually much more threatening that on Saturday. The weather forecast was rainy. For the choice of tires, it is better to have a really day than uncertainty. Forriders in S1 class, the highest level in the French championship, all races take place in the afternoon on the Sunday. So there is a lot of waiting after the warm-up session at 8am. The time is spent preparing gear, reviewing the bike settings with the mechanic, meeting friends in the paddock, checking the track conditions, eating,…

The afternoon was finally wet. It had started well for Waren with a second place in race 1 behind Sylvan Bidart. But in race 2 Waren finished 5th, and in race 3 he finished 4th. So in the end Waren just misses the podium with a 4th place, behind Aurélien Grelier, Sylvain Bidart and Stéphane Blot.

In 2012, the last round of the French championship took place on Reunion Island. Sylvain Bidart won his 5th consecutive French title. Aurélien Grelier finished second, and Waren Bougard third.

Waren Bougard retired from Supermoto racing in 2015 after a foot injury. He did not win a French title despite performing at the best level during his career.

Complete results for season 2012 are available at Supermotard France