Barcelona Indoor
By TMX Archives on 5th Dec 07
ALREADY crowned AMA Endurocross champion for 2007, KTM factory rider David Knight comfortably topped the opening round of the FIM Indoor Enduro World Cup with a dominant display of speed and finesse at the IX running of the Barcelona Indoor Enduro.
Finishing ahead of Finland's Mika Ahola and Spain's Xavi Galindo in the overall results, Knight's expected number one rival, Taddy Blazusiak, failed to deliver the results many expected as bad luck and overly aggressive riding cost the Pole valuable championship points...
Britain's David Knight has taken a commanding lead in the World Indoor Enduro Cup following two race wins and one runner-up result at the opening round of the three-event series – the Barcelona Indoor Enduro, staged in Spain at the weekend.
Set on adding the FIM-sanctioned championship to the AMA Endurocross title he earned just a few weeks ago in Las Vegas, Knighter well and truly stole the show inside the Palau Sant Jordi stadium as the much hyped fight between the Manxman and Poland's new indoor and extreme enduro star, Taddy Blazusiak, failed to materialise.
With all but a few of Europe's best enduro riders competing in the ninth running of the RPM-organised event, the Barcelona Indoor Enduro provided its usual non-stop excitement as the typically unpredictable nature of the indoor game saw several big named riders fail to make the finals.
Topping the timed practice sheet was, to almost everyone's surprise, Bartosz Oblucki. Competing aboard his 250cc four-stroke Husqvarna, 'Bart' claimed the top spot ahead of Knight, Spain's Cristobal Guerrero and Blazusiak, with Johnny Aubert fifth.
With three riders passing directly to the finals from each of three qualifying races it was Blazusiak, Mika Ahola and Bartosz Oblucki who made it through from Group A, while Knighter topped Group B ahead of Frenchmen Johnny Aubert and Gregory Eyries. In Group C, local hero Xavi Galindo finished best with Cristobal Guerrero and Simone Albergoni following him through to the finals.
From the two highly entertaining and incident packed LCQ races, Italian Alessandro Botturi and Britain's Tom Sagar did enough to make it through into the finals.
FIM WORLD INDOOR ENDURO CUP
Rd 1 – Palau Sant Jordi, Barcelona, SPAIN
Overall: 1 David Knight (Red Bull KTM) 1+2+1=4 points, 2 Mika Ahola (Honda) 2+5+2=9, 3 Xavi Galindo (KTM) 4+1+8=13, 4 Bartosz Oblucki (Husqvarna) 3+7+5=15, 5 Taddy Blazusiak (KTM) 11+3+3=17, 6 Cristobal Guerrero (Yamaha) 5+10+4=19, 7 Tom Sagar (KTM) 8+4+11=23, 8 Gregory Eyries (Yamaha) 8+4+11=23, 9 Johnny Aubert (Yamaha) 9+9+6=24, 10 Simone Albergoni (Yamaha) 7+11+9=27, 11 Alessandro Botturi (Honda) 10+8+10=28.
For full report and pictures see T+MX NEWS, Friday, December 7, 2007