First WEC win for Sagar
By TMX Archives on 26th Jul 07
AS the '07 World Enduro Championship moves beyond the half way point, Britain's Tom Sagar bags his first ever WEC win, claiming victory in the Enduro Junior class on day two of the GP of USA. In the toughest event of the season so far, due to three rock-littered special tests, Finn Juha Salminen continues his Enduro 1 class dominance with a fifth double class win this season while Honda's Mika Ahola scores double top in the Enduro 2 class and KTM team mates Marko Tarkkala and Ivan Cervantes share a win each in Enduro 3.
BRITAIN'S Tom Sagar has earned his first everWorld Enduro Championship victory. Competing in round five of the '07WEC series, staged in Hancock, New York State, Sagar claimed therunner-up spot on day one before going one better on day two andbeating defending Enduro Junior world champion Joakim Ljunggren tostand on top of a world championship podium for the first time ever.
Hopeful of a good result, due to the event'sextreme test featuring a technical rock-covered climb, Tom equalled histhen best result of the season on day one behind Sweden's Ljunggren.The second overall fastest rider on the extreme test, behind eventualEnduro 2 winner Mika Ahola, Tom finished 45 seconds adrift of Ljunggrenhaving been unable to match the Swede's speed on the forest basedmotocross and enduro tests.
But on day two, Tom raised his game and topped sixof the day's tests in the EJ class, including wins on the motocross,enduro and extreme tests, to place 16 seconds ahead of Ljunggren.
''The first day was really hard and Joakim rodewell,- explained Tom. ''I put in some good times on the extreme testbut I wasn't fast enough on the enduro or motocross tests. I felt muchmore confident on day two and upped my pace and everything went well. Ifelt good all day - it's great to get my first win.''
In Enduro 1, KTM factory rider Juha Salminen wasmade to work harder on day one than at any prior round as UFO CorseYamaha rider Simone Albergoni came within four seconds of being thefirst rider to beat the six-times world champion this season. WithSalminen unable to perform at his best, due in part to not getting agood night's sleep, Albergoni piled on the pressure and, getting fasteras the day went on, almost ended Juha's unbeaten WEC win streak.
Managing to do just enough to claim his ninthEnduro 1 class victory this season, the battle between Salminen andAlbergoni saw the two riders place 30 seconds ahead of third placefinisher, Husqvarna's Bartosz Oblucki.
WORLD ENDURO CHAMPIONSHIP Rd 5 - Hancock, New York State, USA
DAY ONE
Enduro 1: 1 Juha Salminen (KTM) 47:30.20, 2 SimoneAlbergoni (Yamaha) 47:34.34, 3 Bartosz Oblucki (Husqvarna) 48:08.84, 4Marc Germain (Yamaha) 48:14.20, 5 Alessandro Belometti (KTM) 48:19.86,6 Cristobal Guerrero (Yamaha) 48:22.24, 7 Maurizio Micheluz (Yamaha)49:02.79, 8 Mike Hartman (KTM) 51:23.60, 9 Anthony Roberts (Honda)55:45.38, 10 Juraj Dosza (KTM) 57:39.08, 11 Steve Leivan (Yamaha)1.02:32.53.
Enduro 2: 1 Mika Ahola (Honda) 46:04.96, 2 StefanMerriman (Aprilia) 47:36.52, 3 Fabien Planet (KTM) 47:37.59, 4 SamuliAro (KTM) 47:46.98, 5 Mika Lafferty (KTM) 49:25.19, 6 Johnny Aubert(Yamaha) 49:30.13, 7 Nate Kanney (Husqvarna) 49:34.71, 8 Fabrizio Dini(Yamaha) 49:35.11, 9 Nicolas Paganon (Aprilia) 50:01.57, 10 NicolasDeparrois (Husqvarna) 50:02.66, 11 Valtteri Salonen (Husaberg)50:04.07, 12 Xavi Galindo (KTM) 51:51.47, 13 Aaron Kopp (Honda)55:43.04.
Enduro 3: 1 Marko Tarkkala (KTM) 47:02.26, 2 SebGuillaume (Husqvarna) 47:09.31, 3 Ivan Cervantes (KTM) 48:16.92, 4Bjorne Carlsson (Husaberg) 48:21.16, 5 Alessandro Botturi (Honda)48:28.69, 6 Anders Eriksson (Husqvarna) 50:10.87, 7 Marcus Kehr (KTM)51:12.42, 8 Jordon Curvalle (Sherco) 52:59.55, 9 Vita Kuklik (KTM)53:13.42, 10 Jason Schrage (KTM) 58:51.01.
Enduro Junior: 1 Joakim Ljunggren (Husaberg)48:16.70, 2 Tom Sagar (KTM) 49:01.29, 3 Marc Bourgeois (Husqvarna)49:12.64, 4 Thomas Oldrati (KTM) 49:46.61, 5 Christophe Nambotin (GasGas) 49:53.40, 6 Benoit Fortunato (Husqvarna) 53:27.73, 7 David Kamo(KTM) 53:28.21, 8 Russell Bobbitt (KTM) 54:13.69, 9 Kyle Redmond (GasGas) 54:42.97, 10 Jakub Horak (KTM) 54:49.36, 11 Yannick Bossi(Husqvarna) 55:12.02, 12 Wally Palmer (Honda) 55:39.12, 13 SylvainLebrun (Husqvarna) 57:45.04, 14 Cole Kirkpatrick (KTM) 58:57.42, 15 BenSmith (Honda) 1.00:59.37, 16 Alden Clark (Suzuki) 1.08:25.08.
DAY TWO
Enduro 1: 1 Juha Salminen (KTM) 48:14.07, 2 MarcGermain (Yamaha) 49:40.39, 3 Simone Albergoni (Yamaha) 50:01.31, 4Bartosz Oblucki (Husqvarna) 50:07.42, 5 Cristobal Guerrero (Yamaha)50:11.00, 6 Maurizio Micheluz (Yamaha) 50:38.75, 7 Alessandro Belometti(KTM) 50:44.34, 8 Mike Hartman (KTM) 52:49.15, 9 Juraj Dozsa (KTM)57:56.16, 10 Kyle Nelson (Honda) 1.03:59.00.
Enduro 2: 1 Mika Ahola (Honda) 47:04.87, 2 SamuliAro (KTM) 47:08.32, 3 Johnny Aubert (Yamaha) 48:24.18, 4 ValtteriSalonen (Husaberg) 49:45.49, 5 Fabien Planet (KTM) 49:47.41, 6 StefanMerriman (Aprilia) 49:54.53, 7 Mike Lafferty (KTM) 50:35.56, 8 FabrizioDini (Yamaha) 50:45.69, 9 Nicolas Paganon (Aprilia) 51:03.47, 10Nicolas Deparrois (Husqvarna) 51:06.45, 11 Nate Kanney (Husqvarna)51:38.05, 12 Xavi Galindo (KTM) 52:01.70, 13 Justin Tucker (Yamaha)1.02:38.41, 14 Ryan Brown (Gas Gas) 1.06:54.91, 15 Dan McCaslin (KTM)1.22:47.33.
Enduro 3: 1 Ivan Cervantes (KTM) 48:40.56, 2 MarkoTarkkala (KTM) 48:42.64, 3 Seb Guillaume (Husqvarna) 48:56.36, 4 BjorneCarlsson (Husaberg) 49:42.83, 5 Alessandro Botturi (Honda) 49:57.29, 6Anders Eriksson (Husqvarna) 51:17.75, 7 Vita Kuklik (KTM) 54:32.72, 8Jordon Curvalle (Sherco) 56:01.13, 9 Jason Schrage (KTM) 1.01:46.75.
Enduro Junior: 1 Tom Sagar (KTM) 48:58.83, 2Joakim Ljunggren (Husaberg) 49:15.28, 3 Thomas Oldrati (KTM) 50:26.82,4 Marc Bourgeois (Husqvarna) 50:33.88, 5 Russell Bobbitt (KTM)52:01.40, 6 Christophe Nambotin (Gas Gas) 52:50.20, 7 Mirko Gritti(Beta) 52:50.40, 8 Benoit Fortunato (Husqvarna) 54:15.61, 9 SylvainLebrun (Husqvarna) 55:06.84, 10 Jakub Horak (KTM) 55:22.92, 11 WallyPalmer (Honda) 55:40.63, 12 David Kamo (KTM) 56:57.09, 13 Kyle Redmond(Gas Gas) 57:25.40, 14 Ben Smith (Honda) 59:11.76, 15 Alden Clark(Suzuki) 1.03:59.28.
For full story and pictures see T+MX NEWS, Friday, July 27, 2007.