Danny’s best of British

Danny McCanney claimed a double race win to top the Junior class inside the Palau St Jordi stadium, but Senior class riders David Knight and Jonny Walker ran into trouble – more specifically a starting gate and a fallen rider.

 

Both recovered well from their mishaps in the opening final, with Jonny placing sixth overall, while 

Knighter claimed second on the night behind winner Taddy Blazusiak after winning the second of the three finals.

 

Nine weeks after the opening round of the FIM SuperEnduro World Championship kicked off in Lodz, Poland, the series fired back into life with the Enduro Indoor de Barcelona, inside the Olympic stadium. 

 

Welcoming a number of top-flight enduro racers who were not present at the series opener, the event also marked the mid-way point of the series.

 

With Jonny Walker, David Knight, and Danny McCanney all claiming podium results in their respective classes in Poland, hopes were high of a repeat success. 

 

And by and large it was a successful night for all three – although for Knight and Walker it was also a very eventful one.

 

Both looked good during the qualifying race, but no sooner had the gate dropped – well most of them, anyway – for the first final, than Knight found himself out of luck. 

 

Colliding with his start gate – which video footage later showed didn't drop – the Manxman was forced to charge from the back of the pack, as his rivals disappeared around the first corner.

 

And moments later and it was Walker who hit trouble, as he ran into the back of a slower rider and the KTM teamster ended up on the ground and like Knight before him was forced to re-start his race from dead last. 

 

Making progress, and having moved inside the top seven, Jonny then fell and ended the race a disappointing tenth and with a nasty cut to his right ‘pinkie' into the bargain.

 

Knight fared better and despite having to work his way past 11 riders in just a little under 11 minutes, he ended the race a creditable fifth.

 

Blazusiak dominated the race was and getting a great jump from behind the gate, once he rounded the first turn he never looked back. 

 

With two of his expected closest rivals in trouble on the opening lap, Taddy took the chequered flag some 24 seconds ahead of second-placed, Ivan Cervantes.

 

For Cervantes the event marked his return to KTM machinery following two years with Gas Gas and he didn't hold back in showing just how much a good home result meant to him. 

 

Third went to Antoine Meo – fresh from his exploits at Le Touquet – with Alfredo Gomez fourth.

 

 

FIM WORLD SUPERENDURO

CHAMPIONSHIP

Rd 2 – Palau Sant Jordi, Barcelona, SPAIN

 1 Tadeusz Blazusiak (POL - KTM) 20 + 14 + 20 = 54

 2 David KNIGHT (GB - Honda) 10 + 20 + 11 = 41

 3 Alfredo Gomez (E - Husaberg) 11 + 17 +  8 = 36

 4 Kornel Nemeth (H - KTM)  8 +  9 + 17 = 34

 5 Ivan Cervantes (E - Gas Gas) 17 +  6 + 10 = 33

 6 Jonny WALKER (GB - KTM)  5 + 11 + 14 = 30

 7 Thomas Oldrati (I - Husaberg)  7 + 10 +  7 = 24

 8 Rodrig Thain (F - HM Honda)  9 +  8 +  2 = 19

 9 Joakim Ljunggren (S - Husaberg)  4 +  5 +  9 = 18

10 Santolino Lorenzo (E - Husqvarna)  6 +  3 +  6 = 15

11 Antoine Meo (F - KTM) 14+0+0=14, 12 Christophe Bruand (F - Sherco) 1+7+5=13, 13 Xavier Leon (E - Gas Gas) 2+4+4=10, 14 Dani Gibert (E - Husaberg) 3+1+3=7, 15 Marc Sola (E - Sherco) 0+2+1=3.

RACE ONE: 1 Blazusiak, 2 Ljunggren, 3 Thain, 4 KNIGHT, 5 Gomez, 6 Bruand, 7 Nemeth, 8 WALKER, 9 Leon, 10 Oldrati, 11 Lorenzo, 12 Huebner, 13 Kurowski, 14 Tomasz Zych.

RACE TWO: 1 Gomez, 2 KNIGHT, 3 Blazusiak, 4 Oldrati, 5 WALKER, 6 Nemeth, 7 Bruand, 8 Tomasz Zych, 9 Ljunggren, 10 Lorenzo, 11 Kurowski, 12 Leon, 13 Cervantes, 14 Huebner.

RACE THREE: 1 Blazusiak, 2 Nemeth, 3 Oldrati, 4 Gomez, 5 Ljunggren, 6 Lorenzo, 7 KNIGHT, 8 WALKER, 9 Leon, 10 Tomasz Zych, 11 Kurowski, 12 Huebner, 13 Bruand, 14 Cervantes.

SERIES STANDINGS after 2 (of 3) rounds: 1 Blazusiak 111 points, 2 KNIGHT 82, 3 WALKER 81, 4 Gomez 67, 5 Nemeth 63, 6 Oldrati 52, 7 Ljunggren 46, 8 Cervantes 33, 9 Bruand 30, 10 Thain 19, 11 Hartmann 18, 12 Huebner 17, 13 Kurowski 16, 14 Lorenzo 15, 15 Meo 14, 16 Leon 10, 17 Tomasz Zych 8, 18 Gibert 7, 19 Adam Zych 7, 20 Sola 3,...

FINAL ROUND: March 9 – Parc des Expositions, Tours, FRANCE.