McCanney finds time to Chile
By TMX Archives on 30th Mar 12
After a long winter break the 2012 Maxxis FIM Enduro World Championship roared back into life with the GP of Chile marking the opening round of the series. With the championship moving from its traditional Spanish season opener to Chile the EWCs switch of continents resulted in more than a few surprise results.
While the 150 competitors entered in Chile faced new and exciting terrain it was still the familiar faces of Antoine Meo and Christophe Nambotin that claimed a double victory in Enduro 1 and Enduro 3.
In Enduro 2, Finland's Juha Salminen started his season off with a win on day one while Pierre-Alexandre Renet put his Husaberg on the top of the podium for day 2. In Enduro Junior, Mathias Bellino added to Husaberg's successes by winning both days.
However for some, the opening round of the series didn't go to plan. Although his 2012 season opener faired much better than his double DNF of 12 months ago, KTM Enduro Factory rider Johnny Aubert became a victim of the dry and dusty conditions. Finding his path blocked numerous times on the extremely narrow and hilly enduro test, Aubert could score no better than fifth and 11th in Chile.
As temperatures soared to 30-degrees plus throughout the duration of the GP, riders faced a demanding start to the championship. With each day comprising of three 60km laps and a total of eight timed special tests per day, the GP of Chile was a challenging one for all.
In Enduro 1, the 2011 Enduro 2 world champion Antoine Meo delivered a winning result to mark a flawless start to his EWC season. After switching teams to the KTM Enduro Factory marque during the off-season, Meo showed no lack of speed in adapting to his new team. Taking control of the class lead after the second test of the morning on day one, the Frenchman then set the fastest times in the six remaining specials to secure a commanding 81-second victory.
Continuing to find the dusty terrain to his liking, Meo once again placed his KTM at the front of the Enduro 1 standings on Day 2.
"This has been a perfect start to the season for me,” confirmed a thrilled Meo following the Sunday evening podium celebrations. "I was sick during the week leading up to this race and wasn't sure if I would be so competitive. To come away with two strong wins is the best result that I could have hoped for.”
With Meo claiming a solid victory, the race for the remainder of the podium places was closely fought. HM Honda's Rodrig Thain started his weekend in scintillating fashion by setting the fastest time in the Friday evening Super Test. Backing that up with winning times in the first two tests on day one, Thain saw his challenge for victory evaporate when he became stuck on the enduro test. Losing almost one minute he recovered to finish in second. Narrowly missing out on second place by less than one tenth of a second, Yamaha's Marc Bourgeois was third.
Simone Albergoni (HM Honda) bounced back from a disappointing result on day one to finish as runner up to Meo while Thain continued to impress by securing another podium result with third.
As predicted the Enduro 2 class proved to be a tightly fought battle with different winners on both days. Competing in Enduro 2 for 2012, Juha Salminen enjoyed a successful start to his season by claiming victory on day one. Posting consistently fast times on the dry and slippery Cross Test while avoiding any trouble on the Enduro Test, Salminen finished the day 18 seconds clear of Spain's Ivan Cervantes (Gas Gas).
With conditions similar to Cervantes' home terrain, the Spaniard's day one result of second marked a strong start to the season on his new Gas Gas 450F. Also impressing in the Chilean sunshine, Italy's Oscar Balletti gave his Beta Enduro Factory Team much to smile by rewarding them their first ever EWC podium result with his third place finish.
FOR FULL REPORT AND POCTIRES SEE T+MX MARCH 30
World enduro championships
Round 1 - Chile
Day One
Enduro 1: 1. Antoine Meo (KTM) 56:11.20, 2 Rodrig Thain (Honda) 57:32.77, 3 Marc Bourgeois (Yamaha) 57:32.81, 4 Lorenzo Santolino (Husqvarna) 57:38.89, 5 Eero Remes (KTM) 57:56.53, 6 Matti Seistola (Husqvarna) 58:19.50, 7 Fabien Planet (Sherco) 58:46.92, 8 Jeremy Joly (Yamaha) 58:52.91, 9 Thomas Oldrati (KTM) 59:05.83, 10 Simone Albergoni (Honda) 59:50.64.
Enduro 2: 1. Juha Salminen (Husqvarna) 57:04.30, 2 Ivan Cervantes (Gas Gas) 57:22.74, 3 Oscar Balletti (Beta) 57:39.99, 4 Cristobal Guerrero (KTM) 57:41.85, 5 Johnny Aubert (KTM) 57:48.20, 6 Pierre-Alexandre Renet (Husaberg) 58:43.44, 7 Julien Gauthier (Kawasaki) 58:46.63, 8 Alex Salvini (Husqvarna) 58:47.19, 9 Antoine Basset (Yamaha) 59:13.05, 10 Franco Caimi (KTM) 59:55.49.
Enduro 3: 1. Christophe Nambotin (KTM) 56:48.16, 2 Aigar Leok (TM) 57:37.14, 3 Oriol Mena (Husaberg) 57:37.29, 4 David Knight (KTM) 57:40.44, 5 Joakim Ljunggren (Husaberg) 58:19.96, 6 Benoit Fortunato (Gas Gas) 59:05.60, 7 Marko Tarkala (Beta) 59:07.50, 8 Manuel Monni (KTM) 59:08.47, 9 Christophe Robert (Husaberg) 59:46.95, 10 Marcus Kehr (KTM) 1:00:30.38.
Enduro Junior: 1. Mathias Bellino (Husaberg) 58:00.04, 2 Danny McCanney (Gas Gas) 59:16.88, 3 Alexandre Queyreyre (Yamaha) 59:33.57, 4 Kevin Benavides (KTM) 1:00:29.65, 5 Edoardo D'Ambrosio (KTM) 1:00:36.53, 6 Karl Svensson (Honda) 1:02:35.23, 7 Victor Guerrero (KTM) 1:03:11.54, 8 Johan Edlund (Husaberg) 1:03:23.31, 9 Jonathon Manzi (KTM) 1:04:42.72, 10 Diego Gutierrez (KTM) 1:05:14.62...13. Alex Rockwell 1:08:42.12.
125 Youth Cup: 1. Benjamin Herrera (TM) 1:01:11.25, 2 Giacomo Redondi (KTM) 1:03:05.17, 3 Stefano Caimi (Yamaha) 1:20:44.33, 4 Nicolas Kutulas (KTM) 1:20:45.28, 5 Nicolas Bascunan (TM) 1:27:08.99, 6 Diego Herrer (KTM) 1:33:53.18, 7 Matias Rojas (KTM) 1:35:33.21, 8 Luciano Benavides (Yamaha) 1:39:43.18, 9 Daniel Tirado (TM) 1:41:39.30.
Day Two
Enduro 1: 1. Antoine Meo (KTM) 54:15.10, 2 Simone Albergoni (Honda) 54:45.84, 3 Rodrig Thain (Honda) 55:07.61, 4 Jeremy Joly (Yamaha) 55:16.71, 5 Matti Seistola (Husqvarna) 55:23.01, 6 Marc Bourgeois (Yamaha) 55:25.78, 7 Eero Remes (KTM) 55:31.50, 8 Thomas Oldrati (KTM) 55:36.59, 9 Fabien Planet (Sherco) 56:31.34, 10 Nicolas Deparrois (Kawasaki) 57:22.03.
Enduro 2: 1. Pela Renet (Husaberg) 54:10.87, 2 Ivan Cervantes (Gas Gas) 54:36.54, 3 Alex Salvini (Husqvarna) 54:56.87, 4 Cristobal Guerrero (KTM) 55:20.95, 5 Juha Salminen (Husqvarna) 55:23.51, 6 Oscar Balletti (Beta) 55:51.14, 7 Julien Gauthier (Kawasaki) 55:59.85, 8 Antoine Basset (Yamaha) 56:29.90, 9 Fabio Mossini (KTM) 56:39.80, 10 Jean Francois Goblet (Yamaha) 57:45.95.
Enduro 3: 1. Christophe Nambotin (KTM) 54:12.82; 2. David Knight (KTM) 54:51.75, 3 Aigar Leok (TM) 55:23.51, 4 Joakim Ljunggren (Husaberg) 55:26.01, 5 Oriol Mena (Husaberg) 55:35.74, 6 Marko Tarkkala (Beta) 56:31.53, 7 Benoit Fortunato (Gas Gas) 56:54.48, 8 Manuel Monni (KTM) 56:58.81, 9 Marcus Kehr (KTM) 57:13.42, 10 Christophe Robert (Husaberg) 59:04.83.
Enduro Junior: 1. Mathias Bellino (Husaberg) 55:11.81, 2 Victor Guerrero (KTM) 56:18.67, 3 Danny McCanney (Gas Gas) 56:47.84, 4 Edoardo D'Ambrosio (KTM) 57:07.57, 5 Kevin Benavides (KTM) 57:15.61, 6 Alexandre Queyreyre (Yamaha) 57:42.07, 7 Jonathon Manzi (KTM) 57:48.63, 8 Kevin Rohmer (Yamaha) 57:55.53, 9 Rudi Moroni (KTM) 58:02.16, 10 Alex Rockwell (Husaberg) 58:30.91.
125 Youth Cup: 1 Giacomo Redondi (KTM) 57:34.43, 2 Benjamin Herrera (TM) 59:23.54, 3 Santiago Isaza (KTM) 1:04:46.33, 4 Nicolas Bascunan (TM) 1:07:28.37, 5 Luciano Benavides (Yamaha) 1:08:13.07, 6 Nicolas Kutulas (KTM) 1:08:14.24, 7 Matias Rojas (KTM) 1:12:13.95, 8 Stefano Caimi (Yamaha) 1:13:36.96, 9 Diego Herrer (KTM) 1:10:02.78
