WEC makes a Mende's
By TMX Archives on 16th Oct 08
THE 2008 World Enduro Championship drew to a close in Mende, France, where Mika Ahola, Johnny Aubert and Samuli Aro were crowned as this year's respective Enduro 1, Enduro 2 and Enduro 3 World Champions. At the end of what has been a demanding championship for riders in all classes the GP of Europe proved to be not only tough but also one of the best events of the year. It also marked the end of Australian Stefan Merriman's ten-year WEC career, as well as being the last event for the Italian UFO Corse Yamaha team.
MIKA Ahola was the first of this year's three senior world champions to be crowned as the Honda rider wrapped-up the second title of his career with a winning performance on day one in Mende. Helped by the fact that home rider Marc Germain demoted Ivan Cervantes – Ahola's closest championship rival, to third, the Finn finished 20-seconds up on Yamaha-mounted Germain with Cervantes less than one second behind in third.
"The day went really well,” admitted a clearly thrilled Ahola. "I thought I would have to wait until the second day before I could win the title but thanks to Germain I won a day earlier than expected.”
With Germain pleasing the large number of French spectators that had travelled to Mende, for Cervantes it was a disappointing end to a hard-fought season. A former two-time E1 world champion, the Spaniard could only manage second best to Ahola but vowed to be back faster and stronger in '09.
With the positions at the top of the E1 championship standings decided, day two saw Ahola and Cervantes – the two riders that have been a level above all others all season, battle it out for the day win. With Cervantes topping six of the day's tests it was Ahola who, as he had on day one, topped the class despite only winning three tests.
Third on day two was Marc Germain. Competing in the E1 class for the first time this season, having lifted the Enduro Junior championship at the penultimate round of the series, was Italian Thomas Oldrati. Despite his best efforts, several crashes forced him to retire on day one before he placed 10th on day two.
Only a complete disaster was going to prevent UFO Corse Yamaha team rider Johnny Aubert from collecting his first ever world championship, and with a runner-up finish to rival Juha Salminen on day one the Frenchman needed only a handful of points from day two.
In a class of his own and with a point to prove, Salminen won all but one of the opening day's 11 special tests in the E2 class and finished well over one-minute ahead of Aubert. Third and just 23 seconds behind Aubert was Husqvarna rider Antoine Meo.
Needing just a handful of points from the second day's competition, Aubert was not taking any risks and in finishing third collected the '08 E2 world title, his first ever championship. "It's hard to explain how I feel at the moment,” commented Aubert after emotional celebrations with his UFO team. "To win my first world title in my home country, and at the team's last race, it's fantastic. I have had so much support from the UFO Yamaha team during the last three years, I owe them so much thanks.”
Although Aubert was the rider celebrating, it was again Salminen who proved to be simply too fast for his rivals. Finishing 50 seconds ahead of Antoine Meo, having hoped to collect an eighth world title this season Juha's disappointment was clear to see.
"It's been a normal weekend for me,” commented the Finn. "I rode well, didn't have too many mistakes and enjoyed the race. The only thing I could do was win both days, which I did. I'm happy for Johnny but it's disappointing for me.”
While Aubert collected his first world title, Samuli Aro collected his fifth. Having ridden well below his best at the previous three rounds, many wondered if the KTM factory rider had what was needed to stop Husqvarna's Seb Guillaume spoiling his party.
But soon after the start of the first day it became clear that Aro was headed towards the E3 world championship title as Guillaume's title hopes evaporated as he picked up three minutes of penalties after drowning his bike on the extreme test and arriving late at the following time control.
Added to that was the fact that Samuli had found his speed again and following a day-long battle with team-mate Marko Tarkkala placed second while Guillaume finished down in 12th. Third on day one to make it an all KTM podium was Fabien Planet, who secured his first top three result of the season. Disappointingly for Stefan Merriman, who topped both days of the penultimate round of the series, a loss of coolant saw him forced out of the event after just one test.
Needing just to collect a handful of points from the second day, Aro finished fourth and collected his fifth world title.
Day two saw Stefan Merriman overcome his opening day disappointment by topping the E3 class in what was the final race of the Australian's 10-year WEC career. The final day of the series was also a good one for Aprilia as not only did Merriman top the podium but Frenchman Antoine Letellier finished second to give the Italian manufacturer their first ever WEC one-two. Third went to Tarkkala who claimed yet another championship runner-up result.
With newly crowned Enduro Junior world champion Thomas Oldrati competing in the E1 class, home rider Marc Bourgeois finished ahead of Spaniard Oriol Mena to win on day one as Jeremy Joly picked up Sherco's first ever WEC podium result in third.
On day two Bourgeois saw his hopes of a double win ended when his chain came off which allowed Joly to claim Sherco's first ever WEC win.
Si Wakely delivered Britain's best result finishing eighth and seventh in Enduro Junior to claim sixth in the final championship standings. Finishing as high as fourth in class on some tests Si put in one of his best rides of the season. Also finishing inside the points in the EJ class was Irish TM rider Philip McLaughlin. Finishing 13th on day one Philip dropped two places on day two to finish 15th and end the year 22nd having made only selected WEC outings.
For TM-mounted Scot Euan McConnell day one ended almost as soon as it had started as he was forced to retire after he ripped his thumb nail off when he clipped his hand against a post. On day two Euan finished in 14th, which placed him 13th in the final E3 standings. Fairing little better was Euan's team-mate Gordon Clarke. Also hitting his thumb on a post Gordon was unable to finish day one or start day two.
In E1, KTM factory rider Tom Sagar finished down in tenth position on day one before finishing ninth on day two, bringing to a close what has been a disappointing year for Tom, the British Enduro Champion placing eighth in the final E1 championship standings.
Mika Ahola was a striking force in E1, topping both days with ease for this year's crown.
WORLD ENDURO CHAMPS
Final Rd - Mende, France
Day One
Enduro 1: 1 Mika Ahola (Honda), 2 Marc Germain (Yamaha), 3 Ivan Cervantes (KTM), 4 Simone Albergoni (Yamaha), 5 Eero Remes (KTM), 6 Bartosz Oblucki (Husqvarna), 7 Maurizio Micheluz (Yamaha), 8 Jari Mattila (Honda), 9 Julien Gauthier (Honda), 10 Tom Sagar (KTM), 11 Damien Miquel (Yamaha), 12 Raphael Andre (Kawasaki), 13 Jakub Horak (KTM), 14 Charles Feyrit (Honda).
Enduro 2: 1 Juha Salminen (KTM), 2 Jonny Aubert (Yamaha), 3 Antoine Meo (Husqvarna), 4 Alessandro Belometti (KTM), 5 Joakim Ljunggren (Husaberg), 6 Nicolas Paganon (Aprilia), 7 Rodrig Thain (TM), 8 Nicolas Deparrois (Gas Gas), 9 Fabrizio Dini (Yamaha), 10 Jean-Francois Goblet (BMW), 11 Michael Metge (Husaberg), 12 Rudy Cotton (Beta), 13 Valtteri Salonen (Husaberg)1, 14 Fabio Mossini (Honda), 15 Christophe Robert (KTM), 16 Hans Vogel (Yamaha), 17 Nicolas Joye (Husaberg).
Enduro 3: 1 Marko Tarkkala (KTM), 2 Samuli Aro (KTM), 3 Fabien Planet (KTM), 4 Antoine Letellier (Aprilia), 5 Markus Kehr (KTM), 6 Anders Eriksson (BMW), 7 Christophe Nambotin (Gas Gas), 8 Xavier Galindo (KTM), 9. Alessandro Botturi (Honda), 10. Bjorne Carlsson (Husaberg), 11 Alessio Paoli (Beta), 12 Sebastien Guillaume (Husqvarna), 13 Erwin Plekkenpol (Honda), 14. Joan Jou (Honda), 15 Juraj Dozsa (Gas Gas), 16 Joan Pedrero (Yamaha).
Enduro Junior: 1 Marc Bourgeois (Husqvarna), 2 Oriol Mena (KTM), 3 Jeremy Joly (Sherco), 4 Vanni Cominotto (KTM), 5 Sebastien Bozzo (Husqvarna), 6 Romain Boucardey (KTM), 7 Benoit Fortunato (Husqvarna), 8 Simon Wakely (Husqvarna), 9 Mirko Gritti (Beta), 10 Antoine Basset (Husqvarna), 11 Lorenzo Santolino (KTM), 12 Adrien Metge (Husqvarna), 13 Philip McLaughlin (TM), 14 Armand Monleon (Yamaha),15 Martin Bonnet (Husqvarna), 16 Guillem Pares (Yamaha), 17 Vincent Charbon, 18 Xavier De Soultrait (KTM), 19 Romain Cadillac (Yamaha), 20 Johan Molinarie (Husqvarna).
Day Two
Enduro 1: 1 Mika Ahola (Honda), 2 Ivan Cervantes (KTM), 3 Marc Germain (Yamaha), 4 Eero Remes (KTM), 5 Simone Albergoni (Yamaha), 6 Bartosz Oblucki (Husqvarna), 7 Maurizio Micheluz (Yamaha), 8 Julien Gauthier (Honda), 9 Tom Sagar (KTM), 10 Thomas Oldrati (KTM), 11 Jari Mattila (Honda), 12 Mike Hartmann (KTM), 13 Damien Miquel (Yamaha), 14 Jakub Horak (KTM), 15 Charles Feyrit (Honda).
Enduro 2: 1 Juha Salminen (KTM), 2 Antoine Meo (Husqvarna), 3 Jonny Aubert (Yamaha), 4 Alessandro Belometti (KTM), 5 Rodrig Thain (TM), 6 Nicolas Paganon (Aprilia), 7 Fabio Mossini (Honda), 8 Fabrizio Dini (Yamaha), 9 Joakim Ljunggren (Husaberg), 10 Jean - Francois Goblet (BMW), 11 Nicolas Deparrois (Gas Gas), 12 Michael Metge (Husaberg), 13 Rudy Cotton (Beta), 14 Hans Vogel (Yamaha), 15 Robert Christophe (KTM), 16 Nicolas Joye (Husaberg).
Enduro 3: 1 Stefan Merriman (Aprilia), 2 Antoine Letellier (Aprilia), 3 Marko Tarkkala (KTM), 4 Samuli Aro (KTM), 5 Alessandro Botturi (Honda), 6 Sebastien Guillaume (Husqvarna), 7 Markus Kehr (KTM), 8 Christophe Nambotin (Gas Gas), 9 Fabien Planet (KTM), 10 Erwin Plekkenpol (Honda), 11 Stefan Svitko (KTM), 12 Alessio Paoli (Beta),13 Joan Jou (Honda), 14 Euan McConnell (TM), 15 Juraj Dozsa (Gas Gas), 16 Joan Pedrero (Yamaha), 17 Kevin Hamard (Sherco).
Enduro Junior: 1 Jeremy Joly (Sherco), 2 Oriol Mena (KTM), 3 Vanni Cominotto (KTM), 4 Mirko Gritti (Beta), 5 Marc Bourgeois (Husqvarna), 6 Adrien Metge (Husqvarna), 7 Simon Wakely (Husqvarna), 8 Lorenzo Santolino (KTM), 9 Antoine Basset (Husqvarna), 10 Benoit Fortunato (Husqvarna), 11 Sebastien Bozzo (Husqvarna), 12 Romain Dumontier (Husqvarna), 13 Vincent Charbonnier (KTM), 14 Edoardo D'Ambrosio (TM), 15 Philip McLaughlin (TM), 16 Romain Cadillac (Yamaha), 17 Xavier De Soultrait (KTM), 18 Vaclav Malkus (Husqvarna), 19 Guillaume Adam (Husqvarna), 20 Guillem Pares (Yamaha).