Wonderful Wales!
By TMX Archives on 23rd Jul 08
THANKS to the efforts of the Hafren Dirt Bike Club, Great Britain can once again hold its head high as a nation capable of hosting a round of the World Enduro Championship. With nine years having past since the WTRA organised the '99 WEC event in Wales, the world's best enduro riders arrived in Llanidloes not knowing what to expect of the '08 GP of Wales but headed home having competed in an event more than worthy of its world championship status.
Not even the worst of Welsh weather could prevent the HDBC from putting on a fantastic event – one that although tough many top riders praised as being ‘a true enduro GP' and ‘the type of event the WEC needs more of'.
With rain falling on the event's three special tests during much of the week leading up to the race, come the start of the first day the heavens opened and it rained all day. The result was that the event everyone knew would be tough became one of the toughest WEC events in years.
With over half the entry failing to complete the opening day, with just four Enduro Junior class riders remaining clean on time, and with no fewer than 28 Enduro Junior class riders retiring, day one sorted the men from the boys in no uncertain terms.
With the motocross test extremely slippery, the enduro test equally as demanding due to its numerous off cambered turns, and the extreme test in places making even the world's best riders look like inexperienced Clubmen, those that completed day one were certainly made to work hard for their eventual results.
In the Enduro 1 class, Frenchman Marc Germain did what many expected the grass test specialist to do as he claimed his first win of the season aboard his Yamaha France machine. But it was a close-run thing as, come the end of the opening day's competition, just four seconds separated Germain from the second placed rider – Italian Simone Albergoni.
But were it not for carburetion problems during the first timed enduro test, Finn Mika Ahola would likely have been the man to beat as he claimed an eventual third place result, finishing 33 seconds behind Germain. One minute slower than his rivals on the opening enduro test, due to getting water in his carburettor, Mika still
Juha Salminen ruled Enduro Two on day one but couldn't quite match Johnny Aubert on day two, finishing in second place.
managed to finish ahead of his closest championship rival Ivan Cervantes, who placed fourth.
On day two, Mika got the result that arguably he should have got on day one as he topped the E1 class by 21 seconds. With Cervantes claiming the runner-up position, Germain placed third having made one too many mistakes on the extreme test. "It's been a great weekend for me,” commented day one winner Germain. "It's the first time this season that I've finished on the podium on both days so I am very pleased. It's been a great race and it was a true enduro GP. Day one went very
well for me but it was
close between myself and Albergoni. Day two didn't go so well though because I made some mistakes on the extreme test, which cost me a lot of time.”
Fifth on both days was good enough to ensure that Britain's Tom Sagar claimed his best WEC results of the season so far. But it was a case of ‘what if' for Tom on day one as, like many riders, he made a mistake on the Extreme test, which cost him dearly. Having held third for much of the day he missed out on what would have been his first senior WEC podium result.
Not alone as a British E1 class finisher on day one, Tom was joined by Graham Jarvis who placed a creditable ninth aboard his 250 Sherco, Robert Jones in 10th and Andrew Edwards in 13th. With 125cc mounted duo Jones and Edwards both dropping two minutes each, Jarvis ended the day clean on time but over seven minutes down on the class leaders. Richard Hay was 15th having dropped 11
minutes.
WORLD ENDURO CHAMPIONSHIP
Rd 6 – Hafren Forest, Llanidloes, BRITAIN
DAY ONE
Enduro One: 1 Marc Germain (Yamaha), 2 Simone Albergoni (Yamaha), 3 Mika Ahola (Honda), 4 Ivan Cervantes (KTM), 5 Tom SAGAR (KTM), 6 Bartosz Oblucki (Husqvarna), 7 Cristobal Guerrero (Yamaha), 8 Maurizio Micheluz (Yamaha), 9 Graham Jarvis (Sherco), 10 Robert JONES (Yamaha),... 13 Andrew EDWARDS (KTM),... 15 Richard HAY (KTM).
Enduro Two: 1 Juha Salminen (KTM), 2 David KNIGHT (KTM), 3 Johnny Aubert (Yamaha), 4 Paul EDMONDSON (Suzuki), 5 Joakim Ljunggren (Husaberg), 6 Nicolas Paganon (Aprilia), 7 Jari Mattila (Honda), 8 Simo Kirssi (BMW), 9 Antoine Meo (Husqvarna), 10 Fabrizio Dini (Yamaha),... 16 Kevin MURRAY (Yamaha), 17 Justin WILSON (Yamaha), 18 Darren WHEELER (Husaberg), 19 Chris HOCKEY (Honda), 20 Rich WARNER (KTM).
Enduro Three: 1 Christophe Nambotin (Gas Gas), 2 Sebastien Guillaume (Husqvarna), 3 Marko Tarkkala (KTM), 4 Samuli Aro (KTM), 5 Marcus Kehr (KTM), 6 Bjorn Carlsson (Husaberg), 7 Xavier Galindo (KTM), 8 Anders Eriksson (BMW), 9 Euan McCONNELL (TM), 10 Stefan Merriman (Aprilia),... 12 Juan KNIGHT (Gas Gas), 13 Wayne BRAYBROOK (Gas Gas), 14 Edward JONES (KTM), 15 Gordon CLARKE (TM).
Enduro Junior: 1 Oriol Mena (KTM), 2 Robert Kvarnstrom (TM), 3 Simon WAKELY (Husqvarna), 4 Oskari Kantonen (KTM), 5 Jeremy Joly (Sherco), 6 Lorenzo Santolino (KTM), 7 Antii Hellsten (Husqvarna), 8 Ollie MOYCE (Yamaha), 9 Mirko Gritti (Beta), 10 Edoardo D'Ambrosio (TM),... 12 Gethin PRICE (Honda).
DAY TWO
Enduro One: 1 Mika Ahola (Honda), 2 Ivan Cervantes (KTM), 3 Marc Germain (Yamaha), 4 Simone Albergoni (Yamaha), 5 Tom SAGAR (KTM), 6 Cristobal Guerrero (Yamaha), 7 Bartosz Oblucki (Husqvarna), 8 Maurizio Micheluz (Yamaha), 9 Mike Hartmann (KTM), 10 Jordan Curvalle (Suzuki),... 13 Andrew EDWARDS (KTM), 14 Robert JONES (Yamaha),... 17 Richard HAY (KTM).
Enduro Two: 1 Johnny Aubert (Yamaha), 2 Juha Salminen (KTM), 3 David KNIGHT (KTM), 4 Paul EDMONDSON (Suzuki), 5 Rodrig Thain (TM), 6 Jari Mattila (Honda), 7 Nicolas Paganon (Aprilia), 8 Joakim Ljunggren (Husaberg), 9 Antoine Meo (Husqvarna), 10 Simo Kirssi (BMW),... 18 Chris HOCKEY (Honda), 19 Kevin MURRAY (Yamaha),...
Enduro Three: 1 Sebastien Guillaume (Husqvarna), 2 Marko Tarkkala (KTM), 3 Stefan Merriman (Aprilia), 4 Christophe Nambotin (Gas Gas), 5 Marcus Kehr (KTM), 6 Samuli Aro (KTM), 7 Xavier Galindo (KTM), 8 Antoine Letellier (Aprilia), 9 Anders Ericsson (BMW), 10 Nathan Kanney (KTM),... 12 Euan McCONNELL (TM), 13 Juan KNIGHT (Gas Gas),... 15 Wayne BRAYBROOK (Gas Gas), 16 Edward JONES (KTM),... 19 Gordon CLARKE (TM), 20 Rob WRAYFORD (Gas Gas).
Enduro Junior: 1 Thomas Oldrati (KTM), 2 Oriol Mena (KTM), 3 Oscar Balletti (Honda), 4 Jeremy Joly (Sherco), 5 Simon WAKELY (Husqvarna), 6 Mirko Gritti (Beta), 7 Antii Hellsten (Husqvarna), 8 Edoardo D'Ambrosio (TM), 9 Philip McLAUGHLIN (TM), 10 Oskari Kantonen (KTM),... 17 Ollie MOYCE (Yamaha), 18 Jamie PAGET (TM),... 20 David BRICK (Kawasaki).
For full report see T+MX NEWS, Friday, July 25, 2008