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enduro
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FIM World Enduro Championship |
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Results Tom Sagar Wins Junior Class Juha Salminen continued his unabated run of success in the E1 class of the Enduro World Championship on Saturday on Day One of the competition in Hancock, New York State, USA. The KTM Enduro Factory Team rider has totally dominated the season in this class of Enduro competition. He clinched his ninth victory from nine races to maintain his perfect scorecard in the championship standings coming home 4.14 seconds ahead of Simone Albergoni. Salminen now has a 63 championship point lead on Albergoni going into day two on Sunday. Salminen's KTM teammate Alessandro Belometti of Italy was a creditable fifth. Unlike the 2006 competition, where riders had to cope with flooding downpours, rain held off on the first day of the two day competition in the USA. "It was a tough day and a hard fight and I expect my riders to do even better tomorrow," said team boss Fabio Farioli. Salminen rode with confidence in wooded conditions quite similar to those in his homeland Finland. MERRIMAN 6TH IN THE SECOND DAY OF THE AMERICAN APRILIA GRAND PRIX After the splendid second place he obtained in the E2 on Saturday, Stefan Merriman finished 6th on the second day of the American Aprilia Grand Prix. It was another difficult race due to complications, this time, a stone broke the anterior brake caliper of his Aprilia RXV 4.5. Ninth place again went to Nicolas Paganon (Aprilia RXV 4.5) The American Aprilia Grand Prix, the 5th round of the World Enduro Championship, saw Stefan Merriman (Aprilia RXV 4.5) as a splendid protagonist of the first day of racing, when he conquered the 2nd-place podium of the E2 class. The Australian wasn't able to repeat the same feat on the second day of testing, placing 6th in the E2. He was a bit tired and the track had deep groves from racing on previous days. However, it was still a positive result considering that Merriman hit a stone in one of the races and broke his anterior brake caliper, the exact same problem he had at the Italian Gp in Borno. It was an unexpected incident, that caused him to lose about 30 seconds and two positions that he wasn't able to recuperate, even though his final time was only seconds behind. Instead, Nicolas Paganon (Aprilia RXV 4.5) took off fairly well in 7th place before bouncing between 9th and 10th place. At the end, he closed out in 9th after two great special heats. The next engagement of the World Enduro Championship will take place on July 28-29th, at the Canadian Grand Prix set to take place in Parry Sound. Planet on E2 Podium in USA Fabien Planet of the KTM Enduro Factory Team came home in third place in the E2 World Championships round nine in Hancock, New York State, USA on Saturday, in the first of a two day competition. Although the French rider has been consistently scoring championship points, it was Fabien's best performance of the season so far and his first world championship podium for the 2007 competition. Planet came in 1:32.63 behind the leader Mika Ahola, who leads the championship standings and just behind Australian Stefan Merriman who finished second. KTM teammate Samuli Aro of Finland finished in fourth place after a mishap in the early stages cost him about a minute and a half in time. "Fabien rode well and he was in second place right up to the last lap," team boss Fabio Farioli said after the race was over. Aro's arch rival and countryman Mika Ahola was first on the day and Samuli will be out for revenge when riders hit the track again on Sunday for another day of grueling competition for both man and machine. After the event in Hancock, riders and teams move north across the border for two more rounds in Canada next weekend. KTM Enduro Factory team first and third in E3 in Hancock Marko Tarkkala of Finland and KTM Enduro Factory teammate Ivan Cervantes took first and third podium places on the first day of two rounds of the Enduro E1 World Championship competition in Hancock USA on Saturday. Tarkkala had a very commendable day in conditions not unlike those in his native Finland. Thankfully, the torrential rain that almost washed out the 2006 rounds held off for the competition. The Finn finished the exhaustive day on the big Enduro machine with a seven seconds advantage over second placed Sebastien Guillaume. "Marko had a great day today but Ivan was not so lucky," said team boss Fabio Farioli. "I am expecting Ivan to be much stronger mentally tomorrow as well." Cervantes of Spain, who has just resigned with the KTM Enduro Factory Team rounded up the day 1:14.66 behind teammate Tarkkala and will be out for revenge in Sunday's competition. The two KTM factory riders are in a tough battle for the top of the championship standings and neither one has been off the podium in any of the nine races so far held this season. Tarkkala's win extends his lead in the points from a slender two points over Cervantes before Saturday's competition to a margin of five points going into Sunday's race. Albergoni claims second successive double podium result UFO Corse Yamaha rider Simone Albergoni claimed his second successive double podium result at a round of the '07 World Enduro Championship when the Italian claimed a runner-up and third place finish in the Enduro 1 class at the GP of USA, round five of the WEC series. Having stood on the podium twice at his home round of the championship in Italy Simone came agonisingly close to collecting his first win of the season on day one in Hancock when he placed just four seconds behind current Enduro 1 class leader Juha Salminen from Finland. With Albergoni finishing in second and third over the two days his Spanish team-mate Cristobal Guerrero didn't fair quite as well and placed in sixth and fifth while Yamaha France rider Marc Germain claimed fourth on day one and a well deserved second position on day two. The opening day of the GP of USA was one of, if not the, toughest day of the '07 WEC series held so far this season. With each of the event's three special tests run within the same time check all riders were given just four five-to-ten minute breaks during the gruelling seven hours of riding. With heavy rain prior to the event leaving many sections of the course and special tests extremely wet the rocky terrain ensured a physically demanding event. Despite the challenging conditions UFO Yamaha rider Simone Albergoni rose to the occasion and pushed six-time enduro world champion Juha Salminen harder than any rider has this season. Despite a steady start Albergoni upped his pace as the day progressed and in winning four of the six special tests came within four seconds of being the first rider to beat Salminen this season. Making few mistakes all day Albergoni finished comfortably ahead of third place rider Bartosz Oblucki from Poland. Narrowly missing out on a podium result Yamaha France rider Marc Germain placed fourth on day one, just over five seconds behind Oblucki. A rider that normally excels in slippery, grassy conditions Germain showed that despite the severity of the Hancock special tests he was 100 per cent focused on a podium result. Two places behind Germain in sixth Cristobal Guerrero saw his day spoiled by two costly mistakes in the rock littered extreme test. Having pushed Salminen hard on day one Simone Albergoni started day two determined to go one better and claim his first win of the '07 WEC season. But despite his best efforts it wasn't to be as Salminen upped his pace and placed comfortably ahead of the Italian. Looking assured of a second runner-up result Albergoni ran into trouble on the very last special test of the event when his chain derailed on the extreme test. Losing around 20 seconds Albergoni placed in third. Showing that his day one result was no fluke Yamaha France rider Marc Germain again rode well on day two and thanks in part to mistakes from some of his closest rivals claimed the runner-up spot behind Salminen. For UFO Yamaha rider Cristobal Guerrero day two brought with it more disappointing luck as the young Spaniard, like Albergoni, derailed his chain on the final extreme test, costing him considerable time and dropping him to fifth. Claiming sixth on day two having finished in seventh on day one was the UFO Corse Yamaha team's third rider Maurizio Micheluz. Simone Albergoni (UFO Corse Yamaha) Enduro 1 class - Day 1 Second, Day 2 Third: "Day one was really good for me. Finishing second and really close to Salminen is my best result of the season so far - it's always good to finish so close to the rider leading the championship. I felt pretty good all day although the conditions were really difficult. The second day wasn't so good. I made some mistakes and on the third lap my chain came off on the extreme test, which cost me some time. Finally I finished third because Oblucki and Guerrero had some problems, so things ended pretty good for me with two podium results." Cristobal Guerrero (UFO Corse Yamaha) Enduro 1 class - Day 1 Sixth, Day 2 Fifth: "I crashed twice on the extreme test on day one and only put in one good time on that test so it meant that I was pushing hard all day to make up for those mistakes. I ended up finishing in sixth, which wasn't so bad but not as good as I could have finished. The second day wasn't so good for me. It was possible to finish second but my chain came off on the last extreme test, which cost me a lot of time and ended my chances of second. I finished in fifth. All day things went well but then right at the end of the day it went bad. I guess that can happen some times."
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