At the Swedish Enduro Enduro Championship rounds 4&5 this past weekend during Saturday and Sunday, there was alot of extra exitement due to some top riders from Finland joining the race. Juha Salminen and Marko Tarkkala were there along with the Finnish Junior Trophy riders, who did this race as part of their preparation for the 2010 ISDE.

Joakim Ljunggren had to undergo surgery the week previous to the event due to a knee problem and was a bit worried that perhaps his winning streak of 20 straight wins in the Swedish Championship would come to an end.

During the first race day on Saturday it was clear from the beginning that Juha and Joakim where in a class of their own, chasing each other with seconds back and forth throughout the whole day. At the later stages Juha went down and lost some 15 seconds and after this Joakim never looked back and pulled out the lead a bit further to secure the race win of the day both in the SM2 class and overall.

On the second day of the event the track was a bit more deteriorated and had more sand woops and bumps and Joakim thought he would have a tougher time. The temperatures where between 20-25 degrees celsius and the wind was blowing strong. But the Sunday turned otu to be more or less a repetition of the previous day and Joakim Ljunggren won the day in the same way as the day before with Juha trying so hard in the last stages that he went down and lost some seconds again.
A very happy Joakim Ljunggren now has 22 straight wins in the championship and can look back at winning over one of his biggest idols in enduro. These two wins also gave Joakim premature victory in the Swedish Enduro Cup (the overall championship).

Race results Round 5 Rider Time SM2   1. Joakim Ljunggren (Husaberg) 1:12:02.18 2. Juha Salminen (Husqvarna) 1:12:40.58 3. Marko Tarkkala (Husqvarna) 1:13:45.09   Overall   1. Joakim Ljunggren (Husaberg) 1:12:02.18 2. Juha Salminen (Husqvarna) 1:12:40.58 3. Niklas Gustafsson (Honda) 1:13:35.52

Race results Round 5 Rider Time SM2   1. Joakim Ljunggren (Husaberg) 1:10:17.54 2. Juha Salminen (Husqvarna) 1:11:02.59 3. Björne Carlsson (Kawasaki) 1:11:54.22   Overall   1. Joakim Ljunggren (Husaberg) 1:10:17.54 2. Juha Salminen (Husqvarna) 1:11:02.59 3. Anders Eriksson (Yamaha) 1:11:24.90

Pics: R. Söderstedt