FIM Maxxis World Enduro Championship: Round 5
GP of Czech Republic, Most, Czech Republic.

KTM Enduro Factory Team Farioli rider David Knight extended his lead in the Enduro 3 class of the ’05 World Enduro Championship to 47 points with yet another double class victory, this time at the Czech Republic GP. Despite coming into the event with an injured right arm, the result of a crash during a pre-event training session, Knighter continued his winning ways claiming victory by 19 seconds on day one and 34 seconds on day two.

With day one starting wet Knight made the most of the challenging conditions and opened up a small advantage at the head of the class. Despite struggling with his concentration during the opening two laps of the day, and with less than 10 minutes of special tests per lap, Knight then upped his pace and pulled away from his rivals on the third and final lap. Despite being fast in the extreme, motocross and enduro test, David was chased hard by French two-stroke mounted rider Seb Guillaume with his KTM team-mate Marko Tarkkala claiming third. In topping the E3 class on day one Knight placed as the overall second fastest rider in the event behind Enduro 2 class rider Samuli Aro.

On day two Knight was back at his dominant best and comfortably topped the Enduro 3 class. Winning the opening special test, he then continued to outpace his class rivals during the day and arrived at the finish some 30 seconds in front of Tarkkala with Mika Ahola in third. Much less distracted on day two than he had been on day one, Knight enjoyed the revised course and drying special test conditions.

David Knight: "Day one went ok. I just couldn’t get into it though. I kept thinking of all sorts of stuff and couldn’t keep focused. It didn’t help having so few tests and so much time at all the checks. Like I said, it went ok though. I got my ass into gear eventually and won, which I was pleased with. I didn’t make any mistakes, I just got held up by a few riders on some of the tests.

"I felt completely different when I woke in the morning of day two. I don’t know what it was but I was much more focused, I really wanted to ride. As soon as I won the first test I knew that I would be able to win by much more than I did on day one. I really enjoyed the shorter course, as well as all the special tests. I was able to play around in the special tests like I was at the start of the season. I didn’t make any mistakes all weekend and to maintain my unbeaten record is great. I’m really looking forward to the next round of the championship in France now."

Honda Racing Fast Eddy PAR Homes rider Paul Edmondson claimed his best result of the ’05 World Enduro Championship so far when he placed his 250cc four-stroke Honda on the second step of the podium on day one of the Czech Republic GP. On day two Edmondson backed up his day one result with fifth position. As a result of his strong results Edmondson now sits in sixth position in the Enduro 1 championship standings, just five points adrift of third.

On day one Edmondson came close to claiming his first win of the season and would have topped the Enduro 1 class had it not been for a small mistake on one of the event’s extreme special tests. With the wet conditions early on day one suiting the former world champion, the Honda rider frustratingly stalled his bike momentarily inside one of the special tests as the day neared its close and the resulting lost time meant that he had to accept the runner-up spot behind Finn Petteri Silvan.

On day two Silvan and his factory KTM team-mate Ivan Cervantes proved simply too fast for their E1 class rivals, including Edmondson, and finished comfortably ahead in the days results. Behind them Edmondson, Frenchman Marc Germain and Italian Alessandro Belometti battle one another for the third place spot with Germain eventually claiming the final rostrum position. Edmondson placed in fifth missing a second podium place by just 12 seconds.

In the Enduro 2 class Scott Euan McConnell enjoyed the opening day’s wet conditions and placed in seventh position. Riding without mistakes, McConnell finished the day less than 40 seconds from the podium. On day two McConnell wasn’t quite able to repeat his day one result and finished in 11^th. Not feeling as comfortable in the drier conditions as he did in the wet, Euan again rode without mistakes. McConnell is now in 12^th position in the E2 championship standings.

Joining McConnell in finishing in seventh on day one, Enduro Junior class rider Si Wakely placed just 35 seconds behind class winner Cristobal Guerrero having enjoyed the slippery conditions. On day two Wakely again placed in seventh and currently holds the same position in the Enduro Junior championship standings.

Paul Edmondson: "The weekend as a whole has been really good, especially finishing in second on day one. I wasn’t too far off winning the day, which I was really pleased with. Finishing as runner-up was great. I stalled my bike on one of the extreme tests, which I think cost me the win. If I hadn’t have made that mistake, well who knows, I could have claimed my first win of the season.

"Day two was a little bit harder for me. I put a slightly softer front tyre on, which didn’t help me because the tests were very different to what they were on day one. I’m still happy to have finished fifth. Ivan Cervantes and Petteri Pohjamo out rode everyone else in the class on day two, they deserved there results. I think that with just a little bit more speed on a couple of the tests I could have finished on the podium again. All in all it’s been a great weekend."

Euan McConnell: "Day one went really well. I didn’t make any mistakes, my bike was good, and I felt that I was riding well. The conditions suited me, and didn’t seem to suit some of the other riders, which also suited me. It was a good day all in all. The conditions were very wet in the morning but then they got drier as the day went on.

"I didn’t feel anywhere near as comfortable as I did on day one on Sunday. The tests were drier but it felt to me as if there was less grip. My bike just wanted to step sideways every time I accelerated, I don’t know why. I had one get off on the extreme test, which lost me around 10 seconds, but other than that day two went pretty well."

Si Wakely: "Day one went really well. I felt that I was riding well on the extreme test but I wasn’t aggressive enough. Most of the riders in the Enduro Junior class were riding much, much more aggressively and not worrying about making mistakes. Apart from that the day went well.

"I rode more aggressively on the tests on day two. I had one crash on the enduro test where my rear wheel hit a tree and catapulted me over the bars. The tests have been really good, some of the best this year, and I’ve really enjoyed the event."

Husky Sport Husqvarna rider Daryl Bolter, racing for the Italian Mucci Racing Husqvarna team, lifted himself to the runner-up spot in the Enduro Junior class of the ’05 World Enduro Championship after placing in sixth and third positions at the Czech Republic GP. After topping the second day’s competition at the fourth round of the series in Spain Bolter was again hoping for podium finishes in the Czech Republic but placed in a disappointing sixth on day one. On day two he finished less than 18 seconds behind class winner Cristobal Guerrero.

With conditions wet on day one Bolter was hopeful of a good result but failed to perform at his best despite giving 100 per cent. Remaining upright during the entire competition, Daryl simply found himself unable to match the special test times being posted by several of the Enduro Junior class riders. Despite ending the day just 15 seconds away from a podium place no matter how hard he tried Daryl was unable to improve on his sixth place result.

On day two Bolter made sure of bettering his day one result and was locked in a three way battle for victory in the Enduro Junior class much of the day with Guerrero and Australian Jake Stapleton. Riding better in the drier conditions than he had in the wetter conditions on day one, Daryl placed just over 10 seconds behind the runner-up finisher Jake Stapleton and claimed yet another podium position.

Daryl Bolter: "I don’t know what happened on day one. I felt that I was riding really well, but I didn’t see any times from the tests so I didn’t know exactly where I was. It was a real surprise to find out that I wasn’t on the pace. Once that had happened I couldn’t get going again. I didn’t make any mistakes all day, I just wasn’t fast enough. There was way too much time at the checks on day one, which didn’t help me.

"I really gave the first two laps everything on day two because there was no way I wanted to finish off the podium again. Day two was much better because there were four laps instead of three. I felt that I was riding well and got pretty close to the top two riders on some tests. I’m up to second in the Enduro Junior world championship now so I just want to keep riding as hard as I can so that if Cristobal Guerrero has any problems I’ll be able to close in on him in the championship."

The next round of the ’05 WEC series is in France on July 23/24.

Enduro 3
1. David Knight (KTM) 22:16.61; 2. Seb Guillaume (Gas Gas) 22:35.89; 3. Marko Tarkkala (KTM) 22:40.44; 4. Mika Ahola (Husqvarna) 22:44.63; 5. Alessandro Zanni (Honda) 22:55.04; 6. Vita Kuklik (KTM) 23:10.36; 7. Marcus Kehr (KTM) 23:20.27; 8. Xavier Galindo (KTM) 23:22.62; 9. Alessio Paoli (TM) 23:27.25; 10. Daniel Persson (Husaberg) 23:40.28; 11. Michal Rudolf 24:08.55; 12. Patrick Wicksell (Husaberg) 24:12.48; 13. Mario Rinaldi (Husaberg) 24:21.49; 14. Christoph Seifert (KTM) 24:44.96; 15. Robert Sip (KTM) 25:18.32; 16. Tobias Auerswald (Husqvarna) 25:39.60; 17. Jens Oestrich (KTM) 26:34.18; 18. Jakub Horak (KTM) 27:38.58; 19. Tobias Burman (Husaberg) 28:55.86

Enduro 1
1. Petteri Silvan (KTM) 22:22.79; 2. Paul Edmondson (Honda Racing Fast Eddy PAR Homes) 22:27.92; 3. Ivan Cervantes (KTM) 22:28.08; 4. Marc Germain (Yamaha) 22:37.95; 5. Alessandro Belometti (KTM) 22:40.18; 6. Bartosz Oblucki (Yamaha) 22:51.23; 7. Maurizio Micheluz (Yamaha) 22:51.47; 8. Richard Larsson (TM) 23:10.12; 9. Simone Tonelli (Yamaha) 23:17.61; 10. Roman Michalik (TM) 23:17.89; 11. Simone Albergoni (Honda) 23.22.88; 12. Michal Szuster (Honda) 23:25.42; 13. Nicolas Deparrois (Husqvarna) 23:34.64; 14. Edward Jones (KTM) 23:44.34; 15. Danielle Tellini (Yamaha) 24:04.69; 16. Mika Saarenkoski (Husqvarna) 24:08.00; 17. Julien Gauthier (Husqvarna) 24:26.96; 18. Manuel Pievani (Yamaha) 25:52.53; 19. Lukas Kroupa (Gas Gas) 26:05.43; 20. Libor Buchar (KTM) 26:12.91; 21. Martin Pecesny (Gas Gas) 30:26.09

Enduro 2
1. Samuli Aro (KTM) 22:06.34; 2. Stefan Merriman (Yamaha) 22:09.88; 3. Fabien Planet (KTM) 22:17.52; 4. Anders Eriksson (Husqvarna) 22:42.64; 5. Valtteri Salonen (Honda) 22:45.40; 6. Petri Pohjamo (TM) 22:48.28; 7. Euan McConnell (Honda Racing Fast Eddy PAR Homes) 22:58.67; 8. Paul Whibley (Gas Gas) 23:00.96; 9. Kurt Caselli (KTM) 23:02.36; 10. Jari Mattila (Beta) 23:02.62; 11. Andrea Belotti (Husqvarna) 23:09.62; 12. Bjorne Carlsson (Husaberg) 23:09.82; 13. Alessandro Botturi (KTM) 23:14.79; 14. Helder Rodrigues (Gas Gas) 23:19.75; 15. Andrea Beconi (Yamaha) 23:40.47; 16. Jean Francois Goblet (Gas Gas) 23:44.51; 17. Niklas Gustafsson (KTM) 23:49.03; 18. Giuliano Falgari (Husqvarna) 24:19.98; 19. Giuseppe Canova (Husqvarna) 24:22.85; 20. Radek Toman (KTM) 24:23.68

Enduro Junior
1. Cristobal Guerrero (Gas Gas) 23:05.50; 2. Marc Bourgeois (Husqvarna) 23:07.60; 3. Jake Stapleton (TM) 23:13.78; 4. Oriol Mena (Gas Gas) 23:20.42; 5. Julien Dubac (Husqvarna) 23:27.27; 6. Daryl Bolter (Husqvarna) 23:28.87; 7. Si Wakely (Honda Racing Fast Eddy PAR Homes) 23:41.08; 8. Paolo Bernardi (Honda) 23:45.73; 9. Bert Meyer (KTM) 23:46.34; 10. Robert Kapajcik (KTM) 24:32.39; 11. Ricard Wressel (Yamaha) 24:39.79; 12. Mike Kock (Honda) 24:40.19; 13. Lukas Sedlacek (KTM) 24:50.09; 14. Patrick Wikman (KTM) 24:50.86; 15. Maurizio Facchin (Husqvana ) 25:08.02; 16. Jural Dozsa (KTM) 25:16.36; 17. Sebastien Adielsson (Honda) 25:18.78; 18. Petr Husek (KTM) 25:25.28; 19. Olli Turma (Husqvarna) 25:36.93; 20. Corentin Lestrade (Husqvarna) 25:51.38

Enduro 3
1. David Knight (KTM) 34:02.43; 2. Marko Tarkkala (KTM) 34:50.50; 3. Mika Ahola (Husqvarna) 34:57.89; 4. Alessandro Zanni (Honda) 35:07.91; 5. Seb Guillaume (Gas Gas) 35:15.09; 6. Xavier Galindo (KTM) 35:47.57; 7. Alessio Paoli (TM) 35:47.66; 8. Vita Kuklik (KTM) 35:56.68; 9. Marcus Kehr (KTM) 36:05.74; 10. Mario Rinaldi (Husaberg) 36:39.34; 11. Daniel Persson (Husaberg) 36:45.09; 12. Maurizio Magherini (Beta) 36:52.96; 13. Patrick Wicksell (Husaberg) 37:13.06; 14. Christoph Seifert (KTM) 37:52.30; 15. Michal Rudolf (KTM) 38:19.36; 16. Robert Sif (KTM) 39:05.38; 17. Tobias Auerswald (Husqvarna) 39:30.41; 18. Jakub Horak (KTM) 39:38.87; 19. Jens Oestreich (KTM) 41:04.38; 20. Tobias Burman (Husaberg) 42:21.26

Enduro 1
1. Petteri Silvan (KTM) 34:15.84; 2. Ivan Cervantes (KTM) 34:16.85; 3. Marc Germain (Yamaha) 34:51.28; 4. Alessandro Belometti (KTM) 34:51.38; 5. Paul Edmondson (Honda Racing Fast Eddy PAR Homes) 35:03.04; 6. Bartosz Oblucki (Yamaha) 35:04.36; 7. Simone Albergoni (Honda) 35:07.84; 8. Nicolas Deparrois (Husqvarna) 35:23.81; 9. Maurizio Micheluz (Yamaha) 35:39.38; 10. Michal Szuster (Honda) 36:03.40; 11. Roman Michalik (TM) 26:05.49; 12. Mika Saarenkoski (Husqvarna) 36:37.85; 13. Simone Tonelli (Yamaha) 36:41.38; 14. Manuel Pievani (Yamaha) 36:47.38; 15. Danielle Tellini (Yamaha) 36:49.04; 16. Julien Gauthier (Husqvarna) 37:02.05; 17. Edward Jones (KTM) 37:38.27; 18. Lukas Kroupa (Gas Gas) 40:15.79; 19. Libor Buchar (KTM) 41:17.14; 20. Martin Pacesny (Gas Gas) 55:15.72

Enduro 2
1. Samuli Aro (KTM) 34:27.74; 2. Stefan Merriman (Yamaha) 34:48.12; 3. Kurt Caselli (KTM) 34:57.09; 4. Alessandro Botturi (KTM) 34:57.71; 5. Fabien Planet (KTM) 35:01.41; 6. Jari Mattila (Beta) 35:05.95; 7. Anders Eriksson (Husqvarna) 35:10.19. 8. Bjorne Carlsson (Husaberg) 35:13.62; 9. Petri Pohjamo (TM) 35:32.62; 10. Valtteri Salonen (Honda) 35:39.60; 11. Euan McConnell (Honda Racing Fast Eddy PAR Homes) 35:46.30; 12. Andrea Beconi (Yamaha) 35:53.40; 13. Helder Rodrigues (Gas Gas) 36:17.98; 14. Paul Whibley (Gas Gas) 36:19.27; 15. Andreas Toresson (Suzuki) 36:21.22; 16. Jordan Curvalle (Kawasaki) 36:33.58; 17. Giuseppe Canova (Husqvarna) 36:47.22; 18. Giuliano Falgari (Husqvarna) 36:49.58; 19. Jean Francois Goblet (Gas Gas) 37:05.51; 20. Andrea Belotti (Husqvarna) 37:36.61

Enduro Junior
1. Cristobal Guerrero (Gas Gas) 35:36.76; 2. Jacob Stapleton (TM) 35:43.73; 3. Daryl Bolter (Husqvarna) 35:54.69; 4. Marc Bourgeois (Husqvarna) 36:16.66; 5. Paolo Bernardi (Honda) 36:42.65; 6. Robert Kapajcik (KTM) 36:56.51; 7. Si Wakely (Honda Racing Fast Eddy PAR Homes) 36:59.52; 8. Oriol Mena (Gas Gas) 37:04.69; 9. Julien Dubac (Husqvarna) 37:12.54; 10. Maurizio Facchin (Husqvarna) 37:35.76; 11. Mike Kock (Honda) 38:13.26; 12. Olli Turma (Husqvarna) 38:38.02; 13. Ricard Wressel (Yamaha) 38:38.36; 14. Juraj Dozsa (KTM) 38:39.03; 15. Marek Swiderski (Gas Gas) 38:42.32; 16. Kristoffer Jonsson (Honda) 39:22.95; 17. Patrick Wikman (KTM) 39:29.03; 18. Sebastien Adielsson (Honda) 39:30.72; 19. Fredrik Kvarnstron (Yamaha) 40:10.44; 20. Petr Husek (KTM) 40:23.05