World Enduro Championship
Mixed fortunes for BMW Motorrad Motorsport team at
WEC GP of Spain
With conditions drier and dustier than at any World Enduro
Championship race for many years the third round of the ’08
WEC series, the GP of Spain staged in Sitges, proved to be
a challenging one for the BMW Motorrad Motorsport team. Coming
just one week after the GP of Portugal the third round of
the championship saw enduro newcomer Simo Kirssi claim the
team’s best result with an eight place finish in the
Enduro 2 class on day one. Continuing to adapt quickly to
the competitive WEC series Kirssi spent the first half of
the second day running inside the top five of the E2 class
showing good speed on the event’s technical extreme
test and heavily rutted and dusty motocross test. Disappointingly
for the Finn a heavy crash while en route to the enduro test
put an end to his event as he badly damaged his bike and was
unable to continue.
Aware that the dry Spanish conditions might not be to his
liking seven-time world enduro champion Anders Eriksson was
unable to place higher than 11th in the Enduro 3 class on
day one. Despite recording some good times on the enduro special
test Anders failed to gel with the extremely dusty motocross
test, and as a result was unable to finish inside the top
10 of the E3 class. On day two Anders opted to try some different
settings on his bike, but with the exception of some spirited
extreme test performances again failed to perform at his best
and dropped to 14th in class.
With Simo Kirssi placing eight in the Enduro 1 class on day
one, Jeff Goblet finished four places behind in 12th having
finished without problems. Finding the dry and dusty special
tests challenging, Jeff made a disappointing early exit on
day two following a mechanical problem in the extreme test.
In the enduro Junior class Bert Meyer finished his first
ever Spanish enduro GP inside the top 10 having ridden consistently
to finish ninth on day one. Despite taking a while to find
his speed on day two Bert made light work of the challenging
conditions but a mistake on the final special test of the
event cost him valuable time and he placed 19th in class.
Round four of the ’08 World Enduro Championship
takes place in Kwidzyn, Poland on June 14/15.
Simo Kirssi – Enduro 2 class: “I
found the start of day one pretty tough, but as the day progressed
things got better and better. I didn’t have any problems
in the special tests but I just wasn’t riding as relaxed
as I needed to be. I felt better towards the end of the day
but I still felt that I could have ridden a little more aggressively.
It was ok, but not quite as good as I hoped.
Day two started even worse than day one. I looked at the special
tests on Saturday night but the lines I had hoped to use were
impossible – they just didn’t work. On the second
lap I used the lines everyone else was using and things were
much better. The second lap went really well, I felt really
good, but then I hit a stone in the course just before the
enduro test and badly damaged my bike. That was the end of
my day. It’s a disappointing end to the weekend but
I felt that I rode well in some tests, so I’m pleased
with that.”
Jeff Goblet – Enduro 2 class: “It’s
been a disappointing weekend, that’s for sure. Day one
wasn’t great for me – I’m still adjusting
to being on a four-stroke, but I finished without problems.
I had to stop very early on day two because I had a problem
with my bike. It’s always disappointing to have mechanical
problems but like several riders have found in the last two
races it can and does happen. Now I’m just looking forward
to the next round of the championship.”
Anders Eriksson – Enduro 3 class:
“It’s not been a good weekend for me. I knew that
the conditions wouldn’t suit me well and they didn’t.
That added to a few problems made for a tough weekend. As
I’ve said before we keep learning with the bike –
this weekend things didn’t go as well planned but the
important thing is that we learned from it. I had some problems
on day two, which we were able to fix, but I took some penalty
points. My results weren’t good at all but, well, I
tried my hardest and things just didn’t go well. We
have a break in the calendar now so we will do more testing
and training and then it’s on to Poland, which I’m
looking forward to.”
Wolfgang Fischer – BMW Motorrad Motorsport
Team Manager: “I have mixed feelings about
the weekend. We had some problems that we weren’t expecting
and Simo, who was riding really well on day two, had bad luck.
He hit a big stone during the time check before the enduro
test and that put him out of the race. That was it for him.
Anders wasn’t able to get the times he hoped to get
in the special tests on day one so tried a few different things
with his bike on day two. Things didn’t really get better
for him so it was a disappointing weekend for him. We now
have a couple of weeks break before the next GP so we need
to do a little more home work.”
2008 World Enduro Championship
Grand Prix of Spain – Day 1
Enduro 1 class
1. Mika Akola (Honda) 44:47.43; 2. Ivan Cervantes (KTM) 44:53.08;
3. Eero Remes (KTM) 45:31.48; 4. Simone Albergoni (Yamaha)
45:40.56; 5. Marc Germain (Yamaha) 46:05.48; 6. Cristobal
Guerrero (Yamaha) 46:05.56; 7. Maurizio Micheluz (Yamaha)
46:49.02; 8. Daryl Bolter (Husqvarna) 47:32.82; 9. Tom Sagar
(KTM) 47:35.50; 10. Mike Hartmann (KTM) 47:47.77; 11. David
Cadek (KTM) 48:05.23; 12. Jordan Curvalle (Suzuki) 48:14.61;
13. Damien Miquel (Suzuki) 48:29.38; 14. Sandro Marcos (Suzuki)
48:36.61; 15. Luca Cherubini (TM) 48:53.17; 16. Paulo Felicia
(Kawasaki) 49:12.33; 17. Concalo Reis (KTM) 49:20.56; 18.
Daniele Tellini (KTM) 49:54.90; 19; Andres Barbero (KTM) 52:08.24
Enduro 2 class
1. Johnny Aubert (Yamaha) 44:35.97; 2. Antoine Meo (Husqvarna)
45:57.22; 3. Alessandro Belometti (KTM) 46:00.33; 4. Joakim
Ljunggren (Husaberg) 46:20.90; 5. Valtteri Salonen (Husaberg)
46:38.38; 6. Fabrizio Dini (Yamaha) 46:43.60; 7. Alessandro
Zanni (Honda) 46:44.56; 8. Simo Kirssi (BMW) 46:48.77; 9.
Rodrig Thain (TM) 46:55.72; 10. Fabio Mossini (Honda) 47:28.18;
11. Jari Mattila (Honda); 12. Jean Francois Goblet (BMW) 48:11.65;
13. Nicolas Paganon (Aprilia) 48:13.76; 14. Nicolas Deparrois
(Gas Gas) 48:17.65; 15. Freddy Blanc (Suzuki) 48:29.91; 16.
Andrea Belotti (KTM) 48:34.51; 17. Xacob Agra (BMW) 48:35.16;
18. Hans Vogel (Yamaha) 48:40.21; 19. Felipe Zanol (Yamaha)
49:16.17; 20. Amel Advokaat (KTM) 49:16.39
Enduro 3 class
1. Samuli Aro (KTM) (45:08.56); 2. Christophe Nambotin (Gas
Gas) 45:40.44; 3. Sebastien Guillaume (Husqvarna) 46:02.1;
4. Marko Tarkkala (KTM) 46:08.49; 5. Fabien Planet (KTM) 46:23.94;
6. Xavier Galindo (KTM) 46:29.92; 7. Stefan Merriman (Aprilia)
46:39.03; 8. Gerard Fares (KTM) 46:45.83; 9. Bjorne Carlsson
(Husaberg) 46:50.11; 10. Alessandro Botturi (HONDA) 47:13.44;
11. Anders Eriksson (BMW) 47:26.28; 12. Marcus Kehr (KTM)
47:54.96; 13. Jordi Figueras (KTM) 47:57.83; 14. Juan Pedrero
(Yamaha) 48:09.85; 15.Ervin Plekkenpol (Honda) 48:12.49; 16.Alessio
Paoli (Beta) 48:57.55; 17. Euan McConnell (TM) 49:37.02; 18.
Stefan Svitko (KTM) 51:06.05; 19. Juraj Dozsa (Gas Gas) 51:10.25;
20 .Gordon Clarke (TM) 52:10.69
Enduro Junior class
1. Thomas Oldrati (KTM) 46:32.32; 2. Oriol Mena (KTM) 47:05.65;
3. Marc Bourgeois (Husqvarna) 47:08.54; 4. Mirko Gritti (Beta)
47:20.94; 5. Carlos Andreu (KTM) 47:44.33; 6. Victor Guerrero
(KTM) 48:07.50; 7. Greg Evans (KTM) 48:36.57; 8. Simon Wakely
(Husqvarna) 49:07.65; 9. Bert Mayer (BMW) 49:12.02; 10. Jeremy
Joly (Sherco) 49:13.84; 11. Antti Hellsten (Husqvarna) 49:15.13;
12. Oscar Balletti (Honda) 49:20.28; 13 Romain Boucardey (KTM)
49:55.40; 14. Phillip McLaughlin (TM) 50:15.66; 15. Guillem
Pares (Yamaha) 50:36.12; 16. Adam Guillaume (Husqvarna) 50:37.61;
17. Adrien Metge (Husqvarna) 50:48.26; 18. Ashley Wood (Honda)
50:53.97; 19. Fredrick Berg (KTM) 50:59.72; 20. Mark Risse
(Gas Gas) 51:25.89
2008 World Enduro Championship
Grand Prix of Portugal – Day 2
Enduro 1 class
1. Mika Ahola (Honda) 39:25.57; 2. Ivan Cervantes (KTM) 39:26.19;
3. Simone Albergoni (Yamaha) 39:50.88; 4. Eero Remes (KTM)
40:18.67; 5. Marc Germain (Yamaha) 40:35.20; 6. Cristobal
Guerrero (Yamaha) 40:48.75; 7. Maurizio Micheluz 40:50.47;
8. Mike Hartmann (KTM) 41:43.21; 9. Luca Cherubini (TM) 41:52.86;
10. Daryl Bolter (Husqvarna) 42:03.29; 11. Jordan Curvalle
(Suzuki) 42:18.82; 12. David Cadek (KTM) 42:41.74; 13.Damien
Miquel (Suzuki) 42:56.86; 14. Daniele Tellini (KTM) 43:00.67;
15. Concalo Reis (KTM) 43:28.40; 16. Jakub Horak (KTM) 45:19.71;
17. Waclaw Skolarus (Yamaha) 46:00.05; 18. Andres Barbero
(KTM) 46:33.77; 19. Daniel Fonoll (Yamaha) 48:40.65
Enduro 2 class
1. Johnny Aubert (Yamaha) 38:36.74; 2. Juha Salminen (KTM)
38:52.50; 3. Antoine Meo (Husqvarna) 39:58.63; 4. Rodrig Thain
(TM) 40:46.75; 5. Fabrizio Dini (Yamaha) 40:49.75; 6. Alessandro
Belometti (KTM) 40:50.53; 7. Joakim Ljunggren (Husaberg) 40:53.51;
8. Valtteri Salonen (Husaberg) 40:58.35; 9. Fabio Mossini
(Honda) 41:12.67; 10. Alessandro Zanni (Honda) 41:17.02; 11.
Aaron Bernandez (Husqvarna) 41:19.48; 12. Andrea Belotti (KTM)
41:34.87; 13. Jari Mattila (Honda) 42:09.48; 14. Nicolas Deparrois
(Gas Gas) 42:12.71; 15. Hans Vogel (Yamaha) 42:16.14; 16.
Nicolas Paganon (Aprilia) 42:43.77; 17. Amel Advokaat (KTM)
43:05.51; 18. Xacob Agra (BMW) 43:08.65; 19. Rudy Cotton (Beta)
43:24.77; 20. Felipe Zanol (Yamaha) 44:13.09
Enduro 3 class
1. Samuli Aro (KTM) 39:56.62; 2. Christophe Nambotin (Gas
Gas) 40:06.79; 3. Marko Tarkkala (KTM) 40:09.12; 4. Stefan
Merriman (Aprilia) 40:11.25; 4. Sebastien Guillaume (Husqvarna)
40:34.87; 5. Marcus Kehr (KTM) 40:38.52; 6. Bjorne Carlsson
(Husaberg) 40:54.22; 7. Xavier Galindo (KTM) 41:00.19; 8.
Antoine Letellier (Aprilia) 41:01.17; 9. Alessandro Botturi
(Honda) 41:24.55; 10. Gerard Fares (KTM) 41:28.76; 11. Ervin
Plekkenpol (Honda) 42:26.83; 12. Stefan Svitko (KTM) 42:39.98;
13. Anders Eriksson (BMW) 43:05.55; 14. Jordi Figueras (KTM)
43:29.50; 15. Jordan Jou (Honda); 16. Juraj Dozsa (Gas Gas)
44:42.81; 18. Gordon Clarke (TM) 46:22.93
Enduro Junior class
1. Thomas Oldrati (KTM) 40:57.53; 2. Oriol Mena (KTM) 41:10.06;
3. Mirko Gritti (Beta) 41:25.30; 4. Marc Bourgeois (Husqvarna)
41:30.31; 5. Victor Guerrero (KTM) 41:40.32; 6. Greg Evans
(KTM) 42:13.60; 7. Oscar Balletti (Honda) 42:30.53; 8. Jeremy
Joly (Sherco) 42:53.70 9. Antti Hellsten (Husqvarna) 43:11.60;
10. Adrien Metge (Husqvarna) 43:23.99; 11. Simon Wakely (Husqvarna)
43:38.65; 12 David Gannac (Suzuki) 43:52.44; 13. Philip McLaughlin
(TM) 44:12.65; 14. Ashley Wood (Honda) 44:21.24; 15. Guillem
Pares (Yamaha) 44:36.80; 16. Marc Sola (KTM) 44:45.54; 17.
Romain Dumontier (Husqvarna) 44:51.72; 18. Karl Svensson (KTM)
44:54.72; 19. Bert Mayer (BMW) 45:08.08; 20. Peter Germain
(Kawasaki) 45:21.50
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