The following is a release from David Knight Result Service –
KTM Enduro Factory Team Farioli rider David Knight (pictured) claimed his fourth double Enduro 3 class (heavyweight) win of the ’05 World Enduro Championship (WEC) season at the GP of Spain in Gernika to extend his lead at the top of the E3 Championship to 39 points. Comfortably winning the Enduro 3 class on both days, Knight also finished the event as the fastest overall rider, irrespective of class, on both days.
Just one week after claiming victory at the grueling Erzburg Rodeo in Austria, “Knighter” arrived at the WEC’s second Spanish event confident of maintaining his World Championship winning streak – and he did. With the event featuring three very different, but also much shorter, special tests than previous rounds of the series, fine weather and four laps of an enjoyable course made for some of the championships closest racing yet.
On day one, Knighter soon found his rhythm despite thinking on occasions that he was still racing aboard his 300cc two-stroke. Overshooting a couple of corners during the opening two laps, Knight steadily opened up what would become a 30-second winning margin. Making no major mistakes during the opening day’s competition Knighter again proved too fast for his competitors.
On day two, Knight again set the pace in the E3 class winning all but one of the day’s 12 special tests. Even faster than he had been on day one, Knight placed his KTM just under one minute ahead of his nearest rival, Finn Marko Tarkkala. With the ’05 WEC Series all but at the halfway stage, Knight now sits comfortably at the head of the E3 Championship, some 39 points clear of his Finnish teammate. In winning the E3 category in Spain, Knight also played an important part in ensuring that the KTM Enduro Factory Team Farioli squad topped the Team competition. “It’s been another great weekend for me, although I kept overshooting corners early on day one,” Knight said. “I think it was because I raced a 300cc two-stroke last weekend at Erzburg and didn’t have any time to go training on my 500 before this weekend. Once I’d ridden a few laps, I was okay and didn’t have any more problems. With the special tests being quite short I really thought that there would only be hundredths of seconds between the top riders, so to win by just over half a minute on day one was good
“I found day two was a bit easier, I think it was because I was getting used to the bike again. The only problem I had was that I kept going for a kick-starter thinking it was my 300, forgetting that my four-stroke race bike has a button! I nearly hit a fox in one of the enduro special tests, but apart from that I didn’t have any problems at all. The event got better as it went on. The tests were good fun and winning again just made it better.” (End of release.)
In other classes, Yamaha’s Stefan Merriman returned to action after having his spleen removed when he crashed at the Italian round three weeks ago, but despite all that, he came away with double wins in the Enduro 2 class (middleweight) over Frenchman Fabien Plantet.
KTM’s Planet finished second both days, while Finland’s Samuli Aro went 3-3 on his KTM.
In Enduro 1 (lightweight), KTM’s Ivan Cervantes, of Spain, was dominate. He topped both days, as well, while Frenchman Marc Germain (Yam) and Italian Alessandro Belometti (KTM) finished second and third, respectively, both days.
Great Britain’s Paul Edmondson, aboard a Honda, went 4-4.
