(Sardinia, Italy, October 2, 2013) – Today marked the halfway point in the 88th running of the International Six Days Enduro in Sardinia, Italy, and the U.S. World Trophy Team moved ahead of Team Australia, however, they were overtaken by Team Italy, and the result is that we are still sitting third in the World Trophy standings after three days of action, with France first, Italy second and the USA in third. This, of course, is pending any protests or penalties that might come up in tonight’s jury meeting.
Yesterday evening, the US squad was dropped one slot from second to third behind Australia due to a 60-second infraction when Thad DuVall went backwards in the course. The US contingent left the paddocks thinking they were still in second and received the word last night.
Today, for the most part, the U.S. squad was fast, but several crashes kept them from gaining any ground.
“Our inexperience hurt us so far,” said U.S. team manager Antti Kallonen. “We only ride this event once a year and there are so many rules. We go over them every day with the riders but in the heat of the battle it’s easy to forget.”
Charlie Mullins was top American on Day Three in seventh place, in spite of crashing in three different tests.
“I think I’m trying too hard,” said Mullins. “I’ll be glad to get to new sections tomorrow, the stuff we’ve been riding for three days is getting really beat up.”
Taylor Robert crashed hard in the second test and broke his front brake line, but still managed to finish the day in eighth, right behind Mullins.
Meanwhile, Mike Brown had another solid day with a 13th place finish, and Kurt Caselli was also steady in 15th. Zach Osborne was feeling better today and upped his game to finish 25th overall and sixth in E1.
DuVall had another rough day, crashing hard in test three when he hit a rock coming out of a turn. The Shenandoah Honda rider struggled the rest of the day and finished in 30th.
After three days of racing, France leads the World Trophy division, with Italy second, Team USA third and Australia fourth.
In the Junior Trophy class, the U.S. Junior squad held its ground, still sitting fourth behind France, Italy and Great Britain. Top American was Kailub Russell, who finished seventh overall among all Junior riders. Andrew DeLong had a better day today, finishing up in 15th, while Jesse Groemm was 17th and Grant Baylor was 19th.
Tomorrow will see the riders facing new special test sections, which will be a refief for all the riders.
