Salminen Flawless So Far In World Enduro
| May 29, 2007
A challenging GP of Italy, in Borno, marked the halfway point of the ’07 World Enduro Championship, May 26-27, where KTM’s Juha Salminen claimed a double win in the Enduro 1 class. Honda’s Mika Ahola topped the Enduro 2 class on both days, and KTM’s Marko Tarkkala and Ivan Cervantes shared top honors in the Enduro 3 class.
For Salminen, it was his fourth consecutive double-class wins of ’07 to remain unbeaten in the WEC so far this season.
“I felt that I rode pretty well,” Salminen said of his weekend. “We took a bit of a risk going for a tire that works well in dry conditions, which made things a little bit difficult at the start of both days, but it worked out well in the end. I didn’t really make any mistakes, so I was pleased with the way I rode.”
But the win was close. Salminen finished just under six seconds ahead of Yamaha France rider Marc Germain. With the Frenchman performing at his best early in the day when conditions were wet, Salminen clawed his way back into contention and claimed his seventh, day win of ’07.
Day two again saw Germain start strongly, but a disastrous final extreme test saw him drop to fifth in class. Quickly getting to grips with the challenging Italian special tests, Salminen topped seven of the day’s tests in the E1 class to finish 40 seconds clear of Simone Albergoni.
