DAVID KNIGHT SHOWS OFF AGAIN IN THE SANT JORDI ARENA

Complete success in the Indoor Enduro World Cup first leg that took place in Barcelona. An audience of more than 10.900 enjoyed live a true demonstration of dexterity from the most hardened enduro bikers who were facing the Sant Jordi arena storm. An arena full of obstacles, where both suffering and performance made the Palau’s audience stands in ovation.

A truly inspired David Knight (KTM), the British winner of the last Barcelona Indoor Enduro, imposed his law in the first round of the Indoor Enduro World Cup. Using his unbeatable state of physical fitness, Knight (pictured right) put his rivals in a corner and prevailed after defeating the most selected opponents of international enduro. A triumph that he already had obtained in 2003 and 2006 and that put him ahead of the World Cup ranking, confirming he is one of the main candidates for this new title.

Following Knight’s star, the Finnish Mika Ahola (Honda) and the Catalan Xavi Galindo (KTM) won by sheer strength the remaining rankings of the Podium. Ahola ended up second whereas Galindo repeated as third for the third consecutive year, after having imposed a frenetic rhythm in his last appearances. A rhythm that went down in each one of the three finals that were disputed that night.

The first one of them saw the victory of David Knight with a large advantage over the rest of the racers despite of the very hard opposition of Tadeusz Blazusiak (KTM) he had to face in the arena. It was a real siege, with which Blazusiak, the polyvalent Polish biker, an expert in enduro as well as trial, complicated the triumph of last year Barcelona Indoor’s winner. A permanent persecution that surprised Knight and from which he only managed to free himself when Blazusiak buried all of his victory’s options in the arena. A very unfortunate end for a big start in the race, that Mika Ahola and Batosz Oblucki (Husqvarna) wonderfully took advantage of to rank second and third, respectively.

The Sant Jordi overcame a long standing frustration in the second final of the night with the one the most desired victory. Xavi Galindo, third last year, finally beat the all-powerful Knight in the arena. The Catalan biker started as fast as a bullet and managed to take advantage perfectly the slip of the other racers, stocked in a traffic jam in one of the rocky areas. Leading the race by himself, Galindo played an epic breakaway that leaded him to the glory. For his part, Knight scored a pair of points by getting back to the second position whereas Blazusiak ended up third.

With the overall victory still completely open, the last race would be decisive to reveal who would be the big winner of the evening. This time, the first one to see the squared flag was to be David Knight, after he brilliantly had gone through a track full of trunks, stones and water traps. Just behind Knight, the following positions ended up in Ahola’s and Blazusiak’s hands. For his part, the Spanish E1 champion Cristobal Guerrero had to conform himself with the fourth position, winning in this third final over his big Spanish rival of the night, Galindo, with whom he also ended up in the classifying group.

David Knight: “Barcelona is one of the places where I like to race the most. In particular because it is one of the main races in Europe, and, as I participate all year long in an American championship, I am happy to come back to race on the old continent. In Barcelona, I felt at home. On the top of this, this year, it is the World Cup, and the bikers go out to the arena more motivated”.

Mika Ahola: “I prefer this new system of competition than the previous one. With three finals, you can come back in case you made a mistake in one of the other heats. For me, this second position in Barcelona is great because this is a very complicated championship. With high level.”

Xavi Galindo: “I am specially happy for my first victory in one of the big finals. I had been trying it for years and finally today I got lucky. My third position represents for me a huge satisfaction although I would have liked to stand ahead. However, third, it’s very good for the World Cup.”

The podium

David Knight Report
Red Bull KTM Off Road Race Team

Knighter wins ’07 Indoor Enduro World Cup opener in Barcelona

Red Bull KTM Off Road Race Team rider David Knight leads the ’07 FIM Indoor Enduro World Cup following three highly impressive performances at the opening round of the three-event series held in Barcelona, Spain. Reverting to two-stroke machinery having clinched the ’07 AMA Endurocross championship just a few weeks earlier aboard a 450cc four-stroke, Knight claimed two wins and a runner-up finish to take an early championship lead in the first ever FIM sanctioned indoor enduro series. Finishing behind David in the overall results was Finland’s Mika Ahola, who currently holds the runner-up spot in the championship, with Spain’s Xavi Galindo third.
 
This year’s Barcelona Indoor Enduro provided exactly the type of action-packed racing that has made the Spanish event such a popular one with both enduro fans and riders alike. With its seamless mix of demanding technical sections and high-speed straights this year’s course proved difficult for all riders, with even Knight coming unstuck on a few occasions. With a series of qualifying heats and LCQ races determining which riders would participate in the main events, this year’s Barcelona Indoor Enduro featured three finals, with points from each shaping the event’s overall results.
 
Winning both of his qualifying heat races Knight (pictured right) passed trough into the main event with ease. Making the challenging Barcelona track look much, much easier than many of his rivals David took an early lead in the first final and along with KTM team-mate Taddy Blazusiak pulled away at the front of the race. Not wanting to take any risks David remained calm and when Taddy hit a rock and broke his chain guard the AMA Endurocross champion cruised to a comfortable win.
 
Race two proved to be a very different story for David. Clipping Xavi Galindo’s rear wheel in turn one Knighter was sent crashing to the ground and was forced to start the race dead last. Quickly catching the rear of the field David worked his way forward passing riders during each of the four laps, managing to work his way up to second at the chequered flag.
 
Race three was similar to the first in as much as Knight nailed the start and was then never headed. Simply keeping himself out of trouble during the opening laps of the race David built up a commanding lead and claimed his second win of the night, which gave him the overall win and sees him lead the ’07 FIM Indoor Enduro World Cup standings with two rounds remaining.
 
David now heads to Texas, USA where he will defend his Last Man Standing title before returning to Europe to compete in the second round of the Indoor Enduro World Cup in Munich, Germany.
 
David Knight: “It took me a while to get used to racing a two-stroke again, as I wasn’t revving the bike hard enough half the night, but things worked out great and it’s fantastic to have won the event and taken an early lead in the championship. My heat races went well. In the first one I got a good start and just got my head down and stayed ahead of Johnny Aubert. You had to watch some of the rocks because they were pretty unforgiving. In the second heat race the track started to get really tricky in places so after another good start I just made sure I kept out of trouble and moved through into the finals without too many problems at all.

“The first final was very similar to my first heat race – I got a good start and just took my time in the opening laps. One of the rock sections had changed a little so the line I had been using was no longer the best. Taddy Blazusiak started to push me a bit but I knew that it would be hard for him to go faster than I was and not make any mistakes even if he did pass me. I just tried to build on my pace steadily and when Taddy broke his chain guard I won easily.

“I enjoyed the second race of the night the most despite crashing in the first turn. I tried to be safe and it backfired on me and I went down. I was able to get passed most riders in the rocks but then fell when some other riders crashed in front of me. I managed to get passed Taddy and into second and just ran out of laps to get into the lead. Considering I was last to finish second was pretty good.

“I had another good start in the final and managed to pull away and win that quite comfortably. I’m really pleased with the way I rode and despite not winning all the races I think I showed that I was the best rider. I really liked the three final format because it gives you the chance to have a bad race and still do well. It’s a great start to the championship and I’m looking forward to seeing what the event in Munich will be like now.”
 
Results – ’07 FIM Indoor Enduro World Cup, Rnd 1, Barcelona, Spain
   1. David Knight (Red Bull KTM Off Road Race Team) 4 points (1+2+1)
   2. Mika Ahola (Honda) 9 points (2+5+2)
   3. Xavi Galindo (KTM) 13 points (4+1+8)
   4. Bartosz Oblucki (Husqvarna) 15 points (3+7+5)
   5. Taddy Blazusiak (KTM) 17 points (11+3+3)
   6. Cristobal Guerrero (Yamaha) 19 points (5+10+4)
   7. Tom Sagar (KTM) 23 points (8+4+11)
   8. Gregory Eyries (Yamaha) 23 points (8+4+11)
   9. Johnny Aubert (Yamaha) 24 points (9+9+6)
  10. Simone Albergoni (Yamaha) 27 points (7+11+9)
  11. Alessandro Botturi (Honda) 28 points (10+8+10)



KTM D3-Racing Report

Tom Sagar’s Indoor Debut
Photo: Jonty Edmunds KTM Images

The original indoor Enduro in Barcelona is now part of a 3 round FIM sanctioned Indoor World cup championship and most of the WEC teams have representation, KTM are fielding a 4 man Factory team of David Knight, Taddy Blazusiak, Alessandro Belometti and our own Tom Sagar (pictured right) all riding 2 strokes EXC 250’s and 300’s. Over 33 of the world’s best off-road racers had to qualify via 2 heat races for the 11 rider finals.

Tom had a bad luck in his first heat when he made a bad start and then got held up in a rock section by a fallen rider, most of the course was trouble free with exception of the big rock section which decided many race results and at times was blocked with fallen and stuck riders. In his first heat he finished 7th and in heat two he rode a trouble free 3 laps to finish 3rd. But his two combined heat results weren’t enough to qualify and he had to go directly into the last chance qualifier, only the winner would be transferred to the finals. This LCQ race was very exciting as Tom battled with Marc Germain and each rider had several problems in the rock sections, but Tom finally got the better of Germain and won.

The final consisted of 11 riders on a 9 row starter gate, unfortunately because Tom qualified via the LCQ he had to start from row 2 and in each of the 3 final races, he was also further handicapped by a arm injury which he picked up at the 6 Days and stopped him from riding at his normal level. But Tom just kept out of trouble and picked of riders as they made mistakes and had 3 consistent rides to finish joint 6th overall in his first ever Indoor Enduro and now look’s forward to the next round in Munich.

The Indoor Enduro circuit at Barcelona.

BMW Motorrad Motorsport
Tough night in Barcelona for BMW’s Lettenbichler and Goblet

BMW Motorrad Motorsport team riders Andreas Lettenbichler and Jean Francois Goblet’s participation in the opening round of the ’07 FIM Indoor Enduro World Cup proved to be an eventful occasion as both riders learned just how difficult, exciting and unpredictable indoor enduro racing can be. Both taking part in their first ever major indoor enduro event the two BMW Motorrad Motorsport team riders found themselves competing in the same qualification group and up against seasoned indoor enduro competitors.

Disappointingly, despite their best efforts, and after two action filed qualification races, neither rider made it through into the night’s main events. With only the top three riders from each of the three qualification races and an additional two riders from the last chance qualifier race passing through into the finals Andreas Lettenbichler went on to finish fifth with Jean Francois Goblet 12th in their qualifying group.

With the opening round of the first ever FIM indoor enduro series attracting close to 14’000 spectators to Barcelona’s Palau Sant Jordi stadium BMW’s Andreas Lettenbichler (pictured right) showed that despite his near complete lack of experience of international indoor enduro competitions he certainly has what it takes to compete against many of the riders considered to be the world’s best. Finishing fifth in both of his qualification races Andreas dealt with the track’s many challenging hazards with ease and learned a huge amount about what it takes to excel at indoor enduro racing. Competing in the event’s Night race, in which the stadium’s nights were turned off and riders forced to use only the lights on their bike’s to see where they were going, Andreas placed third behind seasoned WEC campaigners Seb Guillaume and Christophe Nambotin from France.

For Jean Francois Goblet the ’07 edition of the Barcelona Indoor Enduro proved to be a difficult one. One of BMW’s new signings for the ’08 World Enduro Championship, having had little time to familiarise himself with his new race bike after several seasons competing on two-stroke machinery the Belgian saw several heavy falls spoil his night.

Both riders will now spend time testing and training ahead of the second round of the FIM Indoor Enduro World Cup, which is being held in Munich, Germany on Sunday, December 16.

Andreas Lettenbichler: “I really enjoyed the Barcelona Indoor Enduro – it was a fantastic event. Obviously I am a little disappointed not to have made it into the final but considering that I was not able to train as much as I wanted before the event due to heavy snow at my home I am really happy. I also learned a lot as this was my first major indoor enduro event. The track was hard, but I like that. I am pretty confident that with a little more experience of this type of racing I will be able to be more competitive. I’m really looking forward to the next round of the series in Munich.”

Wolfgang Fischer: “With the Barcelona event being the first major indoor enduro for both Andreas and Jean we were interested to see how both riders would fair against experienced indoor riders, who were competing on machinery that they were well used to. Although it was disappointing that neither rider qualified for the finals seeing them competing against world-class riders as well as testing some new parts on the bikes made for a great night. As some consolation Andreas was pleased with his ability to match several of the top riders for speed across many of the harder obstacles and claimed a well-deserved third place result in the Night Race, ahead of some strong opposition.”