Knighter wins WEC opener
KTM Enduro Factory Team Farioli rider David Knight started the defense of his Enduro 3 world championship in the best possible way at the opening round of the ’06 World Enduro Championship staged in Ostersund, Sweden where the Manx ace topped the E3 class on both days ahead of his KTM team-mate Marko Tarkkala. Having spent just one week testing and training with spiked tyres prior to the race in Sweden, Knighter showed that a rider from outside of Scandinavia could win the WEC’s first ever winter enduro – something few believed was possible.
Starting steadily on day one Knighter was soon up to speed and locked in a close battle with Finn Marko Tarkkala – the rider who finished second to him in the ’05 E3 world championship. Winning seven of the day’s 14 special tests, David never finished lower than third in class and steadily edged ahead of his team-mate. Showing just how well he had adjusted to the challenging conditions David opened up a commanding lead and finished 22 seconds clear at the top of the class as well as narrowly beating E2 class rider Samuli Aro for the overall day win.
Knowing that he had the speed to win following his day one victory David started day two in the exact same way he started day one – steadily, not wanting to make any mistakes that might spoil another 25-point class win. Going on to win 10 of the second day’s special test in the E3 class he rode without mistakes to open up a gap between himself and the hard charging Tarkkala. Easing off having been told that the Finn had been awarded a one-minute time penalty, Knighter then had to up his pace during the closing stages of the event after he found out that Tarkkala’s penalty would likely be scrapped. Riding cautiously for fear of throwing a chain in the icy ruts that littered the extreme and motocross tests, David claimed an eventual 15 second winning margin.
After the first of eight rounds of the ’06 World Enduro Championship David sits six points clear of Marko Tarkkala in the Enduro 3 class with Sweden’s Björne Carlsson third.
David’s next event will be the second round of the British Enduro Championship in Scotland on April 15/16
David Knight: “This is exactly the start I hoped to get to this year’s
world championship, but wasn’t sure I could. I had to try and fit the
20 years of riding experience the Scandinavians have in these conditions into
just the one week of training I did before the event and thankfully everything
worked out perfectly. Winning on both days, and topping the overall on day
one, is great. I couldn’t have asked for more.
“I started off pretty steadily on day one because I wanted to get used
to the conditions before really pushing hard but I felt good right from the
start of the day. I put in good times on all three tests and I really enjoyed
the enduro test. I made a few mistakes not knowing how hard to push on the
ice sections of the tests, but thankfully not any big mistakes. I’m
over the moon to have beaten the riders from Scandinavia. I did a lot of training
during the week before the race but I still didn’t think that I’d
be able to win.”
“The conditions seemed to change all the time on day two, which made
each lap different. The first lap was quite tricky, my bike seemed to be moving
around a lot more than on day one. There wasn’t much between myself
and Marko in the morning when the tests were reasonably smooth but when they
got rougher I was able to open up a lead. Once I had a good lead I eased off
a bit so that I didn’t crash. I was really worried on the last lap that
my chain would come off because of the frozen ruts.
“I spent one week trying to figure out how to ride with spiked tyres
and it seems to have worked. I’ve really enjoyed learning how to ride
on a different type of surface and terrain and I think having a winter enduro
as the first round for the WEC has been a success. It’s the perfect
start for me. I just hope that I can continue winning now.”
Results – World Enduro Championship 2006 Round 1 – day
1
1. David Knight (KTM) 1.04:52.22; 2. Marko Tarkkala
(KTM) 1.05:14.27; 3. Björne Carlsson (Husaberg) 1.05:43.25; 4. Seb Guillaume
(Gas Gas) 1.07:42.74; 5. Heikki Timonen (KTM) 1.07:46.35; 6. Daniel Persson
(Husaberg) 1.09:14.24; 7. Alessandro Zanni (Aprilia) 1.09:27.89; 8. Marcus
Kehr (KTM) 1.10:23.08; 9. Alessio Paoli (TM) 1.10:26.96; 10. Vita Kuklik (KTM)
1.10:28.31
Results – World Enduro Championship 2006 Round 1 – day
2
1. David Knight (KTM) 1.01:01.75; 2. Marko Tarkkala
(KTM) 1.02:27.07; 3. Björne Carlsson (Husaberg) 1.02:30.86; 4. Heikki
Timonen (KTM) 1.05:04.58; 5. Daniel Persson (Husaberg) 1.05:17.68; 6. Seb
Guillaume (Gas Gas) 1.05:21.98; 7. Vita Kuklik (KTM) 1.05:31.97; 8. Markus
Kehr (KTM) 1.05:32.42; 9. Alessandro Zanni (Aprilia) 1.06:37.83; 10. Paolo
Bernardi (Honda) 1.06:49.49
-----ENDS-----
Small print: Issued for and on behalf of David Knight and Triple D Motorsport Ltd by Jonty Edmunds. Any questions or comments to be directed to either david.knight@manx.net, d3.racing@virgin.net or jonty.edmunds@attglobal.net
www.knighter.net www.d3-racing.com www.ktm.com
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