Nate Kenny in action

Marking the start of the second half of the ’07 World Enduro Championship series the GP of USA proved to be extremely challenging with the opening day largely regarded as the hardest day of the series so far. With each of the event’s three special tests run over extremely rough and rocky forest covered terrain many riders either crashed or ran into troubles on at least one of the tests during the event.

CH Racing Husqvarna rider Seb Guillaume claimed two well deserved Enduro 3 class podium results at the GP of USA, staged for the second consecutive year in Hancock, New York State, where the experienced Frenchman claimed the runner-up spot on day one before placing third on day two. Joining Seb in securing podium finishes for the CH Racing Husqvarna team in Hancock were Bartosz Oblucki who claimed third in the Enduro 1 class on day one and Marc Bourgeois who also finished in third in the Enduro Junior category.

Bartosz Oblucki claimed a well deserved third place result on day one of the GP of USA aboard Husqvarna’s pre-production TE250 despite making several small mistakes on the demanding special tests. Having never ridden the bike in conditions as rough, rutted and stone littered as in Hancock, during the early part of day one Oblucki made several changes to his machine set-up, which saw a notable improvement in his performance as the day moved towards its close. Posting the third fastest times in the E1 class during the three final special tests Oblucki placed 35 seconds adrift of the day’s runner-up.

Day two proved to be a mixed one for Bartosz as mistakes in each of the opening lap’s three special tests resulted in him having to push extremely hard in the hope of securing a second day podium finish. Forced off a bike for close to one month following the GP of Italy due to broken ribs Oblucki found the second day’s fourth and final lap extremely tiring yet still managed to post the second quickest E1 class time in the final extreme test. Despite his best efforts Bartosz narrowly missed out on a podium finish and placed fourth, just six seconds adrift of third.

Seb takes a podium finish

Returning to the WEC series after missing the GP of Italy US racer Nate Kanney finished as the CH Racing Husqvarna team’s highest placed rider in the E2 class on day one in seventh. Performing strongly throughout the day Nate placed less than four seconds behind sixth place finisher Johnny Aubert and a further five seconds adrift of countryman Mike Lafferty in fifth. Making it two riders inside the top 10 Frenchman Nicolas Deparrois placed his Husqvarna in tenth.

Claiming his highest E2 class world championship result of the season on day one Kanney dropped disappointingly dropped four places to 11^th on day two, despite again riding without making any serious mistakes. One place ahead of Kanney, and matching his day one result, Nicolas Deparrois again finished in 10^th position.

The opening day of the GP of USA was both good and bad for CH Racing Husqvarna’s E3 team rider Seb Guillaume. Following solid results at the fourth round of the ’07 WEC series, the GP of Italy, Seb finished a well deserved runner-up to Finn Marko Tarkkala but well aware that his result could have been better were it not for a costly mistake on the first timed extreme test. Recording the fastest Enduro 3 class times during the opening three special tests of the day Seb then crashed on the rock littered extreme test losing around 25 seconds. Putting his mistake behind him to go on and win a further four tests in the E3 class Seb ended the day as runner-up but just seven seconds behind winner Tarkkala. Were it not for his one mistake during the day Seb would have claimed victory.

After coming so close to winning on day one Seb was determined to top the E3 class on day two but was unable to match the pace of eventual day winner Ivan Cervantes or Marko Tarkkala. Managing to win one test, and only once placing lower than third in class during the day, the Frenchman finished a strong third to record two podium finishes at round five of the ’07 WEC series.

For CH Racing Husqvarna team rider Anders Eriksson the GP of USA ended with the former seven-time world champion finishing in sixth position in the E3 class on both days.

In the Enduro Junior class French CH Racing Husqvarna rider Marc Bourgeois claimed a podium finish on day one in third, despite crashing on the extreme test and losing precious time to his class rivals. Despite the demanding conditions and three challenging special tests in Hancock Bourgeois again rode well on day two aboard his WR125 but narrowly missed out on a second podium finish. Just seven seconds behind the third placed rider Bourgeois placed fourth on day two.

Seb Guillaume: "The first day was really good for me but it could have been even better. It was possible for me to have won. I crashed in the extreme test on the first timed lap and lost 25 seconds. I only finished seven seconds behind Tarkkala at the end of the day, so I’m a little disappointed but also pleased with second.

"I really thought that I could win on day two but Ivan and Marko were really fast. I was happy with the way I rode but I just wasn’t quite quick enough. It was a difficult race but I enjoyed it. It was easy to make a mistake on all of the tests so it was a fine line between pushing too hard and not pushing hard enough."

Bartosz Oblucki: "Day one was pretty good although nothing special. I spend some time setting the bike up in the beginning of the day, because it is the first time that I have ridded the bike in conditions like this. I didn’t make any big mistakes, although I wasn’t really pleased with the way I rode, so to finish third was really good.

"In the first three special tests on day two I made some mistakes, stalled the bike a couple of times and then crashed in the extreme test. Things certainly didn’t start well. I think I only had three or four good special test during the day. Having not ridden a bike for almost a month after the GP of Italy because of my broken ribs I was really tired on the last lap. Third and fourth wasn’t too bad all things considered."

Nate Kanney: "Finishing seventh on day one was good because it’s my highest finish in the WEC this year. The day was tough, no doubt about that, but I enjoyed it.

Anders Eriksson

"The extreme test wasn’t quite as good for me on day two as it was on day one but I felt I was riding better on the enduro and motocross tests. I crashed on the motocross test though on the first lap, and then lost a lot of time when I crashed on the extreme test as well, so I spent the rest of the day playing catch up. My bike worked well. I think a two-stroke was the way to go on the first day. I liked the difficult extreme test. I’m happy and looking forward to racing in Canada."

Anders Eriksson: "It was a really difficult race and I was surprised that I wasn’t able to be faster because I thought the conditions would suit me. I tried to relax a little more on day two and although my result was the same I was a little closer to the riders ahead of me and felt much better. When I walked the tests I thought that they were going to suit me. I was surprised that I wasn’t as fast as I wanted to be."

Marc Bourgeois: "Day one went pretty well but I crashed in the extreme test and lost a lot of time. It was difficult and hard not to make any mistakes. The second day wasn’t good for me because I crashed twice on the motocross test. I finished fourth but only five seconds behind third, which is disappointing."

Grand Prix of USA – Day 1

Enduro 1 class

1. Juha Salminen (KTM) 47:30.20; 2. Simone Albergoni (Yamaha) 47:34.34; 3. Bartosz Oblucki (CH Racing Husqvarna) 48:08.84; 4. Marc Germain (Yamaha) 48:14.20; 5. Alessandro Belometti (KTM) 48:19.86; 6. Cristobal Guerrero (Yamaha) 48:22.24; 7. Maurizio Micheluz (Yamaha) 49:02.79; 8. Mike Hartman (KTM) 51:23.60; 9. Anthony Roberts (Honda) 55:45.38; 10. Juraj Dosza (KTM) 57:39.08; 11. Steve Leivan (Yamaha) 1.02:32.53

Enduro 2 class

1. Mika Ahola (Honda) 46:04.96; 2. Stefan Merriman (Aprilia) 47:36.52; 3. Fabien Planet (KTM) 47:37.59; 4. Samuli Aro (KTM) 47:46.98; 5. Mika Lafferty (KTM) 49:25.19; 6. Johnny Aubert (Yamaha) 49:30.13; 7. Nate Kanney (CH Racing Husqvarna) 49:34.71; 8. Fabrizio Dini (Yamaha) 49:35.11; 9. Nicolas Paganon (Aprilia) 50:01.57; 10. Nicolas Deparrois (CH Racing Husqvarna) 50:02.66; 11. Valtteri Salonen (Husaberg) 50:04.07; 12. Xavi Galindo (KTM) 51:51.47; 13. Aaron Kopp (Honda) 55:43.04

Enduro 3 class

1. Marko Tarkkala (KTM) 47:02.26; 2. Seb Guillaume (CH Racing Husqvarna) 47:09.31; 3. Ivan Cervantes (KTM) 48:16.92; 4. Bjorne Carlsson (Husaberg) 48:21.16; 5. Alessandro Botturi (Honda) 48:28.69; 6. Anders Eriksson (Husqvarna) 50:10.87; 7. Marcus Kehr (KTM) 51:12.42; 8. Jordon Curvalle (Sherco) 52:59.55; 9. Vita Kuklik (KTM) 53:13.42; 10. Jason Schrage (KTM) 58:51.01

Enduro Junior class

1. Joakim Ljunggren (Husaberg) 48:16.70; 2. Tom Sagar (KTM) 49:01.29; 3. Marc Bourgeois (CH Racing Husqvarna) 49:12.64; 4. Thomas Oldrati (KTM) 49:46.61; 5. Christophe Nambotin (Gas Gas) 49:53.40; 6. Benoit Fortunato (Husqvarna) 53:27.73; 7. David Kamo (KTM) 53:28.21; 8. Russell Bobbitt (KTM) 54:13.69; 9. Kyle Redmond (Gas Gas) 54:42.97; 10. Jakub Horak (KTM) 54:49.36; 11. Yannick Bossi (Husqvarna) 55:12.02; 12. Wally Palmer (Honda) 55:39.12; 13. Sylvain Lebrun (Husqvarna) 57:45.04; 14. Cole Kirkpatrick (KTM) 58:57.42; 15. Ben Smith (Honda) 1.00:59.37; Alden Clark (Suzuki) 1.08:25.08

2007 World Enduro Championship Rnd 5

Grand Prix of USA – Day 2

Enduro 1 class

1. Juha Salminen (KTM) 48:14.07; 2. Marc Germain (Yamaha) 49:40.39; 3. Simone Albergoni (Yamaha) 50:01.31; 4. Bartosz Oblucki (CH Racing Husqvarna) 50:07.42; 5. Cristobal Guerrero (Yamaha) 50:11.00; 6. Maurizio Micheluz (Yamaha) 50:38.75; 7. Alessandro Belometti (KTM) 50:44.34; 8. Mike Hartman (KTM) 52:49.15; 9. Juraj Dozsa (KTM) 57:56.16; 10. Kyle Nelson (Honda) 1.03:59.00

Enduro 2 class

1. Mika Ahola (Honda) 47:04.87; 2. Samuli Aro (KTM) 47:08.32; 3. Johnny Aubert (Yamaha) 48:24.18; 4. Valtteri Salonen (Husaberg) 49:45.49; 5. Fabien Planet (KTM) 49:47.41; 6. Stefan Merriman (Aprilia) 49:54.53; 7. Mike Lafferty (KTM) 50:35.56; 8. Fabrizio Dini (Yamaha) 50:45.69; 9. Nicolas Paganon (Aprilia) 51:03.47; 10. Nicolas Deparrois (CH Racing Husqvarna) 51:06.45; 11. Nate Kanney (CH Racing Husqvarna) 51:38.05; 12. Xavi Galindo (KTM) 52:01.70; 13. Justin Tucker (Yamaha) 1.02:38.41; 14. Ryan Brown (Gas Gas) 1.06:54.91; 15. Dan McCaslin (KTM) 1.22:47.33

Enduro 3 class

1. Ivan Cervantes (KTM) 48:40.56; 2. Marko Tarkkala (KTM) 48:42.64; 3. Seb Guillaume (CH Racing Husqvarna) 48:56.36; 4. Bjorne Carlsson (Husaberg) 49:42.83; 5. Alessandro Botturi (Honda) 49:57.29; 6. Anders Eriksson (Husqvarna) 51:17.75; 7. Vita Kuklik (KTM) 54:32.72; 8. Jordon Curvalle (Sherco) 56:01.13; 9. Jason Schrage (KTM) 1.01:46.75

Enduro Junior class