Welsh Rabbit!
Published: 08th May 2008
Author: Words and photo by Jonty Edmunds
With two months to go before the world’s best enduro riders arrive in the UK for round five of the ’08 WEC series, here are a few good reasons to be heading for mid Wales in mid July…
The ’08 World Enduro Championship is turning into one of the most exciting and hotly-contested WEC series since the turn of the century. Fact.
With three rounds now complete the Swedish snow, Portuguese mud and Spanish dust ensured some of the closest racing action the WEC has seen in a long, long time. And the good news for British enduro fans is that by the time the WEC arrives in the UK on July 19/20 that action will be even closer which means it’ll also be well, well worth watching.
At the start of ’08 it looked as if the closest championship battle would be the Enduro 2 fight between Finn Juha Salminen and Frenchman Johnny Aubert. No-one really knew what would happen in Enduro 3 and as far as the Enduro 1 class was concerned, well, many predicted that Mike Ahola would win in Sweden before Ivan Cervantes would rise to the top in Portugal and Spain. Some predictions were correct, others not.
What the three opening rounds of this year’s WEC series have delivered has been some of the best enduro racing seen in a long time. Experienced championship campaigners and WEC newcomers alike have shown each other no mercy as they try to establish themselves as the very best in ’08. If the remaining rounds of the ’08 WEC series are half as good as the first three then the championship will long be remembered for all the right reasons.
So what will make the rest of the championship - and the British round of the WEC - so good? The battle for the E2 world championship title between Salminen and Aubert that’s what. Oh and the scrap between Ahola, Cervantes and Simone Albergoni for the E1 crown.
The Aubert vs Salminen battle was developing into a great one before Juha DNFed day one of the GP of Spain. Now it’ll be even better. Juha knows he has to win, win, win if he is to keep his hopes of an eighth world title alive which will bring out the very best in the KTM-mounted Finn.
The only overseas rider that’ll really know what to expect from the Hafren Dirt Bike Club-organised event having won the club’s BEC round last year, Juha will also know that at the end of the event if he’s more than a handful of points behind Aubert in the E2 title chase his chances of the title will be all but over. Juha will fight harder to win the GP of Wales than almost any rider. His performances are not to be missed.
Aubert on the other hand knows that he must make the most of the points advantage he now has. Pushing Juha harder on occasions this season than any other rider has during Salminen’s long and illustrious career, Johnny is hungry for his first world title. He too will want to win in Wales before heading to his home GP the following weekend.
But if watching Salminen and Aubert duel it out over two days isn’t enough of a reason to travel to Llanidloes then consider this – David Knight will also be competing in the Enduro 2 class. Planning on making a one-off WEC outing during his US GNCC summer break, Knight is under no pressure whatsoever to do anything other than enjoy himself. Undoubtedly a little enduro rusty having not raced in the world championship for one-and-a-half years, Knight will nevertheless be out to show that his speed and enthusiasm for enduro is everything it was before he started applying his trade in the States. One thing’s for certain – David won’t simply be competing to make up the numbers.
Then there’s the battle to be king of the E1 class. With the fight between Ahola and Cervantes at the recent GP of Spain one of the closest ever seen in the WEC the nearness of competition in the E1 class - something that’s been missing from the WEC’s smallest capacity class for some time - is ensuring that the drama that fills this year’s series isn’t restricted to just E2.
With Ahola proving that he can ride a 250cc four-stroke as well as he rode a 450 last season, with Albergoni now believing in his ability to win races and with Cervantes as fast as ever, the E1 class is turning into a true battle royal. Think you’ve seen 100 per cent commitment? Not until you’ve seen Mika and Ivan pushing each other to the absolute limit you haven’t.
The fact that this year will see the first ever GP of Wales is surely reason enough not to miss the event that will stand head and shoulders above all other British enduro events this year and most likely for many years to come. When you throw into the mix the titanic battle between Salminen and Aubert for the E2 world title, add a handful of homegrown stars - including Knighter - all wanting to achieve the very best they can on home soil, well, if you’re an enduro fan you’d be a fool to be anywhere else but mid Wales on the third weekend of July…