Knighter wins Indoor Enduro World Cup round two in Munich
Red Bull KTM Off Road Race Team rider David Knight has put the disappointment of failing to finish this year’s Red Bull Last Man Standing event in Texas through illness behind him having topped the second round of the ’07 FIM Indoor Enduro World Cup staged in Munich. Claiming two wins and a runner-up result at the championship’s opening event in Barcelona two weeks ago, Knight claimed the exact same result in Munich to take his second IEWC victory and importantly extend his lead in the championship standings. Finishing behind David in Munich was his team-mate Taddy Blazusiak and Finn Mika Ahola.
Not knowing how he would feel competing again just one week after breathing problems saw him retire from the LMS event, Knight claimed the fastest time during the events timed qualifying sessions and from there never looked back. Comfortably winning both of his qualifying races David took to the start of the first of the three finals as favourite to win and despite a less than perfect start did just that. Forced to work his way passed several riders during the opening lap once out front David opened up a commanding lead and claimed a deserved win as many of his closest rivals struggled with certain sections of the demanding Munch track.
Race two was a similar one for Knight. Failing to repeat the lightning fast starts that saw him hole-shot nearly every race he was in during the Barcelona championship opener, David again worked his way forward and having positioned himself at the front of the field ensured he did exactly what he needed to do to claim his second consecutive win of the night. Knowing that he didn’t need to win the third and final race David opted for a safe second in race three as team-mate Blazusiak claimed the win. Happy to sit behind his team-mate David fought off the advances of Mika Ahola to claim second and in doing so earned himself the overall win as well as moving further ahead in the Indoor Enduro World Cup series standings.
David Knight: “It’s been a great evening. I won my heats easy enough and then I won the first of the three finals comfortably, which set me up well for the night. It was always my plan to get the hard work done early on and then I would be able to take it a bit easier towards the end of the night. Although I won the first race I didn’t get a great start but I was pretty aggressive early on and made some good passes to move into the lead quite quickly. I pulled away a bit then and held a good gap over Taddy.
“The second race was pretty much the same really. I worked my way to the front, which took the pressure off me in the third final. I knew that if I could win the first two then I’d win the overall with a half decent result in the last race.
“I took it carefully off the start and then wasn’t as aggressive in the opening laps as I was in the other finals. I worked my way up to second and then just held my position. Mika Ahola was riding well so I had to keep a pretty decent pace going.
“I got the same result as I did in Barcelona and have taken the same championship points, which is great. I have a bit of a lead in the championship with just the last round in Genoa to go. I felt like I rode pretty good all evening.
“The track was really good, especially when you consider it’s the first time they’ve built an indoor enduro track in Munich.
“It’s important to me to try and win this Indoor Enduro World Cup. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to do all the rounds next year so to win this championship, as well as having won the Endurocross series, would be great.”
Results – ’07 FIM Indoor Enduro World Cup, Rnd 2, Munich, Germany
1. David Knight (Red Bull KTM Off Road Race Team) 42 points
2. Taddy Blazusiak (KTM) 39
3. Mika Ahola (Honda) 27
4. Markus Kehr (KTM) 26
5. Xavi Galindo (KTM) 17
6. Gregory Eyries (Yamaha) 15
7. Thomas Oldrati (KTM) 14
8. Tom Sagar (KTM) 11
9. Simone Albergoni (Yamaha) 8
10. Andreas Lettenbichler (BMW) 5
11. Johnny Aubert (Yamaha) 3
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