KTM Offroad News

Salminen retains his perfect score card in Italy

Eight rounds into the 16-round Enduro 1 world championship John Salminen of the KTM Factor Team has a perfect score card ? 200 points from eight consecutive victories. It doesn’t get any better than that.

The Finnish supremo’s two clear victories this weekend in the GP Leovince of Italy give him a stranglehold on the championship standings as he continues to underline his total dominance in the E1 class. Half way through the season its difficult to imagine that another rider can close the gap on the outstanding Finnish rider who returned this season from the USA to compete again in the world championship circuit.

Salminen in fact lost about 20 seconds at the start of Sunday’s race but he was able to make it up and eventually won by around 40 seconds, team boss Fabio Farioli reported.

Salminen’s Italian teammate in the class, Alessandro Belometti also fulfilled the wishes of team boss Fabio Farioli by taking third place, thus securing the factory team five of six podiums in all three classes on Sunday.

Crowds came out in large numbers to watch the riders compete over tough mountainous terrain but rain that fell in the morning cleared by the afternoon.

Results
1. Juha Salminen, Finland, KTM, tests 55:42.72
2. Simone Albergoni, Italy, Yamaha, 56:23.52
3. Alessandro Belometti, Italy, KTM, 57:30.01
4. Maurizio Micheluz, Italy, Yamaha, 57:40.12
5. Marc Germain, France, Yamaha 57:48.83

Salminen continues to fly high in Italy
Belometti enrout to podium in Italy
27.05.2007
Aro Samuli second again in Italy in E2
Aro Samuli would up a good weekend in the Italian province of Lombardy when on Sunday he succeeded in repeating his second place finish from day one of the GP Leovince of Italy.
Aro of Finland, a key rider in the KTM Enduro Factory Team, may have again had to concede victory to his rival countryman Mika Ahola but his consistency this weekend vaults him into second place on the championship standings and narrows the gap between him and the leader.
Samuli put in a solid day’s racing scoring very well in the last tests of the day and putting in some excellent speeds over the rocky terrain of the area.

‘The riders did a great job today, ‘team boss Fabian Farioli said at the close of the race. Farioli had expressed a wish that ll of his riders would be on the podium this weekend and on Sunday five of the six KTM Enduro Team in the three classes e1, E2 and E3 made his wish come true.

The second E2 factory ride in the KTM Enduro Team, young Frenchman Fabien Planet again performed consistently following his fourth palce from Saturday with a fifth on Sunday.

Results
1. Mika Ahola, Finland, Honda, Tests 54:44.82
2. Samuli Aro, Finland, KTM, 56:06.06
3. Stefan Merriman, Australia, Aprilia, 56:08.72
4. Andrea Belotti, Italy, KTM, 56:41. 13
5. Fabien Planet, France, KTM, 56 :59.53

Aro continues his bid for the E2 title
Good action from Fabien Planet
27.05.2007
Cervantes exacts E3 revenge on Sunday in Italy
The battle of attrition between KTM Enduro Factory Team riders Marko Tarkkala and Ivan Cervantes ended in a draw on Sunday when Cervantes of Spain snatched victory from his Finnish teammate rival to exact revenge for the result the previous day.
The two KTM factory riders are locked in battle for dominance in the big bike class and both showed their style in the two days just completed at the GP of Leovince in Italy.

Cervantes adds Sunday’s victory to his brilliantly dominant performance on the Iberian peninsular where he won all four races in Spain and Portugal.

Tarkkala got the edge on Cervantes on Saturday but Sunday’s result only indicates there is the narrowest of margins between the two riders and guarantees that the remainder of the rounds in the championship will be a succession of nail biters.

The race was a test of endurance for the riders, with challenging terrain in the Italian countryside, but the weather stayed clear in the afternoon and they were well supported by an enthusiastic and large crowd of Italian fans.

Results
1. Ivan Cervantes, Spain, KTM, 52:39.44
2. Marko Tarkkala, Finland, KTM Tests 52:05.18
3. Alessandro Botturi, Italy, Honda, 58:13,24
4. Vita Kuklik, Czech Republic, 58:13.29

Cervantes gets the edge on Sunday
Stones no problem for Tarkkala
27.05.2007
Philippaerts denied podium in Japan; crash for Barragan
After an excellent start in the first MX1 race on the Sugoland motocross circuit north of Tokyo where KTM Red Bull factory riders Jonathan Barragan and David Philippaerts were second and fourth respectively, the MX1 riders were unable to convert the resul
The Italian Philippaerts managed sixth in race two for an eventual overall fourth position, whereas the Spaniard Barragan crashed several times and when he was among one of a number of riders who came unstuck going over the tabletop he decided to retire from race two.

The Spaniard’s misfortune in Japan means the two riders virtually exchange places on the standings table with Philippaerts moving from seventh to fifth place and Barragan dropping from sixth position after Germany last weekend down to seventh place.

Meanwhile, KTM’s newest recruit to the factory rider status, German Max Nagl was overall twelfth after finishing at fifteenth in race one and twelfth race two. It was announced in Germany last weekend that the 19-year-old motocross talent, until now a KTM factory supported rider, had been signed as a fully fledged factory rider.

Results
1. Billy Mackenzie, Britain, Kawasaki
2. Mike Brown, USA, Honda
3. Joshua Coppins, New Zealand, Yamaha
4. David Philippaerts, Italy, KTM
5. Steve Ramon, Belgium, Suzuki
10. Jonathan Barragan, Spain, KTM
12. Max Nagl, Germany, KTM

Barragan exits after crash
Max Nagl now a fully fledged KTM factory rider
27.05.2007
Third place for KTM’s Searle in Sugo
Tommy Searle, the most junior rider in he KTM Red Bull Racing Team’s MX2 factory team line-up continued to mess with the big guys on Sunday, scoring a third place in the world championships Grand Prix in Sugo Japan at the weekend.
Searle’s 4-3 result in the two individual races were enough to secure him the podium, while his more senior team-mate, Tyla Rattray of South Africa ended the day in fourth overall with a creditable 2-5 result. In a day of competition characterized by crashes, Rattray also went down during the second race and although he injured his hand had no trouble finishing the race.

Rattray, a pre-season favourite for the title therefore missed out on his wish to be on the podium every race in a scramble bid for the title. Meanwhile Antonio Cairoli, the dominant Italian racer in the class, had a 3-1 result to amass even more of a lead in the standings.

Rattray is now third and Searle in fourth place in the standings, but there is no ignoring that the powerful Cairoli whose third place in Japan was his worse result so far this season, now has a commanding lead.

After their brief sojourn at the Japanese motocross facility, the team now returns to Europe for the next event in France.

Results
1. Christophe Pourcel, France, Kawasaki
2. Antonio Cairoli, Italy, Yamaha
3. Tommy Searle, Britain, KTM
4. Tyla Rattray, South Africa, KTM
5. Gareth Swanepoel, South Africa, Kawasaki