McConnell Stapleton
RESULTS SERVICE
’06 World Enduro Championship – round 2: Guimaraes, Portugal 6-7/5/2006
Electraction TM UK riders Jake Stapleton and Euan McConnell ended the second round of the ’06 World Enduro Championship, the GP of Portugal, with a mixed bag of results with Stapleton placing in fourth and second positions in the Enduro Junior class while McConnell failed to finish day one due to an unusual mechanical problem before placing in 11th in the Enduro 2 class on day two.
With both riders having made promising starts to their ’06 WEC campaigns at the series opening winter enduro, in Portugal they were faced with very different conditions as dry, dusty tracks replaced the snow covered trails of Sweden. With each of the three laps of the Portuguese event featuring a fast, flowing enduro tests, a technical motocross test and an exceptionally difficult extreme test both riders found the event tough.
Determined to make up ground on Swede Joakim Ljunggren who topped the Enduro Junior class on both days at the WEC opener in Sweden, Jake Stapleton saw his day one results spoiled by a disastrous second run through the event’s extreme test. Having performed well on the motocross and enduro tests, despite not feeling 100 per cent settled in the lose and dusty conditions, Jake found himself stuck behind two riders on the extreme test on lap two, which cost him over 40 seconds. Had it not been for his problem on the extreme test Jake would have been in contention for the EJ class win on day one.
On day two Jake, still not feeling completely at home on the Portuguese terrain, continued to struggle a little on the extreme test but performed consistently to claim a well deserved runner-up position. Placing right behind Ljunggren on most of the second day’s special test, Jake finished just 20 seconds adrift of the Swede and five seconds ahead of day one winner Oriol Mena.
For Euan McConnell day one of the GP of Portugal ended in disappointment when his bike stopped en route to the end-of-day service area. Having performed well on some tests, and crashed on others, Euan’s bike came to a sudden stop just a few miles from the end of the event after a piece of the carburettor slide broke off and was swallowed by the engine.
With a new engine fitted for day two Euan started well placing in fifth position on the opening enduro test. Also performing well on the motocross test Euan found the technical extreme test challenging and placed in 13th in class on both of the two timed runs. Clearly enjoying the faster, flowing enduro test McConnell again performed well and on the third lap repeated his fifth place performance, which saw him place in 11th in the E2 class.
Jake currently sits in third position in the Enduro Junior world championship standings 19 points behind class leader Joakim Ljunggren from Sweden. Euan lies in 14th position in the Enduro 2 class.
Jake Stapleton: “I guess day one didn’t go too badly I just had some really bad extreme test, which spoiled my result. On the first lap I made a mistake and lost a bit of time but on the second lap I lost 40 second through no fault of my own because I got stuck behind some riders. That kind of ruined the whole day for me. I wasn’t great on the extreme test anyway but it’s just really frustrating when you get held up behind other riders, especially on tests where it affects your result. I had a few crashes on the trails as well, which derailed me a little bit.
“I struggled a bit on the extreme test on day two as well as on day one, but not as much as on Saturday. I didn’t have a great feeling with my bike on day two either but I kept pushing and put in some pretty good times. The tests got really rough and it was difficult not to make any mistakes. My result was a lot better than on day one so I’m happy with that but I know that I still could have ridden better. I need to work at my extreme test riding.”
Euan McConnell: “Not finishing day one was a big disappointment. I’d had a few crashes during the day but I was feeling really good on the bike and was really enjoying my riding. Without warning the bike stopped on the way back to the work area at the end of the day. It turned out that the slide in the carb had somehow broken and got sucked into the engine.
“Because we hadn’t had much time to fit a new engine for day two I was a bit concerned about the bike, but it worked perfectly. I stalled it on the extreme test and it took me about six kicks to get the bike started again, which obviously cost me time. The enduro tests were great, they were really fast and flowing and I was really having a go. I stalled it on the enduro test on the second lap but apart from that I had a good day. It was an enjoyable event but also a difficult one. The dust, rocks, rough tests and challenging test certainly made it a tiring event.”
Results – day one
Enduro 2 class
1. Stefan Merriman (Yamaha) 37:02.49; 2. Mika Ahola (Honda) 37:21.55; 3. Samuli Aro (KTM) 37:34.67; 4. Johnny Aubert (Yamaha) 37:47.05; 5. Paul Edmondson (Honda) 38:10.50; 6. Fabien Planet (KTM) 38:32.60; 7. Xavier Galindo (KTM) 38:33.41; 8. Cristobal Guerrero (Gas Gas) 38:36.44; 9. Emmanuel Albepart (Honda) 39:13.66; 10. Andrea Beconi (Beta) 39:16.98; 11. Alessandro Botturi (Aprilia) 39:44.24; 12. Andrea Belotti (KTM) 39:46.55; 13. Fabrizio Dini (Yamaha) 39:51.23; 14. Andreas Toresson (Suzuki) 39:56.70; 15. Jordan Curvalle (Kawasaki) 40:09.68; 16. Nicolas Paganon (Husqvarna) 40:38.68; 17. Jean-Etienne Memmi (Sherco) 40:41.14; 18. Juan Pedrero (Sherco) 40:51.12; 19. Valtteri Salonen (Husaberg) 41:19.67; 20. Giuseppe Canova (Husqvarna) 41:26:19
Enduro Junior class
1. Oriol Mena (Gas Gas) 39:16.20; 2. Joakim Ljunggren (Husaberg) 39:42.81; 3. Michal Szuster (Yamaha) 39:50.54; 4. Jake Stapleton (Electraction TM) 40:25.57; 5. Lucas Puerto (KTM) 41:40.45; 6. Marc Bourgeois (Husqvarna) 41:41.37; 7. Jeremy Joly (Sherco) 41:44.29; 8. Bossi Yannick (Husqvarna) 41:45.65; 9. Si Wakely (Honda) 42:48.84; 10. Ricard Wressel (Husaberg) 42:57.93; 11. Jean Charles Gilbert (Kawasaki) 43:09.32; 12. Carlos Andreu (KTM) 43:20.63; 13. Boria Nieto (KTM) 43:47.32; 14. Benoit Fortunato (Honda) 44:31.53; 15. Goncalo Reis (KTM) 44:56.16; 16. Roger Sanllehi (KTM) 47:19.12; 17. Armande Monleon (KTM) 44:34.04; 18. Lorenzo Santolini (KTM) 47:53.06; 19. Sebastian Adielsson (Honda) 48:02.37; 20. Robert Kapajcik (Yamaha) 50:23.02
Results – day two
Enduro 2
1. Johnny Aubert (Yamaha) 36:37.55; 2. Mika Ahola (Honda) 37:00.79; 3. Stefan Merriman (Yamaha) 37:31.98; 4. Samuli Aro (KTM) 37:48.92; 5. Cristobal Guerrero (Gas Gas) 38:22.91; 6. Paul Edmondson (Honda) 38:37.72; 7. Fabien Planet (KTM) 38:40.32; 8. Fabrizio Dini (Yamaha) 38:56.14; 9. Andrea Beconi (Beta) 39:02.52; 10. Xavier Galindo (KTM) 39:04.90; 11. Euan McConnell (Electraction TM) 39:07.43; 12. Andrea Belotti (KTM) 39:08.62; 13. Emmanuel Albepart (Honda) 39:47.06; 14. Alessandro Botturi (Aprilia) 39:54.45; 15. Nicolas Paganon (Husqvarna) 39:55.11; 16. Valtteri Salonen (Husaberg) 40:01.39; 17. Jean Etienne Memmi (Sherco) 41:10.88; 18. Juan Pedrero (Sherco) 41:26.73; 19. Federico Mancinelli (Beta) 41:38.64; 20. Giuseppe Canova (Husqvarna) 41:47.76
Enduro Junior class
1. Joakim Ljunggren (Husaberg) 39:17.18; 2. Jake Stapleton (Electraction TM) 39:37.65; 3. Oriol Mena (Gas Gas) 39:43.09; 4. Michal Szuster (Yamaha) 39:47.94; 5. Marc Bourgeois (Husqvarna) 40:21.44; 6. Si Wakely (Honda) 40:52.88; 7. Lucas Puerto (KTM) 40:56.76; 8. Jeremy Joly (Sherco) 41:05.57; 9. Yannick Bossi (Husqvarna) 41:20.19; 10. Jean Charles Gilbert (Kawasaki) 41:22.42; 11. Robert Kapajcik (Yamaha) 41:27.94; 12. Lorenzo Santolino (KTM) 41:36.31; 13. Armande Monleon (KTM) 42:33.41; 14. Benoit Fortunato (Honda) 42:35.83; 15. Ricard Wressel (Husaberg) 42:50.43; 16. Jakub Horak (KTM) 43:00.85; 17. Benoit Thibal (Gas Gas) 43:00.92; 18. Oscar Balletti (Honda) 43:13.41; 19. Gustavo Gaudencio (Husqvarna) 43:15.69; 20. Sylvain Lebrun (Husqvarna) 43:38.30
Issued for and on behalf of the Electraction TM UK by Jonty Edmunds. Any questions or comments to be directed to either jonty.edmunds@attglobal.net or nick@electraction.ie
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