David Knight – ’06 Enduro 3 World Champion
KTM Enduro Factory Team Farioli rider David Knight has become the first rider to claim a World Enduro Championship title in ’06 after lifting the Enduro 3 world crown at the penultimate round of the ’06 series, the GP of Slovakia. Continuing his perfect season in the E3 class Knight claimed his 13th and 14th day wins in Slovakia to net his second consecutive E3 championship. Winning in style Knighter topped each of the event’s 19 special tests in the E3 class and placed as the event’s overall fastest rider on day two.
Expected and expecting to win on day one David topped the first day by just over one minute. With conditions dry and the three special tests relatively easy the Manxman was unable to open up as big an advantage as he had at previous rounds of the ’06 WEC series but none the less maintained his 100 per cent E3 class win record finishing ahead of Frenchman Seb Guillaume and team-mate Marko Tarkkala. Having topped each of the nine tests on day one all David had to do on day two was keep his factory KTM upright and finish the day.
With day two starting foggy Knight opened up a comfortable early lead needing then simply to remain mistake free to claim his second Enduro 3 world championship title. Trying not to push too hard and risk crashing David came close to a major fall in the first enduro test of day two but yet still managed to improve considerably on his best time from day one. Not trying too hard, and seemingly not worried about topping the overall classification, Knighter proved un-beatable and ended the day over two minutes ahead of his nearest rival in the E3 class and as the ’06 Enduro 3 World Champion.
David’s next competition will be the fourth round of the ’06 British Enduro Championship before he heads to France on September 23-24 for the eighth and final round of the ’06 World Enduro Championship.
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“The special tests weren’t so technical on day one so it was hard to open up a big gap over the other riders in my class. By the end of the day I had opened up a bit of an advantage but it was difficult knowing how hard to push. I didn’t make any mistakes and enjoyed the day.
“It was even harder knowing how hard to push on day two. I managed to open up a pretty good gap after the first lap, which meant I could take things a bit easier after that. The enduro and extreme tests got really rough, which suited me but I had a big moment on the first enduro test, which scared me. Winning the day outright on the same day that I won the world championship is a nice bonus. I want to win every day of the championship this year so although the E3 title is now mine I want to leave the WEC on a high by winning on both days in France.”
Results – World Enduro Championship 2006 Round 7 – day 1
Enduro 3 class
1. David Knight (KTM Enduro Factory Team Farioli) 41:25.42; 2. Seb Guillaume (Gas Gas) 42:32.14; 3. Marko Tarkkala (KTM) 42:39.09; 4. Bjorne Carlsson (Husaberg) 43:09.78; 5. Marcus Kehr (KTM) 44:23.37; 6. Alessio Paoli (TM) 44:29.15; 7. Alessandro Zanni (Aprilia) 44:56.59; 8. Vita Kuklik (KTM) 44:58.61; 9. Daniel Persson (Husaberg) 45:18.24; 10. Michal Rudolf (KTM) 45:30.64; 11. Laurent Bouffioux (Aprilia) 46:16.81; 12. Tobias Auerswald (Husqvarna) 49:15.35; 13. Radek Macura (Beta) 51:16.62; 14. Paolo Bernardi (Honda) 1.14:13.95
Results – World Enduro Championship 2006 Round 7 – day 2
Enduro 3 class
1. David Knight (KTM Enduro Factory team Farioli) 48:03.48; 2. Marko Tarkkala (KTM) 50:21.21; 3. Seb Guillaume (Gas Gas) 50:26.26; 4. Bjorne Carlsson (Husaberg) 51:09.04; 5. Marcus Kehr (KTM) 51:19.30; 6. Alessandro Zanni (Aprilia) 51:42.55; 7. Vita Kuklik (KTM) 51:48.41; 8. Alessio Paoli (TM) 52:05.26; 9. Daniel Persson (Husaberg) 52:47.08; 10. Michal Rudolf (KTM) 53:04.40; 11. Laurent Bouffioux (Aprilia) 55:37.29; 12. Tobias Auerswald (Husqvarna) 58:22.16; 13. Radek Macura (Beta) 58:56.00
