2005 World Trial Championship Round 4
4-5/6/2005 Duluth, U.S.A.
Fujinami climbed up to the top with Overall Victory
Day 1 - Saturday, June 4th
Two weeks after round 3 in Motegi, where Fujinami took his first victory
of the season and brought himself within a reach of championship leader
Cabestany, he climbed up to the top of the series by making the overall
victory in the US round. The battle took place at the resort area in
Minnesota under extreme condition with heavy rain and wild water. There
was a terrifying moment for Fuji along the way, but he managed to hold
on in the competition physically and mentally so demanding to take
the victory number 2.
Lampkin had a plan in Duluth, which was to wait and observe all the
other riders to do their attack. He had a risk of not finishing in
time, and indeed he had one-minute time penalty on the lap1, but he
collected valuable lessons from rivals' mistakes to finish with the
least penalty points. Fuji felt good on Saturday, but he had some regrettable
errors to finish the lap 1 with 9 points behind Lampkin to finish 2nd.
As it has been Fuji's style to fight back at the later lap, he came
back strong on the lap 2 to finish with 38 points - the best score
of the lap. He kept putting a pressure on Lampkin on the lap, but he
made a mistake at the section 14, where supposed to be relatively easy
hazard for him. He lost the chance for the victory then, to finish
the lap 2nd - 4 points behind the winner Lampkin.
It was another 1-2 finish for Montesa 4-stroke. Bow finished 3rd,
and Raga had another 4th - 3 consecutive 4th for him. Cabestany, who
had been standing on the podium every rounds in 2005 season had a difficult
day to finish 6th. At the result, Lampkin climbed up to the top of
the standings. Fuji was 3 points behind the teammate, sharing the 3rd
place with Raga, and 1 point down from the 2nd place Cabestany. The
championship battle became one of the fiercest as there were only 3
points separation for the top 4 riders.
Day 2 - Sunday, June 5th
The competition on Sunday started under the sunshine. Fuji rode well
and finished 1st on the lap 1 with 3 points margin from Cabestany.
Fierce battle continued and there were five riders finishing the lap
in 7 points separation.
When Fuji arrived at the section 5 on the lap 2, torrential rain started
to fall. At Duluth, the sections 3 to 11 were water-based hazards.
The level of water in the morning was high due to overnight rain, and
they were already giving hard time for the competitor. But when the
rain started, water level rapidly rose, and some of the areas flooded
more or less. Fuji managed to arrive at the section 9, and he watched
Bow pushing the bike deep in water to take five. Fuji started next,
and he reached at the middle of the section to begin crossing the river.
As he put his bike into the river, instantly the wild water swept him.
Not only taking five, he was in danger of losing his bike. Most of
all, Fuji's life was in danger! All the people nearby the scene regardless
of the color of the uniform rushed into the water and rescued Fuji
and his bike.
Fuji struggled in water and being half drown, but he held onto the
bike and didn't forget to stop the motor. His nimble move saved the
motor from suffering serious damage by sucking water, but because the
bike was totally submerged, extensive service was required before Fuji
started again. Not only Fuji's mechanics, but also all the staff of
Montesa got together to support this emergency service. The sections
9 to 11 were cancelled shortly after.
Watching such dedication of the team, Fuji made a full recovery from
the incident. When he returned to the competition, he marked three
consecutive cleans from the section 12 to 14. He had only one penalty
point after his return to take the second victory of the season. Cabestany,
who was leading the day at the section 8, dabbed 8 points in the last
4 sections to finish 4 points behind Fuji. Hadn't have such remarkable
performance at the end of the lap, Fuji would have missed the victory
of the day.
So, when the two days competition was over, Fuji climbed up to the
top of the standings with 2-point gap against Lampkin and Cabestany.
Raga follows in 4th with 7 points down from the leader. Fuji finally
came back to the place where the world champion supposed to be at.
The series will move to the European rounds, and the championship battle
is expected to be boiling up.
Quote from Fujigas:
World Championship 2005
Duluth |
Saturday |
|
rider |
|
L1 |
L2 |
TO |
Pts |
CL |
1 |
Dougie Lampkin |
Montesa |
29 |
42 |
1 |
72 |
8 |
2 |
Takahisa Fujinami |
Honda |
38 |
38 |
0 |
76 |
5 |
3 |
Toni Bou |
Beta |
41 |
47 |
0 |
88 |
6 |
4 |
Adam Raga |
Gas Gas |
43 |
45 |
0 |
88 |
3 |
5 |
Graham Jarvis |
Sherco |
41 |
52 |
0 |
93 |
1 |
6 |
Albert Cabestany |
Sherco |
41 |
53 |
3 |
97 |
4 |
7 |
Marc Freixa |
Montesa |
47 |
53 |
3 |
103 |
1 |
8 |
Kenichi Kuroyama |
Beta |
52 |
60 |
0 |
112 |
1 |
9 |
Blazusiak Tadeusz |
Gas Gas |
60 |
57 |
0 |
117 |
2 |
10 |
Jordi Pascuet |
Gas Gas |
57 |
65 |
0 |
122 |
0 |
11 |
Sam Connor |
Sherco |
61 |
64 |
0 |
125 |
1 |
12 |
Fumitaka Nozaki |
Scorpa |
63 |
69 |
0 |
132 |
0 |
13 |
Jose-Maria Juan |
Montesa |
75 |
69 |
0 |
144 |
0 |
14 |
Chris Florin |
Gas Gas |
73 |
73 |
0 |
146 |
0 |
15 |
Bruce Le Riche |
Sherco |
75 |
73 |
1 |
149 |
0 |
L1: Lap1 L2: Lap2 TO:
Time Over Pts: Penalty Point CL:Clean |
Sunday |
|
rider |
|
L1 |
L2 |
TO |
Pts |
CL |
1 |
Takahisa Fujinami |
Honda |
26 |
18 |
0 |
44 |
11 |
2 |
Albert Cabestany |
Sherco |
29 |
20 |
0 |
49 |
8 |
3 |
Dougie Lampkin |
Montesa |
33 |
15 |
5 |
53 |
11 |
4 |
Adam Raga |
Gas Gas |
32 |
21 |
0 |
53 |
6 |
5 |
Graham Jarvis |
Sherco |
33 |
27 |
0 |
60 |
3 |
6 |
Marc Freixa |
Montesa |
41 |
30 |
3 |
74 |
5 |
7 |
Kenichi Kuroyama |
Beta |
39 |
32 |
3 |
74 |
5 |
8 |
Toni Bou |
Beta |
48 |
27 |
0 |
75 |
4 |
9 |
Blazusiak Tadeusz |
Gas Gas |
61 |
34 |
0 |
95 |
1 |
10 |
Jordi Pascuet |
Gas Gas |
54 |
43 |
1 |
98 |
1 |
11 |
Sam Connor |
Sherco |
54 |
49 |
0 |
103 |
2 |
12 |
Fumitaka Nozaki |
Scorpa |
60 |
49 |
0 |
109 |
0 |
13 |
Jose-Maria Juan |
Montesa |
63 |
48 |
0 |
111 |
0 |
14 |
Bruce Le Riche |
Sherco |
71 |
54 |
0 |
125 |
0 |
15 |
Chris Florin |
Gas Gas |
73 |
58 |
0 |
131 |
0 |
L1: Lap1 L2: Lap2 TO:
Time Over Pts: Penalty Point CL:Clean |
Ranking |
1 |
Takahisa Fujinami |
96 |
2 |
Dougie Lampkin |
94 |
3 |
Albert Cabestany |
94 |
4 |
Adam Raga |
89 |
5 |
Marc Freixa |
70 |
6 |
Antonio Bou |
66 |
7 |
Graham Jarvis |
54 |
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