2006 Trial World Championship Round 10
Hawkstone Park, United Kingdom 30/7/2006 - Attendance:
8,000
Three Consecutive Victories with a Slim Margin
After three weeks of interval, IWC returned in action as the round
ten took place at Hawkstone Park in UK. Locating at the heart of UK,
Hawkstone Park - the world's famous motocross course - has many bedrocks
around the course providing attractive fields for trial competition.
The weather had been fine prior to the event, but it started to rain
the night before the competition took place. Surface of the sections
was covered thickly with the dust when the competitors arrived at the
venue, and it was very difficult to get efficient traction. Then the
rain fell washing all the dust away from the surface. It didn't help
too much to ease the severity though, because the wet surfaces became
very slippery too. Also, it was mixed weather all day on Sunday, giving
the riders a very hard time to adjust their riding with the condition
changing all the time.
At the previous round in Poland, Fujinami tried to concentrated on
his riding when he was the first starter and didn't have time to observe
the other riders. In UK, although he was the final rider to start and
had chance to set his game plan by watching how the other doing, he
tried to concentrate on his riding, and didn't worry much about the
other riders.
One of the early indications to tell the outcome of the round was
the section three at the Lap1. While Lampkin and Raga both dropping
five points, Fuji and Cabestany managed to stay away from the big problem;
Fuji dabbed one point and Cabestany marked clean. When Fuji marked
clean at the section eight - only rider to do so, Fuji felt he might
have a chance to extend his winning streak, which started from the
Italian round.
When all the riders were about to complete the first nine sections,
torrential rain struck the area. It didn't last too long, and within
a half an hour later, the sun came out and began to dry out the wet
surface again. They had occasional rain throughout the day, and it
kept the competitors busy adjusting their riding to changes in condition
of the surface.
Fuji was doing fine to lead the Lap1, but he gave the top spot to
Cabestany when dropping five at the section ten. A section later, Cabestany
in turn dropped five points to allow Fuji re-capturing the spot though.
Fuji completed the lap by marking clean at the section fifteen, but
Cabestany finished with a five-point error. That allowed Fuji building
five points advantage over Cabestany. As all the riders completed the
Lap1, Fuji was first with fourteen points, followed by Cabestany with
nineteen, Raga with twenty-one, Bou with twenty-six, and Lampkin with
thirty points. It looked like then it was going to be three men's battle
for the victory in UK for the coming lap, between Fuji, Cabestany and
Raga.
Like in Poland, although Fuji was in a position to be able to observe
the other riders in UK, he was not aware of how his rivals' doing nor
point situation, and he focused on his riding. At the Lap2 however,
Fuji started to miss the beat a little. He made full point errors at
the section three, five and eight. Cabestany also fived at the section
three and five, but he scored clean at the section eight to level the
score with Fuji. Raga came up strong at the Lap2, and he also climbed
up in tie with Fuji and Cabestany as three finished the section eight.
Having frequent fives made Fuji worry how he stood in the score-board
at the Lap2. He asked Mr.Cirera about the point situation, but the
team boss told Fuji not to worry about the point and continue to focus
on trying to mark cleans. The advice woke Fuji up and he was able to
regain his ride for the rest of the lap. Fuji had two points error
at the section eleven but he marked consecutive cleans at the end of
the lap - from twelve to fifteen - to finish the lap with eighteen
points. As two laps of competition was over, Fuji finished with thirty-two
points, where Cabestany finished two points behind with thirty-four
points. Raga had thirty-three points to finish a position better than
Cabestany.
After Mr.Cirera's advice particularly, Fuji didn't think about the
point situation, so he was very thrilled to fiind out taking the victory
that day. Having Raga finishing second, Fuji crawled back three point
closer to the Spaniard, and the championship gap stands now twelve
points with two rounds remaining. The mission, once again, is very
clear for Fuji, which is to try to win at each round. He still needs
Raga finishing down in order to take the championship, but who knows.
Quote from Fujigas:
World Championship 2006 |
R10 |
Pos. |
rider |
Make |
L1+L2+TO |
Pts |
CL |
1. |
Takahisa Fujinami |
Montesa |
14+18+0 |
32 |
18 |
2. |
Adam Raga |
Gas Gas |
21+12+0 |
33 |
18 |
3. |
Albert Cabestany |
Sherco |
19+15+0 |
34 |
17 |
4. |
Dougie Lampkin |
Montesa |
30+19+0 |
49 |
12 |
5. |
Toni Bou |
Beta |
26+25+0 |
51 |
12 |
6. |
Marc Freixa |
Beta |
30+31+1 |
62 |
10 |
7. |
Jeroni Fajardo |
Gas Gas |
32+33+0 |
65 |
12 |
8. |
Tadeusz Blazusiak |
Scorpa |
41+46+0 |
87 |
6 |
L1: Lap1 L2: Lap2 TO:
Time Over Pts: Penalty Point CL:Clean |
Point Standing |
1. |
Adam Raga |
Gas Gas |
166 |
2. |
Takahisa Fujinami |
Montesa |
154 |
3. |
Dougie Lampkin |
Montesa |
146 |
4. |
Albert Cabestany |
Sherco |
140 |
5. |
Toni Bou |
Beta |
135 |
6. |
Jeroni Fajardo |
Gas Gas |
109 |
|