KTM Enduro factory riders head west to the USA & Canada for rounds 5 and 6 of the Enduro World Championship fit and in true KTM "Ready to Race" style to test themselves against a landscape that should especially suit the team's Finnish contingent.
Accustomed to riding in green forested areas of their homeland, Juha Salminen (E1), Samuli Aro (E2) and Marko Tarkkala (E3) will all be planning to put in top results in the four separate races that make up the North American contingent of the 2007 World Championship.
Starting first in Hancock, New York State on a new 48 km track that will be circumnavigated four times on Saturday and on Sunday, riders will be hoping to avoid the heavy rain and flooding that dampened the 2006 USA competition, the first year it had been in the international calendar.
The masterly Juha Salminen, who has already written his name on the bid for the E1 title in 2007, so far has a perfect score of 200 points from eight races. Fresh from two comfortable victories in the British championships last weekend, Salminen is an absolute favourite for the North American races. He did not compete last year in Hancock but his experience racing on the American circuit and his unparalleled skill on Enduro machines will make him definitely the one to beat.
Italian Alessandro Belometti, Salminen's team-mate in the E1 Enduro Factory Team, will be looking to amass more championship points to move into contention for an end of season podium place. He is currently fourth, just two tantalizing points behind third placed Cristobal Guerrero at the half way point of the season.
In E2, KTM's Samuli Aro may also benefit from conditions and terrain similar to his homeland Finland but so will his arch rival and countryman Mika Ahola. Aro trails standings leader Ahola by 16 points, a deficit he will be looking to reduce this weekend in what will surely be a battle of attrition out on the Enduro track.
The two Finns shared honours in Hancock last year in the inaugural world championships series competition in the USA and will give no ground in their bid for supremacy. Aro's team-mate in E2 is Frenchman Fabien Planet is currently fourth in the season's standings and is a podium contender for the end of the season.
The E3 championship is also a cliff hanger between the top two riders, both from the KTM Factory Team: Ivan Cervantes of Spain and Marko Tarkkala of Finland. Both have been on the podium in all eight races so far this season. The conditions should suit Tarkkala but Cervantes, who has just signed with KTM for another three years, is confident and will be looking to widen the gap and advance his chances of another world title.
After the event in Hancock, teams will move north of the border into Ontario, Canada for the second round of the North American series, where they will experience similar terrain and conditions the following weekend on the 45 km circuit in the race being held 230km from the capital Toronto.
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