As riders breach the half way mark in the toughest Enduro competition in the world, Finland, with the help of KTM factory riders Juha Salminen and Marko Tarkkala, leads the way in the coveted World Trophy.

As the going gets tough in this gruelling six day event sometimes called the "Olympics" of Enduro motor sport, the field of more than 568 starters has now been trimmed down by about 100. This year the event is being hosted in Chile, presenting riders with a whole range of challenging terrain from the desert dunes on the Pacific coast to more mountainous areas inland.

The overall leader board is also rich in KTM riders. American Kurt Caselli, competing in the E3 class, continues to lead the way on his KTM 300, followed by Johnny Aubert (E2, France), with Salminen (E2) in overall third. Hot on their tailpipes are Tarkkala (E3) and fellow KTM Enduro Factory Team rider Alessandro Belometti of Italy (E2) in fourth and fifth place.

American Kurt Caselli onboard his KTM 300 emerged victorious on day one of the ISDE Six Days Enduro in La Serena Chile.

The gruelling annual event sometimes call the "Olympics" of Enduro motor sport tests the endurance of both man and machine over a range of challenging terrains. After the first day, the lead in the coveted World Trophy team competition went to France followed by Finland and Italy in the minor places.

Caselli (E3) completed day one with a 13.222 advantage over Frenchman Johnny Aubert (E2) with E1 world champion and KTM Enduro Factory Team rider Juha Salminen (E2) in third place overall, 13:786 behind the leader. Salminen is the defending champion. Top E1 rider on day one was Spanish rider Cristobal Guerrero.

Spaniard Fonsi Nieto and German Max Neukirchner both put the 2007 Alstare Corona Extra Suzuki GSX-R1000 though its paces during their test at Valencia in Spain with Neukirchner beating the lap record on regular race rubber.

Both riders made many changes to the positions of the bars, footpegs and levers so that they could start to get comfortable with the bike, before beginning to push hard.

The weather for the tests was generally good and both riders and the team were able to do a lot of good groundwork and gather useful information in more than 150 laps.

Nieto posted a best time of 1:35.5 and Neukirchner a 1:35.00 - which is faster than Max Biaggi's best race lap there earlier this season.

World Endurance Champions SERT came back from a crash early on to win today's final round of the World Endurance Championship in Qatar.

Team rider Vincent Philippe fell off his GSX-R1000 with Yamaha Phase One's Steve Plater on the 21st lap of the eight-hour event, putting both team riders in the pits for lengthy repairs. Philippe and team mate Mathieu Lagrive spent the next seven hours climbing through the ranks from 15th position.

At the half-way stage, the French squad had moved into third position, and then into second behind leaders Yamaha Austria as the race entered its final hour, due to the GSX-R's consistently-fast lap times, which were four-seconds quicker than the opposition.

Newly-crowned World Champions Suzuki Endurance Racing Team has set pole position for tomorrow's final round of the World Endurance Championship in Qatar. Suzuki has won the 2007 World Endurance Championship after finishing second at the Bol d'Or 24 Hour race at Magny Cours in France.

Despite two crashes - one by Vincent Phillipe and another by team mate Matthieu Lagrive - the GSX-R1-000-mounted French squad finished with a combined time of 2:03.624 after dominating every practice and qualifying session so far; and were the only team inside the two minute, three-second bracket.

Rizla Suzuki's Tom Sykes put on a superb show during his debut test with the British Superbike team at a cold and blustery Mallory Park today.

The young Yorkshire man lapped the 1.41-mile circuit consistently and worked on dropping his lap times to an impressive 56.567secs. Unfortunately the test had to be cut short due to torrential rain and high winds suddenly hitting the Leicestershire track.

"It has been really good today. It's just a shame the weather came in on us," said Sykes. "It was shaping up quite nicely. To be just half a second off the best times set by the BSB field in today's conditions was brilliant. For my first test in the UK in November I couldn't have asked for more."

This was Sykes's first opportunity to spend time with his new team and he felt comfortable from the off. He said: "I feel so at home with the team which is important to me as I like a good working atmosphere.

Day one MotoGP Valencia test, reigning 250cc World Champion Jorge Lorenzo, who will ride for the Fiat Yamaha Team in 2008, got his first taste of the YZR-M1 today as he tested with Yamaha for the first time in Valencia this afternoon. Valentino Rossi, who will partner Lorenzo next season, has returned home for further treatment on his right hand, which he broke during qualifying last Saturday. 20-year old Lorenzo, who hails from the Balearic Island of Mallorca, completed 52 laps throughout the afternoon as he took the time to get acquainted with his new machine. He finished a creditable tenth in the unofficial lap times with a best lap of 1'34.320, and will complete another full day of testing tomorrow.

Jorge Lorenzo (10th, 1'34.32, 52 laps) I'm very proud to be here in this garage and it's been quite an emotional day for me. I'm very happy to have the chance to try my new bike and I enjoyed myself a lot today.

Top British Superbike rookie Tom Sykes has joined the ranks of the Rizla Suzuki Superbike team along side his new team-mate, two-time Japanese Champion Atsushi Watanabe.

The 22-year-old from Huddersfield had an impressive rookie season in the Bennetts British Superbike Championship, riding to sixth place overall. He was runner up in 2006 in the British Supersport Championship and graduated to the Superbike class with a calm and calculated approach which saw him make steady progress through the season. In his first year in the premier class, Sykes claimed six front row starts, one pole position and five podium finishes.

Mika Kallio (KTM) won the 250cc race from Alex de Angelis with Alex Debon third (both Aprilia). With Jorge Lorenzo (Aprilia) already crowned World Champion, this was perhaps a race where Kallio established himself as one of the new front men in the class.

Lorenzo got the holeshot and as the order settled down he was followed by Andrea Dovizioso (Scot Honda RS250RW) and Alex de Angelis (Aprilia). But is was soon de Angelis who then made the running by mid-race distance of this 27-lapper with Alvaro Bautista (Aprilia) hounding him.

When Bautista crashed out on lap 20, Kallio had entered the fray and he timed his charge to the front to perfection taking the lead on the penultimate lap and holding it resolutely until the flag from de Angelis.

Valentino Rossi's hopes of securing the runner-up spot in the championship ended in the unluckiest of fashions today, when a technical issue brought the injured Italian's race to a premature end in Valencia. His Fiat Yamaha team-mate Colin Edwards also had a disappointing race and finished 13th in his final race for the Factory Team, after starting from 15th.

Having broken three bones in his hand after crashing in qualifying yesterday, Rossi bravely decided to race, his 192nd consecutive start since his 125cc debut in 2006. Forced to start from 17th after completing only five laps in qualifying, he needed to finish 15th or higher in order to secure second place in the championship from Pedrosa, who started on pole. By mid-race distance he had gone one better, having passed Anthony West, Shinya Nakano and Makoto Tamada to take 14th. However on lap 18 Rossi ran into unexpected problems with his bike and he was forced to retire, only able look on as Pedrosa went on to win the race and take the championship runner-up spot by just one point.