Finland leads the La Serena Six Days Enduro at half way mark
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. KTM has no factory riders in the E1 individual class but Jari Mattila (Finland), Tom Sagar (UK) and Peter Bergwall (Sweden) in second, seventh and tenth respectively are all putting in solid performances every day onboard their KTM machines.
Aubert leads the E2 class with KTM's Salminen and Belometti in the minor places, while in E3, overall leader Caselli heads Tarkkala and Alessandro Botturi (Italy) with another KTM factory rider, Fabien Planet of France in a solid fourth place.
Finland leads Italy, France and Sweden in the World Trophy with Spain, France and Australia continuing to the top three teams in the Junior Trophy at the half way mark.
