Timmy Weigand prepares for a special test. | Photo: Berkner
Day-one of the 84th running of the International Six Days Enduro in Figueira da Foz, Portugal, is in the books and Team USA’s World Trophy Team suffered a huge loss, losing second overall finisher from last year’s Greek Six Days, Kawasaki’s Ricky Dietrich.
Dietrich’s demise came early during the first timed special test when the 22 year old off-roader crashed causing damage to both his exhaust system and clutch. Dietrich explains, “It was the first test and I cart wheeled hard and when I got going the clutch just started to fade. I did my best to adjust it on the fly but it kept getting worse. By the end of the test there was nothing left.
“To make matters worse the muffler also started to fall apart. The crash must have sheared of the rivets in the end cap as that the whole thing just blew apart.” Dietrich tried in vane to fix the problems but eventually houred out, falling 60 minutes behind the designated trail pace.
Despite the retirement of Dietrich the remaining five-rider American team managed a respectable fifth overall finish behind France, Finland, Italy and Australia. The best five scores of each World Trophy Team are counted for that team’s daily total.
Top finishing American rider and US World Trophy Team member Kurt Caselli, who finished 10th overall for the day, commented on Dietrich’s loss to the team. “Ricky’s DNF isn’t the kind of news you want to hear when you know he could’ve played a big roll in our results this week, but it is what it is. When those kinds of things happen it just plain sucks, but sometimes that’s part of racing.
“With our one throwaway used up now the rest of us need to stay focused to get the job done. The same thing happened last year when I got hurt (on Day-three) and the rest of the team picked it up and we finished on the podium (in third.) The key thing is the rest of us have to make every test count from here on out.”
Jamie Lanza and the rest of the US Junior Team were 2nd after the first day of racing. | Photo: Berkner
Even with news of Dietrich’s loss optimism ran high in the US pits at the end of the day when scores showed that Team USA’s four-rider Junior Trophy team, made up of Russell Bobbitt, David Kamo, Jamie Lanza and Cory Buttrick, was in second place, just 1.28 seconds behind the French junior team.
Bobbitt was top finishing US Junior Trophy Team rider where he finished 20th in the E2 class. Bobbitt said he was surprised by the results. “I just didn’t expect that we’d be this close. It’s still early and anything can happen.” Kamo added. “It was really Russ’s day. The rest of us seemed to struggle a lot and if we can just pick it up we can do even better.
The US Women’s team also had reason to be optimistic as that teams threesome of Maria Forsberg, Amanda Mastin and Lacy Jones were in third place behind France and Sweden.
American rider Ryan Powell took the C2 overall win and helped the GoFasters.com team into the lead of the club division. | Photo: Berkner
Amanda Mastin said, “We did OK I guess. The French are especially tough again this year and we’re going to have to be as consistent as we can. I know I crashed more than I would’ve wanted too but I had a lot of fun.”
In the three-rider club team division the US GoFasters.com team of Ryan Powell, Jordan Brandt and Brian Sperle were in third overall led by the C2 class winning efforts of Powell.
Powell said, “I was pretty surprised about my (C2 overall) win for the day. I guess I really didn’t have any issues other than my bike started to run lean anytime I was off of the main jet. I guess I spent a lot more time running wide open than anybody else but the bike just ran better that way. I’m glad I’m running a big (fuel) tank other wise I would’ve run out of gas.
With the news came guarded news as Team USA ISDE jury representative Gunny Claypoole said, “Although we’ve got some reasons to be happy with our Day-one results, despite loosing Dietrich, we have to keep in perspective that this is a six day race and nobody takes home a medal for having a good day-one.
The remaining 34 rider US team, less Dietrich, remains intact going into day-two.
US Club Team rider William Burns finishes a tire change. | Photo: Berkner
World Trophy
1) France 2:50:24.81
2) Finland 2:51:16.71
3) Italy 2:52:09.34
4) Australia 2:55:26.57
5) USA 2:55:44.42
Junior Trophy
1) France 1:47:07.99
2) USA 1:47:09.15
3) Spain 1:47:29.99
Women’s Cup
France 1:25:13.89
Sweden 1:27:13.83
USA 1:28:49.52
Club Team
Haruda Team 1:50:19.40
Motoclub Italia 1:51:50.76
GoFasters.com 1:52:38.02
