The CH Racing Husqvarna team came away from the second round of the '07 World Enduro Championship staged in Puerto Lumbreras, Spain having recorded mixed results as several of the team's riders saw their performances affected by plane bad luck. With the event the series' first to take place in southern Europe following the championship's opening 'winter enduro' in Sweden, torrential rain the evening before the opening day resulted in an extremely wet and slippery begining to the first day of competition. The two riders that produced the best results for Husqvara were Enduro 1 class rider Bartosz Oblucki, who placed his prototype 250cc four-stroke in sixth and fifth positions, and Enduro 3 class competitor Seb Guillaume who claimed fifth and fourth place results. Were it not for the fact that Seb rolled into one of the event's time checks a few secods too early and received a one minute penalty on day one, and then received another one-minute penalty on day two after the CH Racing Husqvarna team were forced to fit a new swingarm to his bike after he hit a rock at speed and damaged the rear chain guard, Seb would have likely finished on the podium on both days.
Following his E1 podium visit first time out on Husqvrna's new 250cc four-stroke in Sweden Bartosz Oblucki was confident of another good result in Spain. But on day one he struggled slighty to perform at his best, due partly to having spent little time on the new bike in muddy conditions. Although never too far off the pace of the riders that eventually finished ahead of him Bartosz could only manage sixth position. Making changes to the set-up of his bike at the end of day one, and helped by the drying conditions during day two, Bart' performed much better, winning the day's fifth test. Collecting a 10 second penalty due to being unable to start his bike wasn't the best of way's to start day two but Bartosz neverheless managed to improve his day one result by one position.
In the Enduro 2 class 250cc two-stroke mounted Husqvarna riders Nicolas Deparrois and Nate Kanney placed in ninth and 12th respectively on day one and in eighth and 15th on day two. With Nate switching to a 250 having ridden a 450cc four-stroke in Sweden he failed to perform at his best in Spain while Nicolas produced two strong top 10 results in the extremely competitive E2 class and placed as the second best two-stroke rider behind countryman Fabien Planet.
It was in the Enduro 3 class where the CH Racing Husqvarna team suffered most in Puerto Lumbreras. With Seb Guilaume claiming a one-minute penalty, which dropped him to fifth position on day one the French rider looked a sure bet to finish second having topped two tests and performed well on all but the day's first special stage. Again riding well on day two Seb, if it weren't for the fact that he needed a new swingarm fitted to his bike in order to finish the day, would have likely claimed third after again performing well and winning the final test of the day. Frustratingly for seven-time enduro world champion Anders Eriksson day one ended prematurely as the Swede drowned his E3 class four-stroke in one of the numerous mud holes on the enduro test on lap three. Having placed third on the day's opening test Anders was forced to retire and ready his machine for day two. Not realising exactly how how much water his bike had taken in on day one, shortly after the start of day two it became clear that all was not well with his bike's motor. Thankfully Anders was able to reach the end of the second day's competition and in finishing in eight managed to at least collect some world championship points.
In the Enduro Junior class French rider Marc Bouregois had a steady event placing in sixth on day one before placing fourth behind reigning Enduro Junior world champion Joakim Ljunggren on day two.
The CH Racing Husqvarna team now travels to Portugal for round three of the '07 World Enduro Championship on May 5-6.
Bartosz Oblucki: "Day one was a bit of a disaster. In the morning I couldn't feel what the bike was doing in slippery conditions and really struggled. I haven't ridden the bike much in muddy, rutted special tests before and we have some work to do to make it perform a little better. I wasn't able to push. I did some good special test times but generally I was a long way behind the riders I know I can beat. "I made a few changes to the bike for day two, which added to the drier terrain made the bike a lot better. I took a 10 second penalty in the morning when my bike didn't start and then crashed in the extreme test. I won one special test, I was competitive in some others, but still I finished fifth. It was really close between about four riders, I just needed to be a little bit quicker."
Nate Kanney: "Day one started out good then things didn't go so well during the middle of the day, which meant I had to work hard during the second half of the day to try and get a decent result. I ended up 12th, which I wasn't really happy with. I had a few small problems with my bike and suffered with that. "Day two wasn't so good either. I struggled early on and had to really push on the lat lap to try and get a good result. I stalled my bike in one tests, crashed in another and then failed to get up one what was the hardest climb on the extreme test. I needed a good final lap and it turned out to be my worst lap of the race. The event basically had three motocross tests, which didn't really suit me."
Anders Eriksson: "It's been a horrible weekend for me. I certainly didn't work so hard after my injury to come back and have a weekend like this. But it happens and hopefully I won't have any more bad luck this season. My bike got full of water on the enduro test on day one, which ended my day. The frustrating thing about it is that on the next lap they took the mud hole out. Anyway, the water did more damage to the engine than we thought and from the start of day two the engine didn't sound so good. I'm lucky to have finished. I managed to take some points on day two but it's certainly not the result I was hoping."
Seb Guillaume: "Day one was a bit of a disaster. I went into one time control a couple of seconds too early and received a one-minute penalty. I couldn't believe it, I was only a couple of seconds early. The second day was going really well and I was in second but then I hit my chain guard on a rock and broke it. I had to change the complete swing-arm. I took another one-minute penalty because we only had a couple of minutes to change it. It's not such a good result but my speed was ok. With some better luck I know I can finish on the podium."