Marc Bourgeois Leads Enduro Junior World Championship - Dirt Rider Magazine

CH Racing Husqvarna rider Marc Bourgeois has moved to the top of the Enduro Junior World Enduro Championship standings following two podium results at the second round of the '08 series - the GP of Portugal staged in Vale de Cambra. Showing that he is more than capable of claiming the EJ title this season having now finished on the podium at both of the opening two rounds of the series, Marc's encouraging performances were disappointingly the only positive results to come from the GP of Portugal for the CH Racing Husqvarna team. With the event one of the hardest WEC races for some time due to a challenging course and special tests and heavy rain on day two, injury and mechanical problems blighted the team's performances.After badly injuring his thumb on day two of the GP of Sweden Bartosz Oblucki spent the two weeks that lead up to the GP of Portugal in Spain receiving various specialist treatments in the hope that he would be able to compete. Taking to the start of day two optimistic that his thumb would hold up Oblucki was forced to call it a day after just two special tests with his participation in next week's GP of Spain now looking doubtful.Frustratingly things didn't go much better for the CH Racing Husqvarna team in the Enduro 2 class. With Frenchman Antoine Meo having come close to claiming victory on day one at the GP of Sweden his hopes of another strong performance in Portugal were ended at the end of the first lap when he was forced to retire. Re-starting day two Antoine was again forced out, having suffered a clutch problem. Aaron Bernandez faired a little better finishing the extremely difficult second day in 11th after having to retire from day one.In the Enduro 3 class Frenchman Seb Guillaume finished both days without problems but failed to perform to his normally high standards in wet conditions. With two strokes dominating the top of the E3 class results in Portugal, Seb placed a solid sixth in class on day one but then dropped two positions to eighth on day two.The CH racing Husqvarna team now prepare themselves for the third round of the '08 WEC series - the GP of Spain, which takes place in Sitges, close to Barcelona, on April 5/6.Marc Bourgeois: "I was really tired on day one but I was still able to put in some good special test times. It was a long, hard day but to win was really great. Day two was really hard. Normally I enjoy the muddy conditions but I made many crashes. I felt strong all day but I fell many, many times. I still managed to finish second so despite all my crashes it finished as a good second day."2008 World Enduro Championship
Grand Prix of Portugal - Day 1****Enduro 1 class
1. Simone Albergoni (Yamaha) 50:11.12; 2. Mika Ahola (Honda) 50:13.65; 3.Ivan Cervantes (KTM) 50:22.92; 4. Eero Remes (KTM) 50:56.46; 5. Maurizio Micheluz (Yamaha) 51:07.91; 6. Marc Germain (Yamaha) 51:15.24; 7.Christobal Guerrero (Yamaha) 51:25.55; 8. Tom Sagar (KTM) 52:24.94; 9. Daryl Bolter (Husqvarna) 52:30.13; 10. Mike Hartmann (KTM) 52:43.00; 11. Jordan Curvalle (Suzuki) 52:43.65; 12. Paulo Felicia (Kawasaki) 53:24.58; 13. Concalo Reis (KTM) 54:15.12; 14. Luca Cherubini (TM) 54:21.00; 15. Fernando Ferreira (Yamaha) 54:35.89; 16. Jakub Horak (KTM) 58:00.21; 17. Waclaw Skolarus (Yamaha) 1.03:54.02Enduro 2 class
1. Johnny Aubert (Yamaha) 49:13.71; 2. Juha Salminen (KTM) 49:14.30; 3. Joakim Ljunggren (Husaberg) 51:18.58; 4. Alessandro Belometti (KTM) 51:20.26; 5. Fabio Mossini (Honda) 51:51.68; 6. Nicolas Paganon (Aprilia) 52:0.71; 7. Fabrizio Dini (Yamaha) 52:08.31; 8. Rodrig Thain (TM) 52:12.27; 9. Jari Mattila (Honda) 52:13.81; 10. Nicolas Deparrois (Gas Gas) 52:36.47; 11. Alessandro Zanni (Honda) 52:48.87; 12. Jean Francois Goblet (BMW) 53:14.12; 13. Valtteri Salonen (Husaberg) 53:16.09; 14. Andrea Belotti (KTM) 53:42.12; 15. Helder Rodrigues (Honda) 53:50.42; 16. Rudy Cotton (Honda) 55:34.78; 17. Felipe Zanol (Yamaha) 57:25.53; 18. Mario Patrao (Suzuki) 58:00.25Enduro 3 class
1. Samuli Aro (KTM) 50:55.42; 2. Marko Tarkkala (KTM) 51:06.96; 3. Marcus Kehr (KTM) 51:19.94; 4. Christophe Nambotin (Gas Gas) 51:25.46; 5. Fabien Planet (KTM) 51:28.46; 6. Sebastien Guillaume (CH Racing Husqvarna) 51:40.74; 7. Bjorne Carlsson (Husaberg) 51:52.62; 8. Stefan Merriman (Aprilia) 52:06.37; 9. Xavier Galindo (KTM) 52:13.72; 10. Antoine Letellier (Aprilia) 52:16.88; 11. Alessandro Botturi (Honda) 52:23.42; 12. Alessio Paoli (Beta) 53:46.90; 13. Juan Pedrero (Yamaha) 53:58.21; 14. Jordi Figueras (KTM) 54:15.07; 15. Stefan Svitko (KTM) 54:41.01; 16. Vita Kuklik (KTM) 55:17.79; 17. Euan McConnell (TM) 55:38.28; 18. Gordon Clarke (TM) 58:52.89Enduro Junior class
1. Marc Bourgeois (CH Racing Husqvarna) 51:28.17; 2. Oriol Mena 52:33.30; 3. Oscar Balletti (Honda) 53:12.63; 4. Carlos Andreu (KTM) 53:29.69; 5. Simon Wakely (Husqvarna) 53:44.57; 6. Gregory Evans (KTM) 54:24.52; 7. Thomas Oldrati (KTM) 51:25.65; 8. Lorenzo Santolino (KTM) 53:27.34; 9. Lucas Puerta (Yamaha) 54:24.09; 10. Bert Mayer (BMW) 55:52.34; 11.Guillem Pares (Yamaha) 56:52.32; 12. Ashley Wood (Honda) 58:27.00; 13. Roman Dumontier (Husqvarna) 1.03:07.95; 14. Roger Sanllehi (Honda) 1.05:40.14; 15. Marc Sola (KTM) 1.06:48.98; 16. Mark Risse (Gas Gas) 1.07:52.66; 17. Concelo Bandeira (Suzuki) 1.14:53.802008 World Enduro Championship
Grand Prix of Portugal - Day 2
Enduro 1 class
1. Ivan Cervantes (KTM) 53:59.09; 2. Simone Albergoni (Yamaha) 54:04.60; 3. Mika Ahola (Honda) 54:28.51; 4. Eero Remes (KTM) 55:06.03; 5. Tom Sagar (KTM) 56:11.66; 6. Cristobal Guerrero (Yamaha) 56:42.42; 7. Paulo Felicia (Kawasaki) 58:07.58; 8. Jordan Curvalle (Suzuki) 58:19.17; 9. Luca Cherubini (TM) 58:34.15; 10. Fernando Ferreira (Yamaha) 1.00:27.83; 11. Daniele Tellini (Suzuki) 1.00:28.22; 12. Jakub Horak (KTM) 1.01:27.36; 13. Concalo Reis (KTM) 1.07:20.31Enduro 2 class
1. Juha Salminen (KTM) 54:12.03; 2. Johnny Aubert (Yamaha) 54:43.01; 3. Valtteri Salonen (Husaberg) 56:09.00; 4. Alessandro Belometti (KTM) 56:09.27; 5. Nicolas Paganon (Aprilia) 56:27.15; 6. Fabrizio Dini (Yamaha) 57:09.97; 7. Simo Kirssi (BMW) 57:20.95; 8. Jari Mattila (Honda) 58:05.47; 9. Fabio Mossini (Honda) 58:32.42; 10. Rodrig Thain (TM) 58:56.35; 11. Aaron Bernadez (CH Racing Husqvarna) 59:14.03; 12. Freddy Blanc (Suzuki) 59:45.06; 13. Jean Francois Goblet (BMW) 1.00:38.36; 14. Andrea Belotti (Honda) 1.01:08.61; 15. Nicolas Deparrois (Gas Gas) 1.01:12.35; 16. Filipe Zanol (Yamaha) 1.02:00.05Enduro 3 class
1. Christophe Nambotin (Gas Gas) 55:17.58; 2. Samuli Aro (KTM) 55:40.23; 3. Marcus Kehr (KTM) 55:43.86; 4. Stefan Merriman (Aprilia) 55:49.05; 5. Marko Tarkkala (KTM) 56:11.82; 6. Fabien Planet (KTM) 56:31.41; 7. Bjorne Carlsson (Husaberg) 56:43.32; 8. Sebastien Guillaume (CH Racing Husqvarna) 57:20.92; 9. Anders Eriksson (BMW) 57:25.05; 10. Xavier Galindo (KTM) 58:21.19; 11. Antoine Letellier (Aprilia) 58:38.62; 12. Euan McConnell (TM) 1.00:06.88; 13. Vita Kuklik (KTM) 1.00:16.13; 14. Stefan Svitko (KTM) 1.00:03.07; 15. Juan Pedrero (Yamaha) 1.01:42.55; 16; Jordi Figueras (KTM) 1.03:08.23Enduro Junior class
1. Tomas Oldrati (KTM) 55:.29; 2. Marc Bourgeois (CH Racing Husqvarna) 56:28.39; 3. Anti Hellsten (Husqvarna) 59:32.84; 4. Victor Guerrero (KTM) 59:54.91; 5. Lucas Puerta (Yamaha) 1.00:40.82; 6. Simon Wakely (Husqvarna) 1.00:43.01; 7. Lorenzo Santolino (KTM) 1.00:59.55; 8. Martin Kuklik (KTM) 1.03:37.35; 9. Bert Mayer (BMW) 1.03:32.43; 10. Adrian Metge (Husqvarna) 1.05:08.68; 11. Ollie Moyce (Yamaha) 1.07:13.23; Guillem Pares (Yamaha) 1.07:33.24