2006 ISDE New Zealand Day 2 Race Report - Dirt Rider Magazine

Team USA enjoyed a historical moment on Day Two of the 81st Maxxis International Six Days Enduro in Taupo, New Zealand, when its Junior World Trophy team leapfrogged over France and into the category lead, thanks in large part to Kurt Caselli's brilliant performance over the day's five tests--the second of which he won--that earned him top overall honors, unofficially. Germany finished the day in third place in the Juniors.In the FIM World Trophy competition, Finland took the lead over Day One leader France while Spain kept pace in third. The U.S. squad moved up four places to 10th, unofficially.For the Americans, most eyes focused on the Junior foursome, whose potential came together despite David Pearson hitting a tree and being detuned for much of the day. Taking up the slack, Caselli and ISDE freshman Ricky Dietrich proved to be in the same league as the best enduro riders Europe has to offer. In addition to Caselli's E2-leading day, Dietrich put in three excellent tests that moved him to sixth in E1."I felt really good in a couple tests, then again I blew a couple tests I didn't really ride that great in," he noted. "It's so hard. real narrow through the trees. It's kind of like you want to try to find a good line, but you always end up in the main line. The ruts go way out and bank off big roots and stuff like that."I think staying up and not doing anything too stupid, just riding the line like 80 percent, not really going crazy because you'll end up on your head."Dietrich, 16th the first day, found his stride in improving to sixth in E1 on Day Two, saying, "Today, I picked it up a notch quite a bit. I think the rain might've helped me out a little bit because I'm a good mud rider. Also, I don't know, I just kind of woke up and picked up the pace, got going."Russell Bobbitt, still suffering from a sore hand, finished 30th in E2 for the day on his 250 XC while David Pearson--who had to take a short nap at one check after downing aspirin to cope with the pain in his shoulder from hitting the tree plus a suspected broken finger--ended up 31st in E3 on his 525 XC.Jimmy Jarrett--the second-fastest American in E2 for the day at 13th, 1:45.51 behind Caselli's 33:02.93--led the six-man U.S. World Trophy team on his RM250, which ran much better than the day before. Fred Hoess's Gas Gas 250 also ran better, though he took the precaution of adding a little oil to the pre-mix anyway as well as richening the jetting, though he reported it was losing a bit of coolant.Juha Salminen proved to be the brightest of the Finns in topping E1 for the day as they moved into the World Trophy team lead. Fabien Planet of the second-place French World Trophy team won E3 for the second day in a row.Though the one-loop course differed a bit from the first day, it employed common trail and tests in several areas, and with nearly 600 riders tackling it for the second time, it became rough. Overnight rain made for some deep ruts and boggy areas, and more than one rider commented that they'd never seen a course that was simultaneously sloppy and rough--it's usually one or the other.That led to an unconfirmed 50 DNFs for the day, though no Americans were reported to have joined them. Mechanicals as well as crashes/injuries accounted for several riders retiring from both the Dutch and Polish World Trophy teams, but many Club riders from other countries also dropped out.Several Americans dropped route points. John Bennett was one of them, dropping nine minutes when his stator failed in the morning, but he got things fixed and kept going. Rod Kreiss also lost a few minutes, but it fired him up so he rode better the rest of the day. Nicole Bradford damaged one radiator on her YZ125 badly enough that it required replacement, but none was available until the end of the day. So, she improvised and bypassed it with sockets and extensions, and got going again, repassing many riders in order to move farther away from houring out.Several American Club teams also moved up in the standings. Motoklub Jiretin Topservis aced the category, but the Trail Riders of Houston trio of David Kamo, Cole Kirkpatrick and Luke McNeil found themselves in fourth for the day and just three minutes behind third, another Czech team.Gofasters.com's Patrick Garrahan, Daniel Janus and Brian Sperle sped up and claimed sixth place followed by Team Oregon's Mason Harrison, Jonathon Seehorn and Rory Sullivan, who celebrated his 24th birthday by putting in one test that he felt particularly good about.