Frustration For Knight At EWC GP of Sweden

It was a weekend of frustration for KTM Enduro Factory Team rider David Knight at the Enduro World Championship’s GP of Sweden. Hoping to build on his winning performance at round five of the series in Italy, Knight instead endured a weekend of niggling technical issues that hampered his progress throughout the sixth round of the season.
After making his customary winning start during the Friday evening super test, the KTM rider soon developed problems during the opening lap of day one. Damaging the reed block on his 300 EXC, Knight lacked power to perform to his best. Although still able to post the fastest times of his class during the slow but highly technical extreme test, it was on the long and bumpy enduro test that David struggled most. With no time to replace the part until the evening work area at the end of day one, Knight soldiered on to place tenth.

With the mechanical issue rectified, Knight was determined to deliver a more competitive performance on day two. However, although able to significantly improve his pace, the Manxman was still troubled by jetting issues and eventually placed a frustrating fourth in the Enduro 3 class. Knight’s results from the GP of Sweden now leave him fourth overall in the E3 championship standings with two rounds remaining.

David Knight: ‘It’s been a disappointing weekend to be fair. Leading into this race I was expecting a strong result as the conditions are similar to what I train on at home, but unfortunately right from the beginning of day one things didn’t go to plan. I was running a different engine for this event and during the pre-race test sessions everything felt OK, but once the race began the engine lost some power. Initially it wasn’t a problem as the course was still smooth but once conditions became rougher and bumpier I began to suffer and dropped of the leader’s pace. It turned out that the reed block had broken and with no time to change the part I carried on as best I could to score some points. On day two it took a bit of time to get the bike re-jetted to suit the conditions but in the end I was able to improve my speed. It’s disappointing as my pace was really fast in the extreme test and again on the cross test, where I was able to keep a fast rhythm on the switch back corners. Unfortunately, it was the critical enduro test that ultimately hampered my progress. It’s been one of those weekends of unexpected problems but we’ll regroup and come back stronger next weekend in Finland.”

Results – GP of Sweden, Day 1
Enduro 3
1. Christophe Nambotin (KTM) 1:05:32.82; 2. Aigar Leok (TM) 1:06:10.08; 3. Joakim Ljunggren (Husaberg) 1:06:23.01; 4. Manuel Monni (KTM) 1:06:53.37; 5. Marko Tarkkala (Beta) 1:07:18.18; 10. David Knight (KTM) 1:09:53.47

Results – GP of Sweden, Day 2
Enduro 3
1. Christophe Nambotin (KTM) 1:03:32.74; 2. Aigar Leok (TM) 1:03:46.44; 3. Joakim Ljunggren (Husaberg) 1:04:24.85; 4. David Knight (KTM) 1:04:40.18; 5. Manuel Monni (KTM) 1:04:45.80

The Enduro World Championship continues with the GP of Finland on September 1/2.