IN
THE
WIND
P38
JOSEP GARCIA TOPS HAWKSTONE
PARK CROSS-COUNTRY
T
he Hawkstone Park Cross-
Country in the U.K. served
as the sixth round of the World
Enduro Super Series, and KTM's
Josep Garcia dominated the
event with a wire-to-wire win,
leaving the rest of the field to bat-
tle for second place. And a battle
it was throughout the two-and-
a-half-hour Original Fast Eddy
Cross-Country race between Na-
than Watson (KTM) and Billy Bolt
(Husqvarna) with Taddy Blazusiak
(KTM) and Jaume Betriu(KTM)
also challenging for position. But
ultimately, the final two podium
spots went to Watson and Bolt,
respectively.
Along with his podium finish
came the championship lead
for Bolt, who relieved Manuel
Lettenbichler of the point. The
young German slipped to sec-
ond in the standings after his
seventh-place finish at Hawk-
stone Park, while Garcia's win
bumped him from fifth in the
championship to third.
"I'm really happy to win my first
race in WESS," said Garcia. "I
felt really good in the race. I set
off first and stayed in front the
whole time. My team were great,
they let me know how much
of an advantage I had and so I
was able to gage the gap back
to Nathan. I did have a couple
of crashes but thankfully it was
nothing too serious and I didn't
lose too much time. It's been an
awesome weekend and to win
both day is perfect."
Garcia completed 15 laps
throughout the race, and was
the only rider capable of putting
down a sub-10-minute lap—his
best time a blistering 9:42:203.
Behind Watson and Bolt, Blazu-
siak and Betriu rounded out the
top five.
"I knew Josep and Nathan
would be fast so my goal was
to stick to a steady rhythm and
hopefully not be too far behind
them," said new championship
leader, Bolt. "I caught up to Na-
than at one point and was a little
strong in some of the sections. I
started to crash a little bit though
so just eased off a little and
focused on claiming a safe third
for the championship. The sup-
port from the fans was incred-
ible—all the way around the track
they were cheering and spurring
me on. It's fantastic to get my
second podium in as many races
and also take the lead in the
championship." CN
Overall
1. Josep Garcia (KTM)
2. Nathan Watson (KTM)
3. Billy Bolt (Hus)
4. Taddy Blazusiak (KTM)
5. Jaume Betriu (KTM)
6. Alex Snow (Hon)
7. Manuel Lettenbichler (KTM)
8. Paul Bolton (KTM)
9. Graham Jarvis (Hus)
10. Alfredo Gomez (Hus)
KTM's Josep Garcia (26) was untouchable at round six of the World
Enduro Super Series at Hawkstone Park.
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
KTM/FUTURE7MEDIA
