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World Enduro Championship Series SALAMANCA, SPAIN, MAR, 22·23 eigning 250 and 400cc World Enduro Champions Samuli Aro and Juha Salminen claimed a day win each at the second round of the World Enduro Championship in Salamanca, Spain, repeating their eventtopping performances at the WEC season opener one week earlier. Finishing as the winners of the 250cc Two-Stroke and Over 500cc FourStroke classes, respectively, the Finnish KTM teammates now sit comfortably at the top of their respective WEC classes. "It's been another really good weekend for me," Aro said. "I didn't have any problems on either day, so there's not much to tell, really. Juha was a little faster than me in the scratch [overall] today [day two], but the 50 points I got in the 250cc class is what I'm really pleased about." between himself and Aro on day two, found himself crashing more than once on day one. "I certainly wasn't expecting it to be so slippery this weekend," the Australian said. "I tried riding smooth, and I tried riding aggressively, but neither seemed to work. Day two was a little better, but I struggled with the ruts. I'm pretty disappointed, really." Third on both days, but a sizeable distance behind both Aro and Merriman, was Gas Gas rider Jani Laaksonen. Finishing comfortably ahead of the fourth-placed 250cc rider on both days one and two, the experienced Finn struggled with the flu on day two but was extremely happy with his performance. "I was finding it really hard to breathe at the end of the special test today," Laaksonen said. "I was riding safely this weekend, so to finish third on both days is great, especially as I didn't feel so good." Finnish youngster Jari Mattila, who finished behind his Gas Gas teammate Laaksonen, continued his run of good form by placing fourth and sixth in the 250cc class. "I crashed four times on day one," Mattila said. "I only crashed once today, yet I finished sixth in class. I also had a bad final test, which didn't help me." R (Above) Samull No was the top rider after day one In Spain. He also topped the 2!lOcc class both days. Juha Salminen bounced back on clay two. posting the quickest overall times for tha dIIr. (Left) Anders Eriksson rode well in Spain but came away empty, as far as wins. The Swede went 32 in the 450cc Four-Stroke class. 58 APRIL 9, 2003' cue I • n • _ 'IS Topping the quarter-liter TwoStroke class by almost 30 seconds on day one, Aro again got the upper hand on his number-one title rival Stefan Merriman on day two, finishing on that occasion 20 seconds ahead of the pint-sized Australian. For Merriman, a double runner-up finish certainly wasn't the result the Honda rider was looking for as he struggled like many to find grip on the dry but slippery Spanish terrain. Merriman, who closed the gap In the 250cc Four-Stroke class Yamaha-mounted Swede Peter Bergvall walked away with the class win on both days and claimed the highest 250cc Four-Stroke position in the overall scratch classification for a number of years with seventh on day one. Bergvall, who finished just short of a minute ahead of KTM's Giovanni Sala on Saturday and 43 seconds ahead on day two, made just one mistake on each day - far fewer than the majority of his classmates.