Round 4
OFF-ROAD
~
FIM Trial World Champion ship Series
the
FUJINAMI takes another win
over heavy favorite Lampkin
STORY BY SHAN MOORE/TRIALS COMPETITION NEWSPAPER
PHOTOS BY MARIO CANDELLONE
uccess, especially in motorsports, is often about being in the
right place at the right time . Japanese rider Takahisa Fujmarni
proved this adage twice in the same weekend, by capitalizing
on a double dose of charity to claim wins at the U.S. round of
the FIM World Trials Championship Series held in Duluth ,
Minnesota .
Fujinami put himself in position to win each day w ith solid and consistent rides in conditions that varied drastically over the two-day event.
Heavy rains on Saturday tu rned somewhat easy sections into demanding, and in some cases impossible, ones. Brilliant sunshine on Sunday
eventually dr ied up the mud , making for a surprisingly easy final lap.
For five straight years , Fujinami has been the runner-up in the World
Trials Championships, playing bridesmaid all five years to the same man:
Great Britain's Dougie Lampkin, who ow ns a record-tying seven
straight titles. It has been assumed that Spanish sensation Gas Gas-rider
Adam Raga wou ld eventually be the heir to Lampkin's th rone and that
FUjinami had the ability but neither the cons istency nor the luck to be
the champion. In Minnesota , Fujinami proved to have both in abundance, while the usuallysteady Lampkin suffered his worst result of the
season with a fourth -place finish on Saturday. The perfo rmance in
Minnesota gives Fujinami four stra ight w ins in the se ries, after a similar
performance last month in Japan, and moves him 10 points ahead of
S
18 JUNE 23, 2004 • CYCLE NEWS
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