Freeman, Garcia Share Wins in Finland
B
eta's Brad Freeman and
KTM's Josep Garcia shared
day wins at the FIM EnduroGP
World Championship in Finland,
May 27-28. Freeman took the
win Saturday and Garcia Sunday.
The opening day of com-
petition at round three of the
championship in Heinola was a
battle of the ages. Freeman best
managed the rugged, old-school
enduro terrain to claim his fifth
consecutive EnduroGP day vic-
tory. Teammate Steve Holcombe
was next best in second, with
Garcia third. All three won their
respective Enduro3, Enduro2,
and Enduro1 categories.
Freeman was quick to attack
on the opening Enduro Test.
Stopping the clock over 15 sec-
onds faster than Holcombe.
Although losing a little time
on the opening Extreme Test
won by Holcombe, Freeman duly
won the following cross test and
enduro test to extend his lead.
A mistake from Holcombe on
the final cross test offered some
added breathing room to Free
-
man's lead as he held strong to
win the day.
Garcia steadily progressed
during the day. Needing more
time than he hoped to adjust to
the terrain, he ended his day with
a solid final lap for third overall.
Coming through for his best
result of the season, CH Racing
Sherco's Hamish MacDonald
finally cracked the top five with
fourth.
Closing out the top five, the
battle for fifth between GasGas
rider Andrea Verona and Beta-
mounted Theo Espinasse went
right to the wire. Coming down to
the final test, Verona narrowly beat
Espinasse by half of a second.
The tables turned on the
second day of competition
with Garcia emerging as victor.
Overnight the Spaniard found
that little bit extra needed to fight
WIND
IN THE
P44
Brad Freeman scored
the opening-day win at
the EnduroGP in Finland.
PHOTOS: FUTURE7MEDIA
