Garcia Dominates Portugal II
EnduroGP; Gutish Crowned
S
pain's Josep Garcia had a
flawless weekend at the GP of
Portugal II, round five of the FIM
EnduroGP World Championship
in Fafe, June 19-21. The Red Bull
KTM Factory Racing rider won the
Akrapovic Super Test on Friday
and then took overall victories on
both Saturday and Sunday, mark-
ing his second triple win of the
season, after also achieving this
at his home GP in Oliana, Spain.
American Rachel Gutish of-
ficially clinched the FIM Women's
Enduro World Championship for
the second year in a row follow-
ing Sunday's racing.
The event was marked by high
temperatures, dust and increas-
ingly rough special tests. On Sat-
urday, despite not quite finding
his best feeling, Garcia controlled
the race to take the overall win by
eight seconds over his teammate,
Andrea Verona, who edged out
TM Moto's Zach Pichon by two-
tenths of a second.
Garcia had even more room
to play with on Sunday, finishing
32 seconds ahead of Sherco's
Hamish MacDonald and Pichon.
The day did not go as smoothly
for Verona, who was fifth over-
all. He also finished third in the
Enduro2 class, extending his
podium streak—in class—to more
than seven years.
"It's been an incredible
weekend," Garcia said follow-
ing Sunday's racing. "With the
level of competition in EnduroGP
right now, it's so difficult to put
together a perfect weekend, so
to do it again is something I'm
really proud of. Yesterday was
a good day, but today I felt even
better on the bike. From the first
test onwards, I felt comfortable,
confident and able to ride the
way I wanted to. We made some
good changes to our lines and
WIND
IN THE
P32
American Rachel Gutish, of the
Rieju team, clinched her second
consecutive EnduroGP title in the
Women's division in Portugal.
