Oriol Mena delivers the goods for Husaberg at EWC GP of Turkey

If there’s one thing that’s never easy, no matter what the sport, it’s stepping up into the senior ranks as a ‘junior’ champion. But this year that’s exactly what Spaniard Oriol Mena has done and at round seven of the ’10 EWC series, the first ever GP of Turkey, where he claimed his first top three senior result as he nears the end of what has been a tough and trying season for the young Spaniard.

With temperatures in Turkey similar to those at the GP of Greece and remaining constantly above 40-degree celsious throughout both days of competition, Mena’s biggest problem wasn’t the extreme heat but the stiff competition in the Enduro 3 class. Starting the day well Oriol remained in contention with the more experienced riders in his class. Having ridden well in Greece one week earlier, but having seen mistakes spoil his result on day two, Oriol made sure he didn’t make any unnessary errors. Come the end of the day he placed third and just 45 seconds behind E3 class winner Seb Guillaume to claim his first podium of ’10.

On day two Mena again rode well but with a few mistakes creeping into his riding, and with competition as fierce as ever, he ended the day seventh. One-and-a-half minutes behind winner David Knight, Oriol was just 30 seconds behind the fourth placed rider. ‘It’s been a mixed weekend for me with some good and bad points, but overall I’m pleased more than I’m disappointed,’ commented the Spaniard. ‘Claiming my first podium on the first day was important for me. I saw that my speed was good in the morning and I managed to keep pushing hard throughout the day. To get my first podium against the big riders in the class was great. I was very happy about that. I had only one crash, which was on the final enduro test. In some ways that was good for me because it meant that I really had to push hard on the final special tests to finish on the podium, which I did.

‘The second day started well for me but I made many mistakes on the final lap, which cost me a lot of time. I was fighting for fifth position but I ended up seventh. Not a great finish to the event but I am very pleased with my day one result. It’s been a hard race, now I am looking forward to the final in France.’

The GP of Turkey proved to be a tough event for Husaberg’s Enduro 2 class riders with Joakim Ljunggren delivering the best results with eighth on day one and seventh on day two. Sixth on the event’s opening special test, and continuing to perform well on both the motocross and extreme test throughout the two days of competition, Joakim wasn’t able to match the pace of his class mates on the wooded enduro test. As a result he failed to challenge for the podium positions.

Source: http://www.husaberg.com/News.10.0.html

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Oriol Mena delivers the goods for Husaberg at EWC GP of Turkey

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