The 2023 FIM EnduroGP World Championship continues its run and three weeks after the last GP in Spain, our riders took on Friday 26th, Saturday 27th and Sunday 28th May, the third GP of the season on Finnish soil in Heinola, a small town just over 100 km from Helsinki.
Awaiting the World Circus was a track of more than 50 km with three Special Tests to be repeated three times a day, to which was added the Super Test on Friday evening held inside the motocross track, which for years has hosted the MXGP Championship, in the presence of a large and festive crowd of fans.
The Finnish round was held in typical Scandinavian weather characterised by frequent rain and low temperatures, which made the difficult race course designed for the occasion by the Moto Club Heinola Moottorikerho, in collaboration with Track Inspector Maurizio Micheluz, even more insidious and selective.
Our riders for the third round of the season had to tackle three high-level and very technical special tests where experience and control played a key role in the success of the race. At the beginning of both days of competition the course included a very slow and technical Cross Test of 3km in an unusual location in a forest with sandy soil, followed by an Enduro Test of 6.8km in a forest with slippery and muddy terrain alternating with tricky parts with stones and roots, and finally an Extreme Test inside the motocross track, on the same track as the Super Test on Friday night, with some jumps and artificial passages.
A very exciting weekend for the colours of JET Fantic Racing, which took the podium in their respective classes with all the riders competing
Jed Etchells is more and more the protagonist of the Junior class, the Junior rider raced two days recording several best times. On Day One Jed Etchells won both the Junior class, distancing the runner-up by about ten seconds, and the Junior1 class where the gap exceeded one minute. On Day 2, the British rider collected a second place in the Junior class and another first place in the Junior1 class. Thanks to these results on Finnish soil, Jed Etchells was handed the provisional leader’s table in both the Junior and Junior1 classes.
An excellent performance on Scandinavian soil for Harry Edmondson, the reigning Youth champion managed to take his first podium in the Junior1 class during Day One and also raced an excellent second day of competition, finishing in fourth place.
In the Junior class the son of art collected other excellent results, finishing sixth on Day One and ninth on Sunday.
The Woman class also started at Heinola and our defending champion raced yet another excellent race. Jane Daniels won both days of racing, distancing her rivals by over three minutes on Saturday and over a minute and forty seconds on Sunday.
At the end of the race, thanks to her double win in the Finnish GP, Jane Daniels raised the Woman class leader’s table to the sky.
The FIM Enduro World Championship does not stop and with less than five days to go before the end of the Finnish GP will be staged in Skovde, Sweden, the fourth round of the season with a race that will start, unlike usual, with the Super Test on the evening of Thursday, June 1st and will end on Saturday, June 3th.
Team Manager Matthew Savi
“A very satisfying weekend, Jed Etchells proved to be the rider to beat in both Junior and Junior1 and is currently the provisional leader. Harry Edmondson managed to get on the podium in his first year in Junior and this is an achievement that fills us with joy. Jane Daniels continues to impress by literally dominating the Woman class and is increasingly the undisputed leader.”
Jane Daniels
“It was a very high level race at Heinola and very demanding and technical. I am happy with the results obtained during the race weekend because with the whole team we are doing a great job.”
Jed Etchells
“The fight for the final victory in the Junior class is getting more and more exciting and difficult, with the team we are working hard to always arrive prepared for each GP and the results we get are the fruit of this work.”
Harry Edmondson
“I am happy to be on the podium in the Junior 1 class after the first day of competition. It was not easy to get good results this year because I am in my first year in this class and I have to get used to the new bike. Now we continue like this in Sweden.”
