U.S. World Trophy Team poised for podium finish

Story and photos by Steve Berkner

After four days of intermittent rain showers, thunderstorms, wind, sleet and even hail Mother Nature finally rested on Day Five of the International Six Days Enduro in Kotka-Hamina, Finland.

“It’s like she was trying to show us who's boss,” said Jimmy Jarrett of the U.S. World Trophy Team. “The (first four days) were just plain miserable. Today, Mother Nature took a rest.”

Jarrett and his five teammates used the day to solidify their third-place position where they sit approximately 10 minutes ahead of fourth-place Sweden and about 24 minutes behind second place Spain. Finland leads the event with a 27-minute lead on Spain.

“Today (by comparison) everything was easy,” Jarrett said. “Just having the sun shining made a big difference. The whole team made it through the day without any real problems. Like usual, Kurt (Caselli) and Russell (Bobbitt) put down some good times and the rest of us helped out where we could.”

Caselli used Day Four to maintain his lead in the E2 class where his results again were good enough to keep him in fourth overall. Bobbitt, who rides in the E2 class, as well, finished the first five days of the ISDE seventh in class and 15th overall.

“Again, the team did awesome,” Caselli said. “It’s been a long week and it’s easy to get in trouble by being lazy and not paying attention. You have to stay focused. I had my share of those types of problems today.

“The tests were all the same as yesterday, less the one test they threw out (because of the rain), and I crashed in three of the four,” he continued. “The one I didn’t crash in, I won, so you can see how easy it is to get in trouble. Tomorrow it looks like all we have to do is make it to the final moto, stay out of trouble and we’re on the podium.”

While the U.S. World Trophy Team sits poised to make the podium, barring any problems on the way to the final moto, the U.S. Junior Trophy Team lost one of its four riders when Cory Buttrick’s motorcycle wouldn’t start after a test near the end of the day.

“It just quit,” Buttrick said. “We had no indication that there was even a problem. It just quit at the end of a test (special test number three) and it wouldn’t start.

“It was unexpected,” he continued. “The day was going just great. The sun was finally shining, and I actually was having a good time. My tests actually were all going very well but when I started to come to a stop (at the end of the test) the motor just quit.

“Its real disappointing as you put your heart and soul into this race and you do the best you can,” he said. “You're wet, you're cold, you're freezing, but you still have another 150 miles to go, but you find a way to keep going. It a real bummer when you can’t finish and you’re only 50 miles from a gold medal.”

Buttrick’s retirement made him the only additional U.S. team rider not to make it into impound at the end of the day. The U.S. Junior team is still in fourth place overall where only three scores are needed to be competitive.

The Day Six final motocross test is located about 15 kilometers north of Kotka at a local motocross park. No difficult trail sections are on the route, and all a rider has to do is start the motocross test to be scored.