Three and easy?
By TMX Archives on 6th Jun 03
opening two rounds of this year's world enduro championship, two riders towered above all others in the 250cc two-stroke class. One was the reigning quarter-litre world champion, Finland's Samuli Aro. AFTER THE opening two rounds of this year's world enduro championship, two riders towered above all others in the 250cc two-stroke class. One was the reigning quarter-litre world champion, Finland's Samuli Aro. The other was two-time world champ Stefan Merriman, Honda Italy's new boy and a rider with a definite point to prove in '03.Just 12 months earlier the head of the 400cc four-stroke class had looked very similar. Two riders were again faster than the rest. On that occasion one was a three-time world champion by the name of Juha Salminen. The other, again, was Stefan - a rider every bit as fast and as focused as his Finnish rival but distracted by the financial instabilities of his then Husqvarna team. Trading places at the front of the class the pair were locked in a close and exciting run for the title. At least they were right up until the series landed at the penultimate round in Finland..."Juha was really on top of his game the race before we headed to Scandinavia," recalls Stefan, looking back at the point when his '02 title campaign started to come undone. "It was a case of giving it my all at the final two rounds of the series and hoping for the best."But Stefan's best wasn't good enough and his title hopes were brought to an abrupt end. Juha topped the event while Stefan crashed hard and saw his rival turn a four-point deficit into a 39-point championship lead. Having lost that battle, Stefan learnt an important lesson - in order to win a world title when up against a world class Finn he'd have to stamp his mark on the season's earlier rounds.Stefan knew that in order to win this year he'd have to amass as many points as possible before the end of the season as home advantage would swing firmly in Aro's favour. While simple in theory it would never be simple in practice.Both Stefan and Samuli started '03 adjusting to new teams and new machines. Having been team-mates on the CH Racing Husqvarna squad last year, Aro headed for a factory KTM ride while Stefan returned to the 250cc two-stroke class with Honda."Honda were able to offer me a really good package - a very competitive bike, an enthusiastic and experienced team and the right contract," explains Stefan on the move that surprised many. And after being mounted on four-stroke machinery for two seasons and then piloting a 125cc Husky to a class win at the '02 ISDE in Czecho, his choice of class also came as a shock."The Jolly Racing HM-Zanardo team gave me the choice of riding whatever bike I wanted in '03. The CRE 250cc two-stroke is the bike that will give me my best chance of winning a title - it's as simple as that."Armed with his converted 'crosser, Stefan got his season off to a positive but controversial start. Faster than Aro, a 50-point haul should have been the outcome of his weekend's work in Portugal. Instead, Stefan picked up a one-minute penalty on day one after the international jury deemed that he'd received outside assistance from his girlfriend on more than one of the event's extreme tests. With Aro awarded the victory on day one and with Merriman returning to the top on day two, all was even with two days gone.Round two in Spain wasn't a good one for Stefan who struggled to find grip in the slippery Spanish conditions. No matter what Stefan tried, Aro simply couldn't be beaten. Finishing in a disappointing second place on both days behind his rival, Stefan was now second in the series. "I certainly wasn't expecting it to be so slippery in Spain. I tried riding smooth and I tried riding aggressively but neither seemed to work."With the Moroccan round of the series cancelled, Greece staged the next race of the series and Stefan moved back to the top of the class after winning both days while Aro unexpectedly finished third on day two - something that he could ill afford to do.Next on the WEC's tour of duty were the French and Italian rounds - to Stefan the two single most important events of the year. Having performed well but not flawlessly at the first three rounds - and after losing the opportunity to gain points with the cancellation of the race in Morocco - wins and only wins would do.Thankfully for Stefan that's what he got. Fighting every step of the way with Aro on day one, Stefan did just enough to top the class and the event before repeating his performance on day two. With Samuli making too many mistakes to challenge for the win, Stefan's absolute focus and determination saw him edge further ahead in the series."France was very stressful because I knew that I needed to win there," admits Stefan. "As much as I'd like to win in Finland and Sweden I know that Samuli will be very fast and hard to beat. That's why I knew that I must win in France. It was a tough weekend because of the conditions, thankfully I made a few less mistakes than Samuli. I couldn't have asked for a better result."While Stefan's performance in France was impressive, his focus and resolve in Italy was extraordinary. Determined not to let his championship bid come unstuck like it had one year earlier, not only was he quick around all of the Italian special tests he also went both days without crashing - a feat that most WEC riders struggle to achieve. And he also topped his class and the overall classification on both days."It was a perfect weekend for me," explains Stefan. "I put a lot of pressure on myself again in Italy because I simply couldn't finish second. As well as being the team's home race, I knew that I had to win so that I could relax at the last two rounds of the series. I've needed to win in Sweden and Finland before and as a result I've crashed and lost the titles. This year I couldn't let it happen again."So how exactly did Stefan make sure he got it right this year? "Well, I've not slept properly for a few weeks which hasn't made things any easier because I knew that I simply couldn't afford to be beaten. I arrived early at both races and walked the tests many times. Here in Italy I walked the extreme test five times and the cross-country and motocross tests three times each. It's been a lot of walking and a lot of preparation to get the results I needed. "When the event starts you can't change much but the way in which you prepare yourself before the start of the race is what really counts."But despite the many hours Stefan spent walking around the Italian special tests and the constant worrying about everything being just right, there was one area in which he took a huge gamble - his tyres. With the event being tucked away in the mountains of northern Italy the chance of rain was a very real one. A chance that meant tyre selection would be crucial for all. And with changes to WEC rules now stating that what's fitted at the end of day one is the tyre a rider has to start day two with, Stefan had to get it right. Happy with both Pirelli's soft and hard compound front tyres, Stefan took one of the biggest gambles of his career and ran with their new intermediate tyre. One that he'd not tested properly let alone used in competition before."Pirelli have a very good hard tyre and a very good soft tyre but I hadn't found a tyre that I liked in between those. The hard tyre would have been perfect here but the risk of rain was too high to use it. I tried the tyre for the first time in the training area the Thursday before the race and liked it but I didn't know how it was going to work in the stones on the extreme tests. It was a big risk but thankfully it paid off."So after what have arguably been two of the most important weekends of Stefan's career, the pint-sized ace now stands comfortably at the top of the quarter-litre world enduro championship."It's still not time to relax though," he points out. "Anything can happen yet. As in any motorsport it's not over until we reach the end of the last race of the season. Now I have to learn from what happened last year, take things a little easier in Finland and Sweden and finish each day. Only then will I be able to relax."Jonty Edmunds