First Superenduro race win of the season and a very close second overall.

PayGroup KTM UK rider, David Knight finished only 1 point from securing the overall win at Round 2 of the Superenduro World Championship in Riesa, Germany on Saturday. After finishing 2nd at Round 1 in Poland 3 weeks ago, David has steadily improved to equal reigning World Champion Taddy Blazusiak on points for the 3 races only to lose out by 1 point from the super pole lap.

The day got off to a flying start for Knighter as he and Blazusiak battled in the first practice, matching each other's lap times. The second practice was a similar story, then in timed practice David failed to get a clear lap but was still fourth fastest, less than a second from first. This set him up nicely for Superpole. Putting in a good solid lap, just making a small mistake through the water, Knighter led with only factory KTM riders Blazusiak and Walker to go. With Taddy and Jonny putting in very good laps it was third place for David, 1 point and a good start position.

Race 1:

Not the best start, but David quickly got into 2nd behind arch rival Blazusiak and stayed on his rear wheel passing him briefly a couple of times until a lapped rider held David up in the rock turn allowing the Polish rider to get a gap and take the win.

Race 2:

Not the best start again for the reverse grid race 2. Buried at the rear of the pack, David fought his way through to third by halfway around lap 1. After taking the lead, he built up a comfortable gap and controlled the race from the front, doing enough to take his first win of the 2015 Super Enduro series and with Blazusiak 3rd, it was all to play for.

Race 3:

Knighter made a great start, only losing out to Blazusiak on turn 1 who had the inside line. Knighter followed Taddy over the first double jump and log section where the Polish rider made a small mistake, unfortunately causing David to clip his rear wheel and lose speed. This allowed Walker and Cody Webb past. Knighter regrouped and challenged Webb for a couple of laps until he finally forced him into a mistake and overtook to take 3rd. Unfortunately Blazusiak had gone and Walker had a safe 2nd. In the final moments of the race, Blazusiak made a big mistake, allowing Walker to take the win. With Taddy 2nd and Knight 3rd their points over the three races were equal.

Only Taddy's 2 points to Knighter’s 1 in Superpole, gave the Polish rider the overall win by a single point. A very happy David Knight took a very close 2nd and sits only 13 points behind Blazusiak in the World Championship after 2 rounds.

David Knight:

What can I say, I'm very happy to have almost won in Germany, but also gutted to have missed out by only 1 point. A couple of mistakes from lapped riders and a mistake from myself in race 3 cost me that first place overall. I was directly behind Taddy and clipped him allowing two guys past. I should never have let it happen and it cost me a decent shot at race 3.

Never mind, that's racing and I am still well happy with 2nd and really enjoyed the atmosphere and the racing in Germany. I've still not got to where I need to be as I've not had enough time to train as much as I'd hoped with one thing and another but I've still definitely made steps in the right direction. I'm satisfied with mine and mechanic Steve Plain's progress that we made from Poland.

This championship is very tough and to take a race win and be pushing hard like this keeps on motivating me and giving me a confidence boost so as I said after Poland, I can just do my best with what I have and improve step by step. The main thing is I'm enjoying it more and more and am very excited every time I jump on my KTM so I'm sure there is more to come.

David’s next events will be Eddy's Extreme at Tong on the 25th January and the FIM Superenduro World Championship Round 3 in Finland on the 1st February.

Photos courtesy: Denis Günther / DG Design

www.knighter.net