Knighter finishes runner up at EWC of Italy.

David Knight made a very successful and last minute decision to race the penultimate round of the 2014 Enduro World Championship held in Lumezzane, Italy at the weekend.

The weather was terrible with heavy rain making the going extremely tough and with further thunderstorms on Sunday bringing misery to the riders. Knighter, however thrives in these conditions and the results show it. Despite it being almost a whole year since racing an EWC event, David, aboard his own virtually standard KTM 300, placed 7th on day one. After a steady start, he gradually gained pace and confidence, ending the day only 15 seconds from third position.

On the second day of the event, David increased his pace and finished an excellent 2nd place, only 7 seconds behind the winner of the E3 class, Oscar Balletti.

David Knight:
 Last Tuesday I was in the workshop tidying up, the next thing I was on the phone arranging to go and race the World Enduro in Italy! To say it was a very impulsive decision is an understatement. A couple of mates said they would drive the van and bike down for me, I'd fly so I could get the tests walked. I arrived on Wednesday night, Mark and Jonathan arrived with the van on Thursday afternoon. We had a bike to prepare, spares and service for the race to sort out and then walk the special tests. As you can imagine we were flat out. I didn't get to walk the tests as much as I'd like but we got everything done apart from testing the bike - we simply ran out off time!

Day 1 started very steady, my first lap was hampered by the bike running far too rich - as the carburetion was way out - and my suspension wasn't set up great.

At the end of lap 1, I changed the carburetion and immediately on lap 2, I improved immensely. For the final lap I changed the carburetion a little more, and changed the gearing. Throughout the day I had been constantly adjusting suspension settings. The result was that on the final lap I was on the pace and had caught up to finish 7th, but more importantly only 15 seconds away from the podium. I was really happy with my progress and excited for day 2.

Day 2 started better but I had a few problems with my forks in the first special test. I made a dramatic change for the second test and it made the bike handle much better. From there, I got into second position and was pretty confident I could take the win but threw it away by crashing on the final lap. A really silly crash, I think as I was enjoying it too much and having too much fun. I ended the day finishing 2nd, only 7 seconds off the win.

To say I'm very happy is an understatement. I rode just to enjoy myself and have fun, Italy is always a great place to do it, as the races are always fantastic. Mark and Jonathan had never been to a World Enduro and did a great job even though before the start they didn't have a clue what they needed to do. It was a story of three mates going to a World Championship race totally unprepared and taking on the factory teams with a virtually stock bike with kit suspension. We ended up, not only having a great time, but actually standing on the podium. I really enjoyed the event and the atmosphere, the Italian fans were amazing. I think we opened a few people's eyes and I am happy with the progress I made during the weekend, not only with my bike, but also myself.

I just want to say a big thanks to the people who helped and supported me, it's great to know I have massive support out there. Also lots of people have said I'm back with KTM. This is not the case, I've bought my own KTM for the time being as it's a great bike and I know the bikes well, but I'm free to ride what I want and I'm currently speaking to teams to get something sorted for the indoor season which starts in December.

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