Paul Whibley riding cautiously?

Honda Racing Fast Eddy riders Paul Edmondson and Paul Whibley both made promising starts to their ’04 World Enduro Championship campaigns posting well-earned points scoring rides on both days of the season opener in Puerto Lumbreras, Spain. For Edmondson, two fourth place finishes has resulted in the Midlands based rider now lying in third place of the Enduro 2 world championship

With the challenging mix of dust, rocks and rain making for extremely tough conditions on both the events two motocross and one cross-country test, Honda Racing Fast Eddy team owner Edmondson called upon his years of experience to claim two solid fourth place finishes in the Enduro 2 class. Proving both consistent and fast during the two days, Eddy’s results would have been at least one position better each day had it not been for slightly ‘off the pace’ opening laps. Despite his slow starts Paul dug deep and now holds a strong third place in the E2 class.

"The weekend has been really good; I’m just a little frustrated because I should have come away with two podium finishes. I’m always pretty hard on myself if I don’t get the results that I want and as I wanted to get two podium finishes this weekend I’m a little disappointed with finishing fourth twice. I know that a lot of riders would be really pleased with that but I know where I want to be finishing this year and that’s not in fourth place. I guess I should be a little happier.

"To be perfectly honest Salminen is riding a level above the rest of the Enduro 2 riders at the moment so the main thing is to get as many podiums as possible and to be consistent during the whole season. There’s been a lot of talk of how competitive the Enduro 1 and Enduro 3 classes are but the Enduro 2 class is also going to be interesting this year as there are a bunch of riders all battling to finish behind Salminen. Despite this being only the first race of the championship second place is anybodies and I think it’ll go to the guy who is the most consistent. I’m determined to make that me.

"The only thing that I’ve struggled with a little bit this weekend was getting on the pace on the opening lap. I seem to be too relaxed on the first few tests, which means I’m having to play catch up for the rest of the day. On day two that cost me a podium finish because Pohjamo beat me by eight seconds on the first test and finished five seconds ahead at the end of the day. I’ve just got to work at it.

"From a team point of view it\'s been a great weekend. Ok, Whibley didn’t quite manage to break into the top 10 on day one but on day two he rode really well and finished in eighth. Both finishing inside the top ten has opened a few peoples eyes as we’re one of the best performing non-factory teams, which gives me a great deal of satisfaction. We’ve now made a start to the new championship and everyone knows what they have to do now so it’s just a case of the Honda Racing Fast Eddy team working hard to ensure more similar results."

For Whibley the opening event of the season was also a promising one and despite a slightly disappointing 11^th place finish on day one the New Zealander bounced back to claim eighth in the Enduro 2 class on day two. Finding the conditions difficult to adapt to like many other riders, Whibley rode conservatively on day one before upping his game on day two.

"The first day started pretty slowly for me. I struggled a little bit with the rocks and the hard pack and the dust and stuff. The second day was better though as I started to understand the conditions a bit better. The event has been pretty difficult but it’s been really good – not much road work and some pretty demanding sections on the trails. The tests have also been good because they’ve not just been flat paddocks – they’ve had plenty of variation of terrain.

"I haven’t crashed all weekend, which helped my results, but if anything I’ve possibly not pushed hard enough. It’s really difficult to know how hard to ride in these conditions, especially as I’m not too familiar with them.

"I would have liked to have finished higher in class on day one but with the class effectively being two classes combined I guess it’s a good start to the new season – it’s a much better start than last year. I felt that I’ve been riding well so I’m just aiming at bettering my eighth place finish from ’03. It’s gonna be hard but I’m confident that I can do it.

Issued on behalf of Fast Eddy Honda Racing.