July 21, 2006

Teams announced for the

International Six Day Enduro

Motorcycling Australia has announced the teams that will represent Australia at the 81^st International Six Day Enduro at Lake Taupo, New Zealand, from November 14-19.

Teams taking part in the World Trophy and Junior Trophy events have been decided upon, as well as the make up of the MA Club Team which will also compete.

The World Trophy team sees the inclusions of 2004 Enduro World Champion Stefan Merriman, and AJ Roberts who finished second at this year’s Australian Four Day Enduro, adding to a strong line-up.

Damian Smith, Brad Williscroft, Jake Stapleton and Glenn Kearney are the other four riders to be included in the six-man team.

Kearney is the only new addition to the team which took place in last year’s event, with the other five combining to finish fifth from the 18 competing teams.

Smith will be competing in his 10^th consecutive ISDE – 12^th overall, having competed in the Junior event in 1996/97 and the World Trophy event every year ever since.

Speaking after learning of his re-selection, Smith was ecstatic at being included in the team once more, and is confident that with the event being held in New Zealand, the Australians have a wonderful chance to claim the major prize.

“It really is another huge honour to be selected to represent Australia again,” he said.

“We will have a bit of shorter flight than most of the other riders, so we won’t be as fatigued as a lot of them will be.

“It is a big advantage for the Australian team that the race is in New Zealand as we have a pretty good relationship with the New Zealand organisers, and that is sure be somewhat in our favour.”

The Junior Trophy team consists of Chris Hollis, Blake Hore, Josh Strang and Darren Lloyd, with Hore and Lloyd backing up from the team which claimed seventh place in last year’s event.

Hollis, who will be racing in his first ISDE event, is looking forward to riding in the event given that he is so close with his other three team-mates.

“I am pretty excited, I’m pretty stoked, and I just can’t wait to get over there and compete,” he said.

“I’m pretty good mates with all the other guys in the team as I ride with them a fair bit, so it is going to be great to ride together with them as part of the competition.

“Damien (Smith) has told me a lot about the event, and he’s been really good helping me get an idea of what it’s going to be like, but I’m just going to keep training hard, keep riding and hope that everything works out.”

The MA Club team consists of three riders, who will act as reserves should anything happen to anyone in the senior team, however they will get the chance to compete as part of their own team in a separate competition.

The team includes Ben Kearney, Mark Goggin and Jarrod Bewley.

Most of the ISDE riding will take place through Kinleith Forest- a commercial Pine plantation forest that has been home to many Enduros over the past 10 years, located between Taupo and Tokoroa.

Competition lasts for six days with riders competing for up to eight hours each day, and the results are calculated by taking the best five scores from the six competing riders each day.