The town of Parry Sound embraces the World Enduro Championships. You can see their support for international event everywhere; on hotel signs, banners across the sttreets--and even on big rocks along the 400 highway! 

Report by Danny Brault
Photos by Allison Kennedy

The Canadian round of the Maxxis World Enduro Championships wrapped up yesterday in Parry Sound. The course was easier for the riders this year, mainly to help close the gap between the Canucks and the Europeans, but the weather certainly didn't make it easy on anyone. A heat wave swept through Northern Ontario, which made the 45-km trail seem even longer, and had spectators fighting for shade.

Last year it was David Knight who made the challenging Canadian terrain look easy, but now that the giant has moved onto the GNCC series in America, the man to watch was Finland's Juha Salminen. The two-time GNCC champ and five-time World Enduro champ continued his undefeated streak in the E1 class on his KTM 250 EXC-F.

The organizers, once again, did an amazing job with the Parry Sound event. If you didn't make the trip north, you missed out. The WEC brings with it a true international feel, with riders from all over the world; the whole town celebrates motorcycles and throughout the weekend, with people cruising around on two-wheeled machines all over the place;  fans are able to stand within arm's length of the entire track; it's as though, for those days, Parry Sound becomes the centre of Canadian motorcycling. Here's hoping the series comes back in `08!

Canadian James Skinner finished 11th and 10th in Parry Sound in the E1 class. This rocky section in the Extreme Test looked to be the most difficult part of the course, until the riders found this sneaky path on the far right.

Finland's Samuli Aro won the first round on Saturday, but a mistake in his second run in the Cross Test on Sunday gave him the 10th fastest time. He made up for it, however, by setting the fastest time in the next round of Special Tests and held on for second behind Honda's Mika Ahola. Just to show you how tight it is between the top riders, Ahola's total time was 43:34.33 and Aro's was 43:41.91.

Czechoslovakia's Vita Kuklik finished 6th and 8th in the E3 class.

Canadian Denis Liebersan heads through the Cross Test.   

A KTM rider descends through a tricky section in the Extreme Test. 

There was no shortage of Fan of the Week's in Parry Sound. 

Husaberg rider Joakim Ljundgren (no relation to Dolph) won the first day in Enduro Junior. He must have went down in the second Extreme Test on Sunday, because his time was 12 seconds slower than his other runs. That put him back to fourth, only five seconds out of second. 

Allan Lachapelle was the third Canadian in E2 on Saturday and second Canadian on Sunday, behind Shane Cuthbertson. 

Veteran off-road racer Craig Kennedy finished 16th on both days on his Lightning Powersports RM250. He and Guy Giroux were the only Suzuki riders in Parry Sound.

World Enduro is not for the weak. The riders are on their bikes from 9:00 AM to 3:30 PM, with a only a few small, five minutes breaks to grab a drink, refuel and rethink their strategies.

They must be Juha fans.

Guy Grioux, who is one of Canada's multi-talented motorcycle racers, finished 10th in E1 on Saturday (second Canadian) and was 9th on Sunday (tying for top Canadian with Cory Graffunder).

Salminen uncorks on the podium. 

Sunday's E2 podium: Samuli Aro (left), Mika Ahola (centre), and Jonny Aubert (right). 

Ivan Cervantes gives the thumbs up after winning both days. 

KTM Canada's Marketing guru, Florian Burguet, presents Cory Graffunder with the Top Canadian award. Attached to the award is all expenses paid trip to the Endurocross in Las Vegas in November. 

For complete results from the Parry Sound Enduro, and all of the WEC rounds, please visit http://www.abc-wec.com/