Motorsport: Gunfire cuts into international enduro race

Mokau's Adrian Smith accepted a third-place ranking. Photo / Greg Bowker

The International Six Days Enduro has always been a brutal and uncompromising test of man and machine.

And while the world's off-road motorcycling elite did expect to deal with sharp rocks, prickly cacti and temperatures in the high 30s in Mexico, they never expected they'd end up having to write "bullet dodger" on their CVs.

This year's ISDE in Morelia, Mexico, was cut short on Sunday as gunfights between warring drug cartels and the Mexican police broke out near to where the final day of racing had been scheduled.

Local organisers and the sport's governing body had no option but to wind up the 85th edition of the big annual international event "for the safety of the riders".

This meant the only Kiwi riders at the event - the three-man Wellard Yamaha Team of Mokau's Adrian Smith, Paeroa's Chris Power and Auckland's Karl Power - had to accept their positions at the end of day five would also be their final ISDE rankings.

They had each challenged for individual glory in their respective club team classes and also for team honours in the battle for the Club Team world championship.

Though it was a major disappointment that the event had to be finished early, each of the New Zealand riders still did enough to impress with top performances.

Karl Power, the New Zealand under-300cc four-stroke enduro champion, had been closing in on his main rival in the C2 division (for 450cc four-stroke bikes) but ended up having to settle for second place overall.

At the start of day five, Power had been 55sec behind Spain's Aaron Bernardez, but by the end of the day he had shaved another 23sec off that deficit and - at that stage just 32sec behind Bernardez - was looking forward to launching his final attack on what was meant to be the sixth and final day.

Adrian Smith (Yamaha YZ250F) had been running in third place outright in the C1 division from the start of racing last Tuesday, but the cancellation also denied the New Zealand under-200cc two-stroke enduro champion any chance of improving. He had to accept a final ISDE ranking of No3. Smith finished 3min behind Italy's Maurizio Micheluz and 10min behind the class winner, Spain's Cristobal Guerrero.

Meanwhile, Chris Power (Yamaha YZ250F), the New Zealand over-300cc four-stroke champion who was only called into the squad at the last minute when another Kiwi rider was injured, settled for fourth overall in the C1 class, 5min behind Smith.

Combined, the three Wellard Yamaha Team riders managed to hold on to their second outright podium position in the chase for Club Team world championship honours, eventually finishing 18min behind the powerful Spanish team trio but ahead of 72 other teams in the competition.