Home ground gives top team edge in Enduro

Stefan Merriman has won the Enduro four times. Picture / Chris Callinan

New Zealand's six-man number one team to contest the Olympics of motorcycling has a distinctly motocross component and a good chance of bringing home gold.

It is the first time the Enduro has been staged in New Zealand, so local riders have the advantage of being familiar with the pine-forest courses.

The annual International Six Days Enduro starts near Taupo on November 14 with Taranaki brothers Darryll and Shayne King spearheading the New Zealand campaign in the Trophy Team.

They will be joined by fellow motocross international Scott Columb (Queenstown) and Enduro guns Kevin Archer (Te Awamutu), Chris Birch (Waimauku) and Paul Whibley (Pahiatua).

Whibley will return from racing in the United States, where he is fifth in the national series, especially for the Enduro.

The Trophy Team is New Zealand's top squad for the big event in the Kinleith forest between Taupo and Tokoroa.

The number two squad, the four-man Junior Trophy Team, is made up of Jason Davis (Whangamata), Karl Power (Hamilton), Adrian Smith (Thames) and Michael Phillips (Rotorua).

New Zealand also has more than 28 separate three-rider club teams entered. In all, 94 New Zealand riders are entered, the largest contingent of any of the 29 countries represented.

Enduro racing is similar to rally car racing, with riders setting off in groups of three, one minute apart, over marked courses that include anything tricky that nature can throw up - logs, tree roots, rocks, mud, creek beds, gorse-strewn hills, ravines, sand hills and swamps - most of which the riders have no chance of trying out in advance.

This year's event includes 600 of the world's best dirt-bike racers. A strong representation is due from Europe and Australia, with some riders competing in the national Trophy Teams and others as individuals.

Stefan Merriman will be a strong contender. Originally from Tauranga, he has been racing under an Australian licence and will be in that country's Trophy Team. He has won the Enduro four times, last in 2004.

Merriman will face stiff competition from defending Enduro champion Samuli Aro of Finland.