Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing’s Graham Jarvis has earned a strong second place at the 2018 Hell’s Gate extreme enduro. With an all-new format for this year, concluding in a 20-minute sprint race, the event posed a fresh challenge for the five-time winner.
For the first time ever, the event kicked off with a Prologue race on the Friday night. Designed to set the starting order for Saturday’s race, the Prologue was an endurocross style event held close to the hosting Il Ciocco Hotel. Although it provided a great spectacle for the fans, the race results were eventually scrapped due to issues with the course.
Saturday’s heat race went well for Jarvis. An expert at managing his pace, the Brit did exactly what he had to do over the five-laps, finishing fourth aboard his Husqvarna FE 250 in the cold conditions of the Tuscan hills. The position gave him a good start for the night race, which saw riders set off at 3.30pm for a tough three-hour multi-lap event.
At the conclusion of the night race, the top-10 riders were given a 15-minute break before contesting the new 20-minute endurocross in the arena area of the venue. In freezing conditions, the riders fought bar-to-bar in front of the record-crowd of spectators to decide the overall winner. With the final results calculated on the sum of the previous legs, Jarvis was announced as runner-up, just a few minutes behind eventual winner Mario Roman.
Graham Jarvis: “I really enjoyed the racing today, I always do here at Hell’s Gate. It’s been a tough couple of days and I’m still getting used to riding the 4-stroke, but the bike has been absolutely faultless over the entire weekend. It has been pretty close between the top-four all day and it’s all come down to the final 20-minute race off. It would have been nice to take my sixth win at the event, but I’m happy with second.”
Results – Hells Gate 2018
1. Mario Roman (Sherco) 3:06:03
2. Graham Jarvis (Husqvarna) 3:08:57
3. Travis Teasdale (Beta) 3:12:45
4. Diego Nicoletti (Husqvarna) 3:32:14
5. Sonny Goggia (KTM) 3:39:26
6. Michele Bosi (Beta) 3:46:15
