Husqvarna Canada Announces 2011 Race Team

Transcription

1 Husqvarna Canada Announces 2011 Race Team December 3rd, 2010 Saint John, NB On the heels of the close of an extremely successful 2010 race season, Feeding Performance Husqvarna is pleased to announce its plans for next year. The most significant change for 2011 is the addition of one of the most talented young riders in the country to the official Husqvarna Canada team. Quebec s 2010 Overall FMSQ Champion, Philippe Chainé, will join the Husqvarna crew to contest the Quebec off-road series as well as the 2011 Canadian Enduro Championship. The agreement will see Chainé hone his skills on a Husqvarna for both the 2011 and 2012 race seasons. Philippe Chainé

2 In addition to taking the overall crown in Quebec this year, Philippe was a consistent top contender in the E1 class of the 2010 Canadian Enduro Championship. Chainé was slightly off his game in the rugged mountains of the first two rounds in Alberta but quickly upped his pace to secure podiums at the remaining six rounds. Philippe finished the season strong by dominating the E1 class at the brutal, mud infested final rounds in Quebec, and nailing a double win in front of his home crowd. The E1 title chase was extremely tight in Alberta s Jared Thomas actually tied Ontario s Chris Van Hove in points, with Thomas narrowly taking the title and Chainé only a few points behind them to finish 3 rd overall in the E1 Championship. Philippe will be joining Quebec off-road legend Guy Giroux, along with brothers Nick and Ryan Graffunder from British Columbia, as they make their return to the Husqvarna squad for GUY GIROUX In 2010, Guy added 9 FMSQ podiums to his already ridiculous list of accomplishments, including 3 Wins, on his way to taking the 2010 FMSQ Enduro Cross Championship (Quebec s version of Cross Country) and locking down 2 nd Overall in the FMSQ Provincial Championship. In the 2010 Canadian Enduro Championship, Giroux finished the year with one Overall Win, 4 podium finishes, 3 rd place in the E3 Championship and 5 th Overall Pro. Guy will undoubtedly be chasing more victories in 2011 but is also looking forward to his growing role as coach and mentor to a group of the best young off-road racers in Canada. The young mountain lion duo of Nick & Ryan Graffunder logged impressive seasons in 2010 with both achieving personal bests and making major steps forward in terms of developing their skills and moving up the results page. Nick Graffunder suffered more than his fair share of bad luck throughout much of the season that almost robbed him of the opportunity to show his true potential. Fortunately

3 Nick was able to get redemption at the final rounds in Quebec where he landed on the E1 podium and proved that there was no question that he can challenge the leaders. As the race season came to a close, Nick immediately uncrated a new TXC 250 to train on throughout the winter months in preparation for the upcoming race season. He is definitely fired up for next season and is eager to come out swinging in NICK GRAFFUNDER Nick s brother, Ryan Graffunder, finished the race season with an impressive list of accomplishments. Graffunder earned multiple podiums in the ultra-competitive E2 class of the Canadian Enduro Championship enroute to taking home 4 th overall and the 2010 Top Pro Junior Award (riders under 20 yrs) was the second year in a row that Ryan has earned the award. In addition to nailing the first Pro Class Win of his young career in 2010, Ryan also enjoyed a career highlight by hammering his way to 5 th overall and 2 nd Canadian at the 2010 Montreal Endurocross in front of over 50,000 spectators. Graffunder finished the race behind the USA s Mike Brown, Hungary s Kornel Nemeth, Poland s Bartosz Oblucki and Alberta racing icon Julian Cerny. Even more impressive is the fact that Graffunder was able to post such great results despite the fact that, throughout the 2010 season, he quietly suffered through an agonizing knee injury. Ryan underwent surgery to correct the problem immediately following the final races of the year. The surgery was a success and Graffunder is well on his way to recovery and will be focused on climbing the podium again in 2011.

4 RYAN GRAFFUNDER Alberta s Marty Halmazna ran strong in the Western rounds of the 2010 series where he posted solid podium finishes in E3 at Rounds 1 & 2 on his big Husky TXC 510 and narrowly missed the podium at Rounds 3 & 4 in Penticton, BC. Unfortunately, Halmazna was forced to miss the Eastern rounds of the series where he certainly would have been a podium contender and in the hunt for wins. MARTY HALMAZNA With a new baby that is due any day, Halmazna will have his hands full in the coming months, but is still intent on putting a major race effort in for Marty has announced that this will be his last year of full-time racing.

5 Although the uncertainty of his plans for next year led Halmazna to step back from the main Husqvarna team and open up the spot for young Chainé, Marty will continue to ride for Husqvarna in In a fitting move as he closes out the main chapter of his well decorated racing career, Halmazna will enjoy full support from long-time sponsor, Bow Ridge Sports and becomes the first member of Husqvarna Canada s new Regional Race Support Program. In addition to Chainé and Giroux, top female contender Karine Geoffrion will re-join the Husqvarna team for Despite difficulties at the last two races which eliminated her chance of taking the Overall Championship, Karine had an impressive race season that saw her on the podium at nearly every round. Geoffrion had an outstanding year in 2010 that saw her grab 4 Wins and finish 2 nd Overall in the highly competitive Ladies Championship. KARINE GEOFFRION In its first year of competition, the new FP Husqvarna team has enjoyed an enormous amount of success. In addition to over 20 podiums in Regional races across the country, including almost 10 Wins, the new Husqvarna Canada team has finished its debut in the Canadian Enduro Championship with 10 Pro Class Podiums and the Top Pro Junior Award. I am definitely thrilled to have Philippe join our race program for 2011 and 2012, said Marc Coffin, Husqvarna Canada s Director of Racing. The primary focus of our program is to give deserving young racers the support they need to develop their skills as top contenders not only in Canada, but on the world stage as well. Philippe is a perfect fit for what we are trying to accomplish. The Graffunder brothers confirmed in 2010 that they were an excellent choice for our team. To be able to continue to work with them again next year, along with Guy and now Phil, is definitely exciting. When you add Marty assuming a lead role in the new Husqvarna Regional Race Support Program, I think that 2011 is going to be a big year for us. Everyone worked hard to get our program off the ground this year. There were a lot of challenges but it was very satisfying to be able to deliver the results that we have to our sponsors and all the others that supported us. We learned a ton this year and there is no doubt that we will be able to do an even better job next season.

6 MARC COFFIN The 2010 race season has proved to be a great adventure for Husqvarna Canada. With most plans already finalized for next year, 2011 promises to be even better! We are very grateful to our many amazing sponsors that provided us with the outstanding support that has allowed us to effectively raise the bar in Canadian off-road racing. Without them, none of it would have been possible. Team Sponsors Husqvarna Canada, Feeding Performance Inc., Motovan, Rekluse, Ogio, Dragon, Xtreme, TCX, Axis, Zox, Pro-Tech, Etnies, Throttle Entertainment, UNI Filter, DID, LeoVince, GPR Stabilizer, Motul, LimeNine, EC3D, Impact Canopies, GoPro, Enduro Engineering, Supersprox, SkyCap, Boyesen, E-line, IMS, Matrix Concepts, Tuff As Gutz, TM Designworks, Dunlop and Zip Ty Racing. About Husqvarna Motorcycles Tradition on two wheels since 1903 Husqvarna Motorcycles, a part of the BMW Group since October 2007, are widely known and respected in the off-road world for a heritage of competition and have accumulated over 70 World Championships in Motocross, Enduro and Supermotard. Originally founded in Sweden in 1903, Husqvarna motorcycles have been designed and manufactured in Varese, Italy since For more information, please visit and