TRAIL ZONE

WATTSY WINS GNCC MORNING RACE WITH dB SNORKEL

Check out this news from Aussie off-road racing legend Shane Watts, who is back in action after his serious back injury last year, and back to his winning ways in the Can-Am GNCC series in the USA -- where he won the Morning industry race at the latest round of the series last weekend.

More to the point, check out the whacky-looking but obviously effective dB Snorkel Wattsy ran on his KTM, which obviously keeps the exhaust note down but performance up:

"Former World Enduro and US GNCC Pro Champion Shane Watts scored a sensational overall victory, riding his KTM 200XCW in the hotly contested morning race at Round 3 of the 2010 GNCC series, held in perfect conditions near Morganton, NC on March 21.

"Watts had conducted one of his hugely popular DirtWise Riding schools in New Jersey on the two days previous to the race, thus he spent most of Saturday night driving the 10 hours back home, with the race then a further one hour drive from there. The lack of sleep was not going to deny him the victory though.

"After taking the checkers Watts enthusiastically said, "What a great ride out there today. Conditions were perfect and I rode strong but well within my comfort zone. Literally I had such a smooth ride out there thanks to the killer suspension settings that Stillwell Performance provided me. Combined with the Carbon Raptor Factory fork tube coatings I got such a plush ride over the usual nasty bumps found at a GNCC race."

"Today was my first time using the "db snorkel", which is a significant noise reducing component that mounts onto the end of my FMF Qstealth silencer. The db snorkel (www.thedbsnorkel.com) was awesome in performance, really helping to keep the exhaust noise to a complete minimum, yet it didn't affect the performance of the engine at all. It was magnificent as evidenced by the fact that I was only beaten off the start and to the first corner by a CR500!!!

"By far I had the quietest bike out there today. Land closure through noise is a huge issue for dirtbike riders, so I want to make a statement with this result and show leadership to all offroad enthusiasts that it is truly possible to have great engine performance but have a hugely decreased noise impact on the rest of society. I want to have somewhere to ride my KTM for many years to come so that's why I'll continue to use the "db snorkel" at all times in the future."

-- Shane Watts -- www.shanewatts.com