Report: Sudbury MCC Extreme Enduro
By Dick Law on 4th Jan 17
For the second year running Charlie Frost won the Sudbury clubs extreme enduro at their excellent Foxbrough venue near Halstead.
This was the third time the club had run the event and improvements to the track made it an excellent event. As the two-hour race got underway at 11am Frost didn't get off to the best of starts on his Sherco.
He later said: "I got into a spot of bother by getting stuck in a bog on the first lap.
WIt took me several minutes with the help of a marshal to get going again but by that time I had dropped back into the Clubman class riders.
"I started picking off riders till severe arm pump left me struggling with control of the bike for the first hour.
"I managed to ride through it and eventually clawed back the front runners to take the lead.”
While Frost was having his problems Ben Wibbley was flying on his Husqvarna and had opened up a sizeable gap from the rest headed up by Jamie Roper on his little 125 KTM.
As the race slipped into its second hour Frost had been setting a fast, controlled pace, passing lots of riders to close in on Wibbley and pass him.
Wibbley settled in to a comfortable second place until about three or four laps from the end of the race when the chain came off his Husqvarna and jammed around the front sprocket forcing him to a stop and pull out of the race.
For the rest of the event Frost maintained a killer pace and completed 15 laps in the allotted two hours to finish a lap ahead of the rest of the riders.
Filling the remaining podium places were members of the Roper clan, with Jamie second after completing 14 laps, and brother Stevie and cousin Craig next home a lap down.
Wibbley was credited with fifth for the 12 laps he had completed, with centre enduro champion Jason Morland sixth.
Frost said: "It was a very physically demanding event but I loved every second of it.
"Thanks to all involved with Sudbury MCC for again putting on a great event.”
Mark Kirby completed 11 laps on his way to winning the Experts, while Toby Morley and Chris Cook fought over second place one lap down on the leader.
These three fast riders pulled well away from the rest of their class as they finished two laps clear of fourth-placed Kevin Silvain.
Fred Adams took his 300 KTM to the Clubman class win after completing 14 laps.
Second-placed Dawson Marriott completed 11 laps which would have placed him second in the Experts.
Things were a bit closer after the two leaders as Keith Maude and Daniel Hunt finished third and fourth and were separated by just over a minute after the two-hour race.
Ben Grice won the Trials bike class – but only just from last year's winner Paul Nash, as the pair completed ten laps of the two-hour event standing up all the time – and that must have hurt.
Pro class: 1 Charlie Frost (250 Sherco), 2 Jamie Roper (125 KTM), 3 Stevie Roper (200 KTM), 4 Craig Roper (Craig Roper), 5 Ben Wibbley (300 Husqvarna), 6 Jason Moreland (250 KTM), 7 Brendan Mayers (350 Husqvarna).
Expert class: 1 Mark Kirby (300 KTM), 2 Toby Morley (300 Husqvarna), 3 Chris Cook (300 Husqvarna), 4 Kevin Silvain (450 Yamaha), 5 Jake Purcell (250 KTM), 6 Daniel Piper (125 Husqvarna), 7 Gene Womack (300 Beta), 8 Jason Green (300 Beta), 9 Kevin Webb (250 KTM), 10 Paul Belton (125 KTM).
Clubman class: 1 Fred Adams (300 KTM), 2 Dawson Marriott (150 KTM), 3 Keith Maude (300 KTM), 4 Daniel Hunt (300 KTM), 5 Lee Boulden (250 KTM), 6 George Eustace (125 KTM.
Trials bike class: 1 Ben Grice (250 Beta), 2 Paul Nash (250 Beta), 3 Sam Peck (300 Scorpa), 4 Martin Greenaway (250 Montesa), 5 Nathan Greenaway (250 Montesa), Katie Nash (280 Ossa).
