A Knight in the Forest
By TMX Archives on 3rd Mar 10
WITH near torrential rain covering the South East of England last weekend, the opening round of the Metzeler ACU British Enduro Championship, organised by the Diss MCC, proved to be one of the toughest, and certainly the wettest, BEC season openers in recent memory.
With high winds putting the event's running in jeopardy, it was rain that forced the shortening of the event on race day as both the Thetford Forest special test and 20-mile course took a hammering. And so the decision was taken to shorten the event by two laps for the Championship class with the horrendous conditions having already forced numerous riders out of the event.
Emerging from the mud and ruts as overall event winner was KTM-mounted David Knight who, having topped each of the event's four special tests, started his BEC title defence in the best possible way. One of only ten riders to remain clean on time, Knighter claimed an eventual winning margin of 20 seconds, finishing in front of Suzuki-mounted Paul Edmondson and KTM's Daryl Bolter.
Metzeler ACU British Enduro Championship
Rd 1 – Muntjac Enduro, Thetford (Diss MCC)
Championship: 1 David Knight (KTM) 1398.07 penalty points, 2 Paul Edmondson (Suzuki) 1417.27, 3 Daryl Bolter (KTM) 1429.28, 4 Si Wakely (Husqvarna) 1443.86, 5 Tom Sagar (Suzuki) 1448.69, 6 Greg Evans (KTM) 1453.66, 7 Ashley Wood (Gas Gas) 1475.24, 8 Rory Mead (Yamaha) 1503.39, 9 Ollie Moyce (Husaberg) 1536.45, 10 Phillip McLaughlin (TM) 1536.61, 11 Andrew Edwards (KTM) 1537.98, 12 Neil Flockart (Suzuki) 1574.79, 13 Edward Jones (KTM) 1585.62, 14 Robert Jones (Yamaha) 1600.51, 15 Bradley King (Gas Gas) 1635.15, 16 Euan McConnell (KTM) 1642.85, 17 David Brick (Yamaha) 1755.27, 18 Gordon Clarke (TM) 1788.16, 19 Kevin Murray (Yamaha) 1791.05, 20 Tim Foreman (KTM) 1799.58.
Expert: 1 Alex Rockwell (KTM) 1044.89, 2 Steve Hunt (Yamaha) 1099.57, 3 Tudur Davies (KTM) 1105.99, 4 Allyn Scotland (Suzuki) 1254.20, 5 Craig Reynolds (Yamaha) 1270.44, 6 Derek Little (KTM) 1279.25, 7 James Giddings (KTM) 1301.50, 8 Oliver Hart (KTM) 1307.41, 9 Lewis Belfield (KTM) 1326.70, 10 Jonny Walker (KTM) 1336.97, 11 Luke Meredith (Gas Gas) 1384.96, 12 Julian Harvey (KTM) 1402.79, 13 Richard Tucker (KTM) 1430.93, 14 Jamie Roper (KTM) 1439.07, 15 Charlie Evans (Gas Gas) 1459.36, 16 Richard Ely (Suzuki) 1474.84, 17 Murray Thompson (KTM) Vet 1510.79, 18 Luke Lusher (KTM) 1526.42, 19 Richard Roper (Kawsaki) 1565.58, 20 Jack Twentyman (Yamaha) Vet 1566.78.
Clubman: 1 Gethin Humphreys (KTM) 858.94, 2 Steve Holcombe (KTM) 877.39, 3 Tom Howe (KTM) 1139.75, 4 Mark Houson (Honda) 1149.11, 5 Russell Millward (Honda) 1207.02, 6 Tony Gush (Gas Gas) 1238.69, 7 Phil Smithson (KTM) Vet 1399.87, 8 Kris Hallam (Honda) 1432.56, 9 Declan Helliwell (KTM) 1448.69, 10 Jack Berry (KTM) 1449.43, 11 Sam Toy (Husaberg) 1465.69, 12 Lee Smith (KTM) 1469.39, 13 Jonathan Lee (Honda) 1501.20, 14 Mike Turner (KTM) Vet 1525.96, 15 Neil Williams (Gas Gas) Vet 1527.49, 16 Kiaran Hankin (KTM) 1535.12, 17 Shaun Buchan (KTM) 1587.41, 18 Craig Roper (KTM) 1589.02, 19 Darren Nicolaou (KTM) 1633.97, 20 Paul Davies (KTM) Vet 1646.19.
FOR FULL STORY SEE T+MX NEWS, FRIDAY, MARCH 6, 2010
Expert runner Tom Sagar powers the Suzuki through the mud and ruts to fifth place.