Knighter ‘cleans' up at Muntjac
By TMX Archives on 8th Mar 11
World E3, BSEC and BEC Champion and Factory KTM rider David Knight got off to a great start in his 2011 BEC campaign with an impressive win at the opening round of the Championship series.
He was joined on the overall podium by Midwest Husaberg's Alex Rockwell, who took a well deserved second place overall and BEC veteran Paul Edmondson, riding for the fasteddyracing.com team.
With vivid memories of last year's opening British Enduro Championship round at Thetford Forest, which, because of the weather, became a bit of a mud bath, it was with some trepidation that riders turned up on Sunday following a day of torrential rain.
All concerns over the course conditions were unfounded. The EMG-sponsored Muntjac Enduro, organised and run by Diss MCC, turned out to be one of the best BEC events for many years. With one special test and a 22-mile lap the club had worked exceedingly hard to make sure that 95 per cent of the lap was fresh going and the Special Test was in perfect condition, apart from one sticky bit which had appeared overnight thanks to the heavy rain.
The sun shone all throughout Sunday, although a very cool breeze chilled spectators and support crews to the bone, and the rain held off until the final few minutes when Richard Snowden presented the trophies to the top three overall Championship class riders.
Competition was very close across all classes and as the day progressed and the lap times on the open going became tighter, the final lap really came into play – it was a cliff-hanger right to the death and the finishing order was turned on its head on that last lap.
The event was supported by a bumper entry of riders across all classes with many new names appearing on the entry list. A handful of top motocrossers joined the fray with Carl Nunn, Jordan Rose and TM's young Stuart Edmonds all entered in the Championship class. It was interesting to watch the MX guys as their times dropped as the special test bermed and rutted-up.
The special test was around five-minutes in length for most of the Championship class riders, but only two riders made the sub five-minute category, KTM's David Knight and Midwest Husaberg's Alex Rockwell.
On five runs through the test Knight crept under the five-minute mark four times with his first run being the slowest at 5:00:65. Not to be outdone, fellow Manxman Rockwell managed to join Knight just once under the five-minute mark.
A fairly slack opening lap saw riders arrive for the first test of the day where Knight, on a 530 KTM, set the pace.
KORR rider, Greg Evans (350 KTM) was in second spot some eight-seconds adrift with Electraction TM's Stuart Edmonds in third. Fast Eddy team riders Tom Sagar and Ben Burrell completed the top five.
Si Wakely, back out of ‘retirement' as part of the Midwest Racing Team and mounted on a 250 Husaberg soon showed he had lost none of his speed and was second behind Knight over the following two tests which moved him up into the runner-up spot while Edmonds and Rockwell tussled over third.
Knight was always ahead from the very first test of the competition and the only rider in the whole event to finish clean on time across all five laps. He took the overall and E3 class wins easily.
Jamie Lewis was second in the Championship E3 class with Gas Gas rider Danny McCanney third on a 300 two-stroke. Jon Hinam claimed fourth for the Midwest team as Eurotek KTM rider Paul Bolton finished fifth.
Rockwell's 390 Husaberg carried him to second place overall and gave him the E2 class victory ahead of Greg Evans and Si Wakely. Wakely had looked to be on schedule to take second overall, but he dropped two-minutes on the very tight (43 minute) final lap and this cost him several places in the final pecking order. Fast Eddy rider Tom Sagar was a little disappointed with fourth in class. CCM motocross star Carl Nunn followed him home in fifth.
Current E1/4 Champion and KORR team rider Daryl Bolter was definitely not his normal self and had a nightmare of a day, eventually finishing in ninth place but the hugely experienced Paul Edmondson showed that this type of event is not just about physical fitness but mental toughness. Lying in seventh position following the final test he managed to drop only one-minute on the tight final lap, which put him at the top of the E1/4 standings and lifted into third spot overall – not bad for a 41-year-old!
Fast Eddy team-mate Ben Burrell – the young Australian sensation – followed in second spot with Bolter in third, Route 55 KTM rider, Mark Roberts, was fourth and TM's Stuart Edmonds, was fifth.
Ash Woods had one of the best days he has experienced for a long time.
FOR FULL REPORT AND PICTURES SEE T+MX MARCH 5
ACU Metzeler British Enduro Championship
Rd 1 – EMG Kia Muntjac Enduro (Diss MCC)
CHAMPIONSHIP: 1 David Knight (E3 - 535F KTM) 1488.33, 2 Alex Rockwell (E2 - 390F Husaberg) 1588.51, 3 Paul Edmondson (E1/4 - 250F KTM) 1608.5, 4 Greg Evans (E2 - 350F KTM) 1615.59, 5 Simon Wakely (E2 - 250 Husaberg) 1643.64, 6 Tom Sagar (E2 - 450F KTM) 1663.16, 7 Ashley Wood (E1/2 - 125 KTM) 1684.63, 8 Ben Burrell (E1/4 - 250F KTM) 1691.66, 9 Daryl Bolter (E1/4 - 250F KTM) 1713.22, 10 Jamie Lewis (E3 - 300 KTM) 1791.14, 11 Lee Edmondson (E1/2 - 125 KTM) 1815.22, 12 Daniel McCanney (E3 - 300 Gas Gas) 1834.66, 13 Mark Roberts (E1/4 - 250F KTM) 1857.96, 14 Carl Nunn (E2 - 450F KTM) 1877.28, 15 Aston Bird (E2 - 450F Kawasaki) 1890.06, 16 Neil Chatham (E1/2 - 125 KTM) 1894.53, 17 Chris Hockey (E2 - 300F Yamaha) 1896.1, 18 Gavin Houson (E2 - 250 Husaberg) 1916.02, 19 Jon Hinam (E3 - 300 Husaberg) 1990.52, 20 Stuart Edmonds (E1/4 - 250F TM) 2023.94, 21 Andrew Edwards (E2 - 250 KTM) 2147.12, 22 Chris Dustow (E2 - 250 KTM) 2165.95, 23 Paul Bolton (E3 - 300 KTM) 2191.22, 24 Frazer Norrie (E1/2 - 125 Husqvarna) 2213.89, 25 Tim Forman (E3 - 300 Gas Gas) 2214.45.
EXPERT: 1 Jack Rowland (E1/4 - 250F Husqvarna) 768.48, 2 Lewis Belfield (E2 - 350 KTM) 770.93, 3 Alun Jones (E1/2 - 125 KTM) 840.2, 4 Gareth Davies (E2 - 250 KTM) 857.16, 5 Oliver Hart (E2 - 250 KTM) 914.97, 6 Julian Harvey (E2 - 200 KTM) 918, 7 James Giddings (E1/2 - 125 KTM) 922.75, 8 Allyn Scotland (E2 - 250 Suzuki) 924.71, 9 Craig Reynolds (E2 - 250 KTM) 1204.11, 10 Thomas Healey (E2 - 350F KTM) 1043.41, 11 Gary Jenkins (E3 - 300 KTM) 1051.55, 12 David Lloyd-Jones (E1/2 - 125 KTM) 1059, 13 Jamie Roper (E2 - 250 KTM) 1072.2, 14 Jack Lee (E3 - 300 Gas Gas) 1117.08, 15 Daniel Beaven (E2 - 250 KTM) 1124.39, 16 Richard Ely (E2 - 390F Husaberg) 1135.37, 17 Steve Holcombe (E2 - 250 KTM) 1142.65, 18 Paul Herbert (E3 - 300 KTM) 1160.28, 19 Stuart Owen (E1/2 - 125 Yamaha) 1166.23, 20 Sam Toy (E2 - 450F Yamaha) 1180.59, 21 James Burroughs (E2 - 250 Husqvarna) 1193.58, 22 Gethin Humphreys (E2 - 200 KTM) 1213.84, 23 Tudur Davies (E1/4 - 250F KTM) 1218.18, 24 Craig Roper (E1/2 - 125 KTM) 1369.39, 25 Neil Hawker (E3 - 300 KTM) 1373.1.
CLUBMAN: 1 Robert Johnson (E1/4 - 250F Husqvarna) 1170.25, 2 Declan Helliwell (E1/2 - 125 KTM) 1187.91, 3 Mike Evans (E2 - 250 KTM) 1316.23, 4 Gethin Francombe (E3 - 300 TM) 1323.25, 5 Daniel Price (E1/4 - 250F Yamaha) 1343.93, 6 Lee Green (E2 - 250 KTM) 1381.92, 7 Phil Maltby (E2 - 450F KTM) 1391.95, 8 Hamish Patrick (E1/2 - 125 KTM) 1410.23, 9 Reece Emson (E2 - 250 KTM) 1490.9, 10 Lee Smith (E3 - 300 KTM) 1491.98, 11 Tony Cotty (E1/4 - 250F KTM) 1525.26, 12 Gareth Lodge (E3 - 300 KTM) 1532.44, 13 Phil Roper (E3 - 300 KTM) 1536.81, 14 Craig Beattie (E1/4 - 250F Yamaha) 1552.88, 15 Alistair Millar (E3 - 300 KTM) 1655.09, 16 John Bishop (E2 - 250 KTM) 1657.82, 17 Jason Stuart (E2 - 250 KTM) 1695.6, 18 Richard Walters (E1/2 - 125 KTM) 1712.44, 19 Kelvin Vant (E1/4 - 250 KTM /4) 1713.44, 20 Liam Lamb (E1/2 - 125 Suzuki) 1763.91, 21 Reece Morewood (E2 - 200 KTM) 1777.48, 22 Wayne Player (E3 - 300 KTM) 1792.14, 23 Daniel Hodgkinson (E3 - 300 KTM) 1803.91, 24 Neil Ashton (E2 - 450F KTM) 1852.53, 25 Ian Shuttleworth (E2 - 250 KTM) 1938.07.
VETERAN: 1 Wyn Hughes (450F Husqvarna) 841.61, 2 Murray Thomson (300 KTM) 949.75, 3 Mark Chapman (250F Yamaha) 1015.36, 4 Phil Smithson (250F KTM) 1025.27, 5 Russell Millward (250F Honda) 1138.41, 6 Mike Turner (300 KTM) 1225.47, 7 Paul Davies (250 KTM) 1266.36, 8 Ian Barnett (150 KTM) 1288.19, 9 David Stokes (250F Honda) 1325.54, 10 Karl Greenall (250 KTM) 1338.03, 11 Dave Cadwallader (250F KTM) 1363.91, 12 James Harvey (250F Honda) 1489.49, 13 Kiaran Hankin (300F Sherco) 1634.65, 14 Allan Price (250 KTM) 1722.18, 15 Paul Hearn (250F Honda) 1803.63, 16 Robert Mcleod (250 Yamaha) 1834.24, 17 Graham Muff (250F KTM) 1927.13, 18 Keith Readman (125 Honda) 2044.56, 19 John Hunt (125 KTM) 2068.24, 20 Paul Spurgeon (300 KTM) 2217.35, 21 Tim Cotton (250 Gas Gas) 2248.37, 22 Lewie Davis (250F KTM) 2389.67, 23 Jason Fowler (300 KTM) 2404.38, 24 Robert Murfin (400F Husaberg) 2559.04, 25 Tim Lightfoot (250 Yamaha) 2923.53.
NEXT ROUND: May 21/22 – Putoline Harwood Enduro at Harwood Forest, Belsay, Northumberland (DirtBike-Action)