Left in Simon's Wake'
By TMX Archives on 18th Dec 08
SUNDAY morning saw the Southern Counties Enduro Club event at their forestry based Somerley Park venue, near Ringwood, Dorset, where the day was bright and crisp after a very frosty start.
The course however didn't need further preparation and the variety of tracks and obstacles made sure that everyone finished the 2008 season with a great event.
Even with a relatively dry spell of weather prior to the race, the track still had its fair share of bogs to catch-out the unwary, lines that had to be
chosen with care and obstacles that altered their level of difficulty lap to lap.
Simon Wakely took the Championship class win and, although he eventually had an 11-minute lead over second placed James Jackman, he didn't have it all his own way in the early stages.
Jackman took the lead for the first lap before Mark Cornick passed him, leaving Jackman in second and Wakely in third, but sadly for the leading two, Simon passed them both on the second lap and never relinquished his position, even with Cornick clinging to him for a few more laps. Jackman kept pushing throughout and pas-sed Cornick in the closing stages, taking second spot and pushing Cornick into third.
The Expert class was topped by Daniel Beaven, who managed to sandwich three other riders between himself and
second placed Steve Harding, giving him a comfortable lead at the end. Harding, however, didn't have such a comfortable gap and finished the race with Dave Nuttall perilously close in third.
As comfortable leads go, Tony Williamson had it all his own way during the closing stages of the Clubman E1 class with a whopping 12 riders between himself and
second placed Brendan Reese. I had to scroll further still down the screen to pick out third placed William Richards who was a further seven places overall behind Reese. But, with conditions as they were, the E1 top three were probably glad to have some space to work with.
Southern Counties Enduro
Somerley Park, Ringwood, Dorset
(Southern Counties EC)
Championship: 1 Simon Wakely, 2 James Jackman, 3 Mark Cornick.
Expert: 1 Daniel Beaven, 2 Steve Harding, 3 Dave Nuttall.
Clubman E1: 1 Tony Williamson, 2 Brendan Reese, 3 William Richards.
Clubman E2: 1 Tyson Mayton-Jones, 2 Andy Ball, 3 Barry Mitchell.
Expert 40+: 1 Gary McCoy, 2 Mick Extance, 3 Martin Brown.
Sportsman: 1 Jacque Stevens, 2 Daniel Price, 3James Penfold.
Sportsman 40+: 1 Phil Jones, 2 Peter Extance, 3 Garry Price.
FOR FULL REPORT AND PICTURES SEE T+MX NEWS, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2008