Let's get ready Eddy!
By TMX Archives on 21st Jan 11
The first big enduro event of the season is this weekend. Paul Edmondson's Eddy's Extreme Enduro' has provoked huge interest since it was first announced and having the ACU on board has given the event British Championship status.
The Pro line-up is a who's who of British Extreme Enduro riders. David Knight takes the number one plate for his first outing of the season in mainland UK since taking the EWC E3 title in 2010. Dougie Lampkin will be of special interest since his move to Gas Gas late last year. This will be Dougie's first outing on a Gasser in a competitive extreme enduro and although he has just contested the Sheffield Indoor Trial he will have been getting in plenty of time on his enduro machine recently.
Lampkin's arch rival, Graham Jarvis, will be pushing his Flite Husaberg to the max. Following his terrific win at the Tough One's Little Brother, he seems to have found a bike that really suits him.
Tom Sagar has always had good results in UK extreme events and the fasteddyracing rider will be trying hard on a team's KTM 150, small but powerful and very manoeuvrable. (The bike – not Tom!)
One name now missing from the line up is Wayne Braybrook, who crashed hard while leading an event last weekend and will be out for a month.
The multi talented ‘Special' Greg Evans will be representing KTM with the KORR team along with team-mate Jonny Walker and Mick Seward will be cheering on his MPS Racing Team with a handful of new recruits on board including New Zealander Jason Davies.
Also from Down Under comes Ballard Yamaha rider Ben Burrell, twice Australian Junior Enduro Champion, now riding in the Seniors. Burrell, from New South Wales, is entered into the Pro class and will be riding a Yamaha WR250.
Paul Bolton is vastly experienced in the field of extreme enduros but this multi lapper will be fast and very different from Bolt's last outing which was the Roof of Africa event in Lesotho.
Competition will be tough across all classes with plenty of talented Expert, Clubman and Veteran riders all lapping at the same time as the Pros.
The venue is Home Farm at Tong, near Leeds – Postcode BD4 0RR, assessable from Junc 27 off the M62 motorway.
SPECTATOR ZONE
The venue offers a ten-minute lap, which will contain seven extreme sections including gullies, waterfalls, steep climbs and drops separated by numerous cross-country wooded sections all easily accessible for spectators. There is a track that has been designated as a spectator walk-way, which runs around the whole venue and with ‘Spectator Zones' at the toughest sections of the course.
Spectators are in for a treat. They will get to watch the adult riders for three one-hour sessions – a transponder-timed practice session and two one-houre races plus a youth race in between – great value for money.
The idea of a timed practice is new to Enduro and will seed riders on the start line for the race itself.
All riders have a chance at the pole position, so qualifying times will be irrespective of class.
Getting a clear run and reading the course will be crucial to get near the front of the grid and will be a very interesting technical battle in the run up to the race itself.
For the adult race, competitors will start in rows of five. The race will begin with a ‘live-engine' start with waves of riders leaving the line at five-second intervals.
The adult course will have optionional hard and easy routes but only riders who take the hard routes will have any real chance of winning the event – the easy routes will be easier but deliberately designed to take longer to negotiate.
Competitors in the Youth race will have half of the course to play on. This will include two of the hard sections or zones and organiser Paul ‘Fast Eddy' Edmondson reckons this will be a good challenge for most of the 12 to 14-year-olds in the entry.
The overall adult winner will be judged on the fastest time over their two races so even a slight hiccup in the opener will still leave the opportunity to get back amongst the front runners in the second outing and offer a chance at some silverware.
The course itself will be based purely on natural extreme riding conditions with a mixture of great gullies, cambers, descents, climbs as well as the famous Tong ‘rock garden'.
Fast Eddy said: "Months of planning, preparation and hard work by dozens of people will culminate in this one day and I have great hopes that the event will be everything I expect and everything that riders and spectators expect.
"I've ridden many extreme events over the years and of them all I would say Hells Gate and the Giles Lalay Classic were by far the best. Taking that into account we are going down the same route with a 100% natural extreme course to give riders and spectators a new style of extreme event in the UK.
"I have thought about running an extreme event for a few years and the time is now right. Tong is a fantastic place for an extreme bash, there is so much we can do using purely natural terrain. Knighter's input has been invaluable.
"Planning the course was no mean feat. An extreme enduro should be hard but obviously not everyone is experienced in this arm of the sport, so in an effort to encourage riders to take on extreme enduros I decided to include easy and hard options and fast and slow lines.”
World E3 Enduro Champion, David Knight was present at the first visit to Tong and he was very impressed: "Brilliant, I can't wait to get to the start line. This will be an extreme event in every sense of the word and very spectator friendly and lets face it, half the fun of this type of event is watching top riders tackle serious sections and cheering on your mates who may find the challenge really hard. I will definitely be going for it.
There can be no complaints regarding spectator entry fee, which are very reasonable priced at £10 for Adults, £5 for Youth (10-16) with under 10-year-olds getting in for free. No parking charges and plenty of space for hundreds of cars should make Eddy's Extreme Enduro an excellent start to the season.