What a Knight

The pair were in a class of their own, lapping every rider in the race to provide a thrilling finish at the end of 2.5-hours of racing around the unforgiving woodland, rocks and streams.

 

With just three laps remaining, Jarvis had closed to within seven-seconds of race leader Knight, but a few small crashes by Jarvis saw Knight safely home in first place, 15-seconds clear of his rival, despite the Manxman's fast, high-side crash on the final lap.

 

Paul Edmondson's promise of a harder, more extreme course for the first of two Eddy's Xtreme Enduros was made good on Sunday, as Parkwood Off-road Centre hosted the first round of the ACU Extreme Enduro Championship, near Bradford. 

 

Supported once again by Rock Oil, the event was hyped-up but lived up to the billing in cracking style.

 

The pre-dawn darkness was illuminated by hundreds of vehicles streaming into the venue, joined by the sound of generators powering lighting set-ups in dozens of awnings, providing a cracking ‘big event' atmosphere to welcome the thousands of spectators as they began to flood into the venue.

 

In complete contrast to the 2013 event, weather conditions were excellent, except for a hard overnight frost, which 

made parts of the course treacherous, especially on the rock sections.

 

The infamous Rock Garden was almost impassable as the Pro, Expert and Clubman riders went out for their timed qualification laps. 

 

Only Knight and Jarvis attempted the hard rocky route, Knight scrambling to the top in very un-Knighter-like fashion while Jarvis could not even keep his feet underneath him at one point and went from crash to crash before he reached the summit. 

 

Undeterred, the pair posted the fastest times to put Knight on pole position, rubbing shoulders with Jarvis in second.

 

A slight rise in temperature saw the ice disappear, enabling riders to tackle the rocks 

full-on although the Veteran, Youth and Sportsman classes had a much easier rock section cut from their qualifying route right at the start of the day, as many struggled for grip.

 

Grid positions were based on fastest lap time in timed practice. Regardless of class the grid was set fastest to slowest for both races.

 

The course ran in the opposite direction from last year, but careful planning saw the most extreme sections approached as before and they all provided plenty of drama and entertainment.

 

The start line was moved onto the main forest track and riders hit the rock sections within a minute of the start rather than near the end of the lap in previous years.

 

For the Pro race the ‘Waterfall' section had an easy route for those who didn't fancy the rock steps.

 

But getting into the deep gorge, before making the choice between easy or hard route, was a task in itself, down sheer slopes of mud and leaves with an equally steep climb to get out and back on to the course.

 

Judging by the number of stricken riders and bikes in trees, the easy route became significantly harder than the hard route as the race progressed. 

 

FOR FULL REPORT AND PICTURES SEE TMX JANUARY 17

 

BRITISH Extreme Enduro CHAMPS

Rd 1 – Parkwood Off-Road Centre, Tong, nr Bradford (Fast Eddy Racing)

Main Race (2.5-hrs)

Pro Class: 1 David Knight 16 laps - 9:27 time penalties, 2 Graham Jarvis 16 - 9:42, 3 Danny McCanney 14 - 3:09, 4 Paul Bolton 14 - 10:51, 5 Ben Hemingway 12 - 2:48, 6 Gary Daniels 12 - 14:06, 7 Johnathan Richardson 11 - 6:53, 8 David Wood 11 - 12:57, 9 Lee Sampson 11 - 13:02, 10 Ricky Mair 9 - 17:07,...

Expert Class: 1 Richard Ely 12 - 7:26, 2 James Dent 11 - 0:10, 3 Luke Flack 11 - 4:15, 4 Keelan Hancock 11 - 6:10, 5 Gary Jenkins 11 - 13:30, 6 Sam Ludgate 11 - 15:44, 7 Lee Sealey 11 - 16:28, 8 Ross Hancock 10 - 4:58, 9 Aled Price 10 - 6:09, 10 Ben Wibberley 10 - 9:31, 11 Tom Smith 10 - 12:45, 12 Harvey Dark 10 - 15:08, 13 Ian Martin 9 - 1:14, 14 David Herring 9 - 1:28, 15 Neil Thomas 9 - 5:42,...

Clubman Class: 1 Josh Law 11 - 4:50, 2 Sam Winterburn 10 - 4:07, 3 Mick Boam 10 - 8:21, 4 Henry Morehouse 9 - 12:09, 5 Liston Bell 8 - 6:51, 6 Lee Hattersley 8 - 9:08, 7 Iain Robinson 8 - 17:36, 8 Adam Jones 7 - 11:27, 9 OJ Sharpe 7 - 12:02, 10 Ryan Heinz 7 - 16:01, 11 Liam Robinson 7 - 16:17, 12 Craig Tompson 7 - 17:22, 13 Ben Kirkman 6 - 3:38, 14 Philip Hancock 6 - 9:32, 15 Jamie Reid 6 - 12:16,...

 Support Race (1.75-hrs)

Youth Class: 1 Antoine Criq 9 laps - 3:38 time penalties, 2 Jack Staines 9 - 4:32, 3 Jack Edmondson 9 - 8:33, 4 William Emery 7 - 16:10, 5 Sonny Parker 7 - 16:42, 6 Ryan Phillips 6 - 4:20, 7 Josh Kirby 6 - 4:46, 8 Nathan Ball 6 - 6:46, 9 Joshua Bailey 6 - 6:50, 10 Brandon Sharples 6 - 9:03,...

Veteran Class: 1 Karl Greenhall 9 - 5:21, 2 Paul Davies 9 - 12:05, 3 Anthony Ayrton 8 - 1:01, 4 Alex Owen 8 - 3:43, 5 Gavin Johnson 8 - 4:23, 6 Ross Hall 8 - 7:54, 7 Vince Harker 8 - 8:03, 8 Julian Rylance 8 - 8:29, 9 Mark Kirby 8 - 12:47, 10 John Bradford 8 - 13:25,...

Sportsman Class: 1 Pete Bailey 8 - 3:31, 2 David Foreshaw 8 - 12:40, 3 Lawrence Wright 7 - 1:37, 4 Joe Edge 7 - 7:35, 5 Paul Raine 7 - 8:25, 6 Daniel Sadler 7 - 8:30, 7 Lee Parry 7 - 10:40, 8 Mathew Boulter 7 - 13:22, 9 Joel Foster 7 - 13:38, 10 Paul Ellis-Smith 7 - 15:05,...