With five of the six Class Titles to be won at the final round of the G H Motorcycles/Husqvarna/Eastern Centre Enduro Championship staged by the Woodbridge Motor Cycle Club at Butley Suffolk could there be upsets on the day.
In the prestigious Championship Class the current leader Aston Bird (Woodbridge) was spending time with his family in the Isle of Man and was a non starter which left Jamie Roper (Sudbury) needing third place on the day to retain his Title. He got off to a good start in the first Special Test beating Chris Hockey (Sudbury) by point 95 seconds while in the second Special Test he dropped his machine and Hockey won it by 3.90 seconds. All Hockey had to do was to ride the remaining sessions without losing time penalties and the win was his. For no apparent reason on the penultimate session Hockey clocked early which incurred a penalty of 60 points. This then put Roper in the lead with only the very tight for time last session to ride and he was a minute late incurring 60 penalty points and with Sam Toy (Sudbury) incurring the same penalty it gave Roper a 1.5 second win over Toy. It was a bad day for Hockey incurring another 120 penalty points putting him in 5
th place behind Craig Roper (Sudbury) 3
rd and Steve Mason (Sudbury) 4
th. These results are only provisional in which the riders have 14 days to make any protest however the Title of Eastern Centre Enduro Champion goes for the third year running to Jamie Roper on 72 points, Bird 2
nd 65 points, Toy 3
rd 58 points and Hockey 4
th 52 points. This now mean Sudbury Club riders have won this Title 22 times over the last 27 years.
Will Hughes (Braintree) had already won the Expert Class Title and was out to win a round for the second time this year but he was out of luck he had to retire. Ben Alexander (Woodbridge) stepped up to the mark and won this Class from Rob Blackman (Castle Colchester) with Ben Grice (Lowestoft) 3
rd, Jack Nicolaou (Sudbury) 4
th and Jack Grice (Lowestoft) 5
th. The final positions for this Class are 1
st Hughes 64 points, 2
nd Alexander 61 points, 3
rd Blackman 56 points and 4
th J Grice 40 points.
Mark Chapman (Diss) current holder of the Expert Veteran Class Title needed a win on the day to retain his Title from Event Sponsor Gavin Hockey (Sudbury) who could not add to his score unless he won on the day because as Chapman had missed a round and the best 4 scores out of 5 count all his points would be credited to him. These two fought it out tooth and nail with Chapman leading by point 23 seconds at the start of the last session; Chapman was a minute late while Hockey was 2 minutes late giving Chapman the win and the Title. Third place was Michael Ridge (Stowmarket), 4
th Phil Roper (Sudbury) and 5
th Jake Morphey (Woodbridge) Final positions 1
st Chapman 73 points, 2
nd Hockey 71 points, 3
rd Roper 58 points and 4
th Ridge 50 points.
Alex Rampton (Sudbury) was out to make amends for 8
th place at the last round and sure enough he did not slip up this time winning the Clubman Class from Ryan McDonnell (Sudbury) by 20.08 seconds while Alex Walton was 3rd and Jamie Lagden 4
th making a Sudbury 1 2 3 4 with Martin Stevens (Diss) taking 5
th. Provisional final positions are 1
st Rampton 77 points 2
nd McDonnell 65 points, 3
rd Stevens 59 points and 4
th Walton 46 points.
There were eight riders who could win the Clubman Veteran Title this year and Phil Waldron (Sudbury) who was not in contention was leading on the day by 1.24 seconds but the last session proving very difficult for all riders however John Austin (Sudbury) despite being 3 minutes late took the win with 2
nd Waldron, 3
rd Terry Allen (TBEC) and 4
th Jason Carsboult (Sudbury) all 4 minutes late. This gives Austin the Class Title on 66 points, 2
nd Carsboult 57 points and 3
rd Allen 52 points.
After 4 rounds both Clive Stevens (Diss) and Andy Mason (Sudbury) were joint leaders of the Clubman Super Veteran Class and on the day it was win for Mason with Graham Mays (Sudbury) riding in this Class for the first time 2
nd with Gary Drage (Sudbury) 3
rd and Stevens 4
th. Mason retains his Title on 77 points, 2
nd Stevens 61 points and 3
rd Drage 56 points.
In the Sportsman Class Pete McDonnell (Sudbury) has gone from 5
th in the first round to first place in the final round a great personal achievement for him. The final positions for the Team Dave Roper Challenge for Sudbury riders under 21 years of age 1
st Alex Rampton 399 points, 2
nd Ryan McDonnell 394 points, 3
rd Nathan Greenaway 352 points and 4
th Ben Roper 344 points. Last year Sudbury riders won 3 of the 6 Classes and this year they have won 4 out of the 6.