Round 1 of the Dave Barkshire Motorcycles Two Man Enduro Championship was full of drama and excitement. The organisers Bury St Edmunds Motor Cycle Club had to adjust the riding format instead of the two hour session in the morning and the two hour session in the afternoon they combined it into a four hour session with the special test consisting of the best lap time during the day. This was to fit in with the paramedic who had another job elsewhere later in the day. With the overnight rain the track was in perfect condition with the cold northerly winds drying out the going.
With 10 teams in the Championship Class and some with Moto Cross experience racing was going to be fierce. Winner of the Class in 2013 and 2014 Tom Braddock teamed up for the first time with his Lowestoft Club mate Lewis Bond and had a big battle with Chris Bastick/Syd Bales throughout the day both teams completing 36 laps with 3 teams on 35 laps, 4 teams on 34 laps and 1 team on 33 laps. However the final positions were determined by time penalties resulting in a win for Braddock/Morley with 34.5 laps, 2
nd Sam Toy (Sudbury)/Will Kerry 34.17 laps, 3
rd Bastick/Bales 33.5 laps, 4
th Rob Aldridge/Ed Pooley 32.83 laps and 5
th Will Hughes (Braintree)/Jack Nicolaou (Sudbury) 32.50 laps.
In the Expert Class Ross Taylor/Michael Ridge completed 35 laps with 7 teams on 33 laps and 4 teams on 32 laps. With time penalties to be deducted it was going to be very tight for the final results and while Taylor/Ridge took the win with 32.5 laps they were just point 17 laps ahead of 2
nd place Jason Warren/James Yearley who completed 32.33 laps. Third and fourth places were decided on special test times as both teams were on 32.17 laps resulting by only two seconds 3
rd for Ben & Jack Grice with Christian Drane/ John Bishop 4
th. Special Test times decided 5
th, 6
th & 7
th with Alex Barkshire (son of the Sponsor)/Danny Wright taking 5
th, Tom Sargent (Bury St Edmunds)/Wayne Fulcher 6
th and Graham Eastall (Sudbury)/Dan Richardson (Halstead) 7
th.
It a good and clever teamwork by Jeff Turner (Sudbury)/Kevin Palmer (Norwich) in the Clubman Class which gave them the win on 32.33 laps. Left in their wake were Charlie Grapes/Rob Howard 2nd 29 laps, James & Dean Sucking 3
rd also on 29 laps while two Sudbury teams battled it out for the next two places with Matt Smith/Marc Norton taking 4
th 28.83 laps and Jason Carsboult/John Roach 5
th 28.5 laps.