Longs, bogs, woodland and cambered fields were the order of the day at the 4th round of the G H Motorcycles/Husqvarna/ACU Eastern Enduro Championship staged by the Sudbury Motor Cycle Club at Little Hadham Herts. With the rain days before the event and the sunshine on the day made the conditions perfect for the well laid out course.
It was Chris Hockey (Sudbury) who set the best times in the Championship Class two Special Tests some 11 seconds faster than Jamie Roper (Sudbury) who fell off on the first test and a further 17 seconds faster than Jason Morland (Halstead) who fell off on the second test. This Class has been about these three riders could Hockey win his 10
th Title, could Morland win his first Title or Roper go on to win his fourth Title and throughout the day these three battled away. It came to the last session where the time limit is very tight with Roper, Hockey, Craig Roper and Rick Roper (both Sudbury) set off on the same minute and R Roper was in third place after the two special tests. It was Hockey’s event to win but disaster struck half way round the lap his bike suffered a mechanical failure so he was out which left the three Ropers to fight it out. J Roper finished ahead but was a minute late thus incurring 60 penalty points while the other two Ropers were two minutes late. It now rested on Morland who set off a minute later and if he came in on time he would be the winner however he was one minute late giving the win to J Roper, Morland 2
nd, Tom Braddock (Lowestoft) 3
rd, Brendon Mayers (Halstead) 4
th and Tim Rose (Diss) 5
th. Provisionally although J Roper now has a nine point lead over Morland with only 4 rounds out of 5 counting Morland has a great chance of taking the Title.
Jake Gregory (Stowmarket) who was leading the Expert Class before the day was only one second after the special tests behind 18 year old Alex Rampton (Sudbury) and again it was down to the last session unfortunately Gregory came off in the woods making him 4 minutes late at the finish which relegated him to 6
th place. Meanwhile Rampton went to win with Ed Pooley (Stowmarket) having his best result in the Contest in 2
nd place, followed by the Sudbury trio of Jack Nicolaou 3
rd, Ryan McDonnell 4
th, and Nick Barrett 5
th. Ben Grice (Lowestoft) battled his way to 7
th place despite being 11 minutes late at the finish. Gregory still has a chance of winning the Title as does Rampton.
In the Expert Veteran Class Mark Chapman (Diss) held off his nearest rival Gavin Hockey (Sudbury) to win the Class by 4 seconds with Mark Green (Sudbury) 3
rd, Paul Whitehead (Castle Colchester) 4
th and Jason Green (Diss) 5
th. Provisionally Chapman has won this won for the third year running.
Dan Willis (Stowmarket) was unstoppable in the Clubman Class by taking the win by 12 seconds over Daniel Piper (Sudbury) who had his best ride ever in this Class. Alex Walton (Sudbury) was 3
rd with Lee Monger (Sudbury) 4
th, Tom Sargent (Bury St Edmunds) 5
th and George Wolfe (TBEC) 6
th. Willis, Walton and Ben Ramus (Sudbury) are the three riders in contention for the Class Title.
The first five in the Clubman Veteran Class were Duncan Griffin (Diss), Dean Curry (Sudbury), Jason Carsboult (Sudbury), Jeff Turner (Sudbury) and Peter Andrews (Woodbridge). The 2016 Class Title will be between Andrews, Turner and Curry.
Sudbury riders took the first four places in the Clubman Super Veteran Class being in order Andy Mason, Graham Mays, Nigel Ross and Les Rampton with Nick Airey (TBEC) 5
th. The battle for the Class Title will be between Mays and Mason with the 5
th and final round on 4
th September at Butley.