After the very successful opening round of this year’s ACU British Timecard Enduro Championship taking place in Hampshire back in February, the series headed to the picturesque market town of Helmsley, North Yorkshire, for last weekend’s Putoline Yorkshire 2 Day Enduro.
Clerk of the course John Kerwin had drafted in the experience of Paul Edmondson & his Fast Eddy crew to assist in the design & set up the X-Country styled special test for the event. In addition to this John & his hard working Dirtbike Action club had set up a route that was challenging, technical & with the recent spell of dry weather & ground conditions bone dry, the event was set up to be another top quality round in this year’s series.
DAY 1
With weather conditions being warm & course conditions dry, it was set up to be another great day of action in all classes. By the end of lap1 it was Tom Sagar who was setting the pace early on to take an 8 second lead from series leader Danny McCanney, closely followed by Joe Wootton, Alex Snow & Jack Edmondson. Test 2 saw McCanney claw back 5 seconds from Sagar, while Wootton & Edmondson still on Sagar’s tail had to settle for 3
rd & 4
th. McCanney again took a win on test 3, but it was Wootton who took the win on the 1
st of the back to back tests on the final lap. On the final test of the day Wootton going for another test win took a heavy tumble & was lucky to come away unscathed, from this point MCcanney was in total control for the class win. Sagar remained in 2nd spot come end of play, while Jack Edmondson took a well deserved 3
rd place. Next up it was Alex Snow showing great consistency, Tom Ellwood produced a career best 5
th overall only 5 seconds behind Snow. After his heavy fall on the final test Wotton rounded off the top 6 while youngster Daniel Mundell took home best E1 2 stroke in 7
th with Scottsman Fraser Flockhart in 8
th.
In the hotly contested Expert class it was Aaron Gordon who took the well deserved win beating Max Ditchfield by 43 seconds. Another great performance saw Ben Murphy take 3
rdplace from Richard Ely in 4
th. Luke Flack had to settle for 5
th a further 2 seconds down on Ely, while Harry Hillier Rees completed the top 6.
A strong performance by Luke Thomas saw him snatch the Clubman class win by 16 seconds from the ever-consistent Harry Houghton. A much improved ride by Jake Purcell saw him narrowly take 3
rd from up & coming youngster Lewis Ranger in 4
th.
In the Ladies class both Rosie Rowett & Nieve Holmes came out of the 1
st test with matching times, then on test 2 Rosie had pulled a 3 second lead, but by the end of the day Nieve had slipped further back due to a slow 3
rd test. Chloe Richards was completed the podium in 3
rd.
Andrew Edwards is again the man to beat in the ultra competitive Over 40’s class taking yet another win, beating off nearest rival Richard Hay by 26 seconds. Russell Millward & Simon Comer were next up taking a well respectable 3 & 4
th places.
In the Over 50’s Paul Davies put in a sterling shift taking class win by 21 seconds over Jason Rees. The battle for 3
rd saw Round 1 winner Julian Oakes pip Paul Armstrong by 44 seconds.
Simon Walker headed the small Sportsman class entry, with Jack Mackley 2
nd& Reilly Dennison 3
rd.
DAY 2
Heavy rain during the night leading up to the early hours of the morning of day 2 changed the conditions to the surface being very slippy, however this didn’t slow the pace of the top riders in their respective classes. Danny McCanney started where he left off from the previous day & took the win in all of the 4 special tests during the day setting him up for maximum points from the weekend. Sagar had to settle for the runner up spot 1 minute 4 seconds down on McCanney while third again was Jack Edmondson a further 18 seconds down on Sagar. Joe Wootton put in another strong performance claiming 4
th place just 4 seconds behind Little Ed, with 5
th placed Alex Snow a further 32 seconds down. Dan Mundell took 6
th; Fraser Flockhart 7
th while newly James Dent had an impressive 8
th place.
In the Experts class Richard Ely took the class win with a 45 second margin over day 1 winner Aaron Gordon. Richard Tucker improved on his day 1 performance lifting himself to 3
rd place 4 seconds behind Gordon & the experienced Luke Flack finishing 4th only 6 seconds behind Tucker. Max Ditchfield didn’t have quite such a good day slipping to 5
th while Jon Hunt in 6
th.
Lewis Ranger was the winner of the Clubman class with a very well deserved win beating Harry Houghton Adams by just over a minute. Joshua Kirby put in fine display to take home 3
rd just beating Day 1 winner Luke Thomas by 14 seconds. Darren Kiff, James Palmer, Jake Purcell & Ross Kerr completed the top 8, what a battle this class is turning into!
Rosie Rowett seems to be going from strength to strength with another strong performance to take the Ladies class win, Runner up was Nieve Holmes who kept battling away until the end.
Runner-way Over 40’s leader Andrew Edwards was in commanding form on Sunday, the old master eventually beating runner up Russel Millward by a convincing 1 minute 40 seconds. Simon Comer battled on in the tough conditions for a pleasing 3
rd place while Vince Harker brought home 4
th.
Paul Davies took maximum points from his weekends good work with another win in the over 50’s closely followed by Jason Rees, with Stewart Gilchrist taking 3
rd.
Lastly but not least Simon Walker was the lone finisher in the Sportsman class.
The overall view from riders & supporters was this was well organised & enjoyable event, well worthy of its BEC status!
Photos: Gemma James