With heavy rain on Friday and Saturday before the second round of the GH Motorcycles / Husqvarna / ACU Eastern Enduro Championship the organisers, Bury St Edmunds Motor Cycle Club were not in the mind to cancel this event so they ploughed on and laid out a superb course. On the Sunday the rain held off although the going was very tough and challenging the cold northwest winds partly dried the going which became easier.
The format for the event is Championship and Expert Classes were given five sessions averaging around 30 minutes each to ride as many laps as possible with penalties of one sixth of a lap for being early and late while the Clubman Classes had four sessions.
All eyes in the Championship Class were on current Champion Jason Morland, the young pretender Luke Parker, nine times Champion Chris Hockey and Tom Braddock all starting on the same minute. Morland lead the quartet in the early sessions and in one session gambled on an extra lap in the hope of gaining extra sixths of a lap but ended up coming in six minutes late and gained or lost nothing. As the sessions progress Braddock dropped out of the equation then Hockey had to retire before the last session with machine problems. Onto the last session with all to ride for and at the end both Morland and Parker finished on 18.33 net laps so then it was down to the best lap of the day and the verdict went to Parker by 3.06 seconds. Just behind this pair were Tim Rose and Craig Roper both one sixth of a lap behind the front two and Rose got 3
rd place over Roper by .58 seconds. The next four riders tied on the same number of laps and the tie decider gave Ben Cole 5
th, Sam Mitchell 6
th, Will Hughes 7
th and Rick Roper 8
th. Unofficial positions after two rounds are Parker 40 points, Morland 30 points and C Roper 18 points.
In the Expert Class it was a battle between five Sudbury members with the elder statement Jack Berry showing how it was done finishing 1
st on 17.83 laps with newcomer to the Class George Eustace holding off Jack Nicolaou by 3.86 seconds to take 2nd pushing Nicolaou in to 3
rd while James Barker took 4
th and Alex Walton 5
th. Current standings show Berry 1
st, Ben Murphy 2
nd and Ben Colman and Eustace joint 3
rd.
Rob Aldridge was untouchable in the Clubman Class taking the win on 13.33 laps while the next four riders all finished on 12.83 laps. George Wolfe got the verdict for 2
nd, while Dan Hunt was 3
rd in front of Brother Paul who was 4
th and William Jurgens took 5
th. 15 year old Jake Roper riding in his first Solo Contest finished 11
th gaining 5 points. Aldridge leads the Class with two wins given him maximum 40 points.
It was another win for Michael Ridge in the Expert Veteran Class from Contest Sponsor Gavin Hockey with an inspired Phil Roper in third. After two rounds Ridge has maximum points. Three rides tied on laps in the Clubman Veteran Class with Martin George from Gloucester taking first on the tie decider with Stephen Youngs 2
nd and Michael Wyatt 3
rd. Andy Peck on 27 points leads the Class.
Another epic battle in the Clubman Super Veteran Class with three riders on 12.83 laps with Gary Drage taking the win, Graham Mays 2
nd and current Champion Andy Mason 3
rd. Gene Womack still leads the Class on 33 points while Drage, Mays and Mason are all on 28 points.
In the Sportsman Class it was a win for the host Club’s rider Jonathan Isaacson with Jonathan Wilson 2
nd and Alex Whitelaw 3
rd.
Report by Roger Chaplin
Photos by Anthony Ridge and Paula Day