Several obstacles were overcome by the Organisers and Riders at the Annual Foxborough Endurothon at Sible Hedingham. On Saturday morning the work party to set up the course was greeted with running muddy water coming down the access road. They were not deterred they set up the course then rain came making the parking and paddock very difficult to negotiate which could mean the event is cancelled but the Sudbury Motor Cycle Club’s Motto is “We don’t do Cancel”. A phone call to Steve Finch of G & B Aggregates saw over a period of three hours three Lorries arrived with earth plus a Roller to make an earth road which held up on Sunday’s race day. Thirty minutes before the start of the five hour marathon the rain came making the course even muddier and wetter but three hours later the rain stopped and at times the sun shone. The damage was done the riders found the going very difficult and challenging, of the 36 teams started only 21 finished while in the Ironman Class only 8 finished out of 34.
The action in the Championship Class was between Craig Roper/Jack Berry (Sudbury) and Jason Morland (Halstead)/Ben Clark (MX Nationals) with the lead swapping constantly and towards the end of the event which was reduced to four hours Morland/Clark got the upper hand to take the chequered flag first completing 30 laps with Roper/Berry 2
nd on 28 laps. Braintree’s Richard Penfold/James Yearley took 3
rd place on 22 laps and Woodbridge pair of Toby Morley/Craig Page Baker was 4
th on 19 laps. Team Dave Roper team mates Ryan McDonnell/Jack Nicolaou (Sudbury) won the Expert Class completing 26 laps pushing fellow Sudbury members George Eustace/Chris Hart into 2
nd place on 24 laps. Joe Marsh/Mark Mitchell (Halstead) secured 3
rd place on 21 laps while father & son Martin & Nathan Greenaway (Sudbury) finished 4
th.
It was a win for Sudbury’s Tommy Clarke/Myles Saunders in the Clubman Class completing 25 laps with Michael Wyatt/Tom Morris (Diss) 2
nd 22 laps pushing into 3
rd place Liam Philips/Adam Jordon (Army) by one minute 27 seconds also on 22 laps. 4
th place James Hockey (Sudbury)/Steve Finch (Braintree) 21 laps with Kevin Webb/Ian Head (Sudbury) 5
th 21 laps.
In the solo Class known as Ironman the machine of Harry Clark (Sudbury) would not start and it took several minutes to get it going by that time the whole field had disappeared into the distance and as it was his first Endurothon he was determined to ride to the finish. Slowly he made his way through the field completing 20 laps which was one short of the winner Maciej Berdysz (Sidcup). Sudbury riders filled the next four places with Darren Nicolaou 3
rd, Rob Clark 4
th, and Gary Vines 5
th and Eldon Jackson 6
th.