Marking the start of the 5 round series, the ACU British Timecard Enduro Championship returned to action near Elgin in Scotland over the Easter weekend. The “Highland Temporary Works” sponsored Lossiemouth Enduro proved to be an enjoyable but challenging event, with the club setting out a 35 mile lap weaving its way through two local sandy based forests with two very physical special tests per lap. With a mix of weather conditions throughout the weekend and with check times catching several riders out on day 1 in each class, the enduro proved to be another classic event organised by the hard working Elgin Endurance Club. DAY 1: As expected the battle for top honours was always going to be difficult to predict with pre-event favourites World Enduro Championship regulars Danny McCanney and Nathan Watson both on fine form, plus the current GNCC XC Championship leader Jack Edmondson, who flew back specially to the UK for this event. Also back from injury and hoping to get a top placing was current European Enduro Champion Brad Freeman.
After completing 3 laps and 5 special tests of this truly unique event on the Saturday, it was Manxman Danny McCanney who came out on top, just 10 seconds split him from Brad Freeman who narrowly beat Nathan Watson to 2
nd by only 1 second! Jack Edmondson wasn’t too far off the leading trio, finishing a further 33 seconds behind in 4
th. Jamie Lewis held off a strong challenge from former motocross star Alex Snow for 5
th and 6
th while ever improving Josh Gotts coming home in 7
th just 3 seconds behind Snow, with Scotsman Fraser Flockhart in 8
th.
Welshman Jay Thomas carried on his early season form taking an easy win in the strongly competitive Expert class beating runner-up Bradley King by 42 seconds. Third place saw Andrew Bisset a further 47 seconds adrift, while Kevin Murray took a well deserved 4
th place another 26 seconds behind.
Fred Adams claimed top spot in the Clubman class by 17 seconds from young hotshot Lewis Ranger, while Jordan Wright was only a further 19 seconds behind in 3
rd, closely followed by 4
th placed Allyn Taylor, 15 seconds splitting these two.
In the Ladies class Glesni Jones was recording the quickest test times, but she was unable to match class winner Rosie Rowett on the going, dropping an extra minute on the tight check thus dropping Jones to the runner-up spot, with the ever determined Ellie Cooke taking third.
In the ultra competitive Over 40’s saw BEC long time servant Andrew Edwards storm to his 1
st win, with class regulars Andrew Reeves and Russel Millward taking 2
nd and 3
rd places respectively, with hard charging Scotsman Richard Hay only 12 seconds down from Millward to take 4
th.
Paul Davies was the only rider clean on time in the Over 50’s and took a comfortable win over Paul Armstrong who had dropped 2 minutes. Darren Osbourne held onto 3
rd place just 10 seconds in front of 4
th placed Paul Spurgeon.
DAY 2: With heavy overnight rain showers and with more check time allowance on Sunday riders were faced with a more relaxed days riding. However Danny McCanney was in no mood to take any strangers, easily taking the win again by 1 minute 6 seconds from Brad Freeman. Brad only just returning from injury was feeling the effects of his long layoff, but still coming home 2
nd in this quality field is still no mean task. Next up was Jack Edmondson who was up against it pushing his 125 to the limit trying to keep up with the bigger machines in the power sapping sandy tests. Eddy was just 17 seconds behind Freeman at the end of the days play, just pipping Nathan Watson (pictured left) in 4
th by the small margin of 3 seconds. Stuart Edmonds another former motocross star was having a far better day finishing 5
th, with Jamie Lewis in 6
th a further 6 seconds off Edmonds. Not far behind though were Josh Gotts, just 4 seconds off Lewis and Lee Sealey bouncing back after bike problems on day 1 a further 1 second down.
In the Experts Jay Thomas was dominant again, taking maximum points to round off his brilliant weekend. Bradley King again was runner-up, 41 seconds down on Thomas with Kevin Murray completing the top 3 just 8 seconds off King. An improved performance saw Arron Gordon come home in 4
th along with best E1/2 while Andrew Bisset slipped from his 3
rd place on Saturday to 5
th.
Closest action of the day saw ex professional rugby player Tom James take the Clubman win by half a second from Allyn Taylor, with Day 1 winner Fred Adams only another 3 seconds behind. Youngsters Duncan Norrie and Harry Hillier-Rees both having strong rides in 4
th and 5
th, while Lewis Ranger dropped a few places from day 1 but still a very creditable 6
th place.
The very stylish Rosie Rowett headed the Ladies class again with a faultless display, with nearest rival Glesni Jones dropping 2 minutes on the going to finish 2
nd. Little Ellie Cooke was unable to finish due to a heavy tumble and breaking her wrist.
Old master Andrew Edwards is looking to hot to handle in the Over 40’s taking the win again by well over a minute from Andrew Reeves, with Russell Millward collecting another 3
rd place. Richard Hay had to settle with 4
th.
Paul “Elvis” Davies took maximum points again in the Over 50’s; pulling ahead of 2
nd placed Darren Osbourne by just over a minute on the day. Third placed going to Paul Armstrong with Paul Spurgeon 4
th.
All in all yet another superb event put on by the Elgin club; see you again in two years time!
The next round of this series is organised by DirtBike Action & will be held at Helmsley, Yorkshire over the weekend of 13th/14th May. Entries are now available. For further information on the event checkout the clubs website – http://www.dirtbike-action.co.uk Photos: Ashleigh Blunt Photography