After the very successful opening rounds of this year’s ACU British Timecard Enduro Championship taking place in Scotland recently, the series now heads to the picturesque market town of Helmsley, North Yorkshire & will take place over the weekend of 13th/14th May.
John Kerwin the clerk of the course for Dirtbike Actions “
Putoline Yorshire 2 Day Enduro” has spent the recent last few months busy revamping this year’s event & with the recent spell of dry weather & ground conditions bone dry, all things are looking good for another cracking round in this year’s series. For this event John is working alongside the Fast Eddy Racing Team to bring you a top quality event.
With the start/refuelling area being moved further down the road into a larger area plus the route being far more flowing & less technical, along with check times being more relaxed than previous years, all classes should find the event far more enjoyable.
John has set out a 20 mile forest route, using 2 new XC styled Special Tests & with possibly 3 checks per lap. John has also used Paul Edmondson’s vast experience & input on both the new XC tests design layout.
XC Test 1 is located 500m from the start near the farm, will be fast flowing through mature wildly spaced trees & should run at around 3 minutes for championship class riders.
XC Test 2 is located where the 2015 long test was, but apart from the start & finish area is on all new ground, this should run for around 8 minutes for championship class riders.
With current BEC series leader Danny McCanney unable to ride this event, it will be up to Brad Freeman fresh from recently winning the Junior class at the World Enduro Championship round in Spain, current USA GNCC X3 class leader Jack Edmondson & Nathan Watson to try to narrow the margin on McCanney.
Not far behind the leading quartet though are flying Welshman Jamie Lewis, Cornish star Josh Gotts & former top motocross rider Alex Snow. Other BEC regulars including Lee Sealey, Stuart Edmonds trying his hand at enduros, plus Scottish pair Fraser Flockhart & Frazer Norrie will all be hoping to score some good points. Another young man on a mission will be Dan Mundell who took a well deserved Under 20 class win at the European Enduro Championship at the opening round in Portugal.
In the highly competitive Experts class in-form Jay Thomas will be the man to beat, but hoping to get close will be experienced riders Bradley King & Kevin Murray, much improved Andrew Bisset & Aaron Gordon along with youngsters Jordan Ridgeway, Alex Walton, Brad Williams & Roger Holland to name but a few.
In the Clubman class another close battle will commence between Fred Adams, Tom James, Allyn Taylor, Lewis Ranger, Harry Hillier-Rees & Duncan Norrie, all capable of taking class wins on their day.
Rosie Rowett & Glesni Jones will pick up where they left off at Scotland in the Ladies class, but no Ellie Cooke this time after picking up a wrist injury last time out.
Both Andrew Edwards (Over 40’s) & Paul Davies (Over 50’s) will take some beating in their respective classes.
All in all, it’s all starting to hot up in this year’s BEC series & with a new & improved Helmsley on the cards, its look like we will be in for a belter! The start is located off Braxton’s road, Helmsley, North Yorkshire YO62 5EP. The venue will be signposted from Helmsley market square. Signing-on/Scrutineering will take place on the Friday between 4pm – 8pm. First riders will start at 10.00am Saturday & 9.00am Sunday.
For further information on the event checkout the clubs website –
http://www.dirtbike-action.co.uk
Photos: Ashleigh Blunt Photograph & Dirtbike Action