Wednesday October 18, 2017 at 11:31am
Jamie Lewis made the trip to Gelnica in Slovakia for the 2017 European Enduro Championship final round. The event was not far from Kosice the venue of the 2015 ISDE.
Jamie was leading his class going into the event but knew the challenge would be here.
Luke Flack, Jay Thomas were also taking part along with Jed Etchells riding his first traditional Enduro.
The event was an old school type Enduro which is the norm in Slovakia. 3 laps of 80km each day of tough but varied terrain. Each lap also included an Extreme, MX and Enduro test.
The weather was superb and everyone started Friday morning in good spirits. Jamie had a mixed day with a few special test mistakes and finished Day 1 in 5th position in class and dropped some points to his nearest class rival Marco Neubert from Germany.
Luke Flack and Jay Thomas were steady and both finished 9th in their respective classes. Jed Etchells was having a tough day, not made easier by rear brake problems which were eventually diagnosed as a heavy right foot!
Saturday was the same again, and Jamie upped his game taking second spot in class, and giving himself some breathing space going into the final day.
Luke improved to 7th in class but Jay Thomas had severe food poisoning coupled with flu and was forced out, but would take the restart on Day 3
The 3rd day in the European Final is a MX race and after an off-road stage the riders arrived at a superb old-style MX circuit with very steep climbs and drops.
Luke Flack, Jay Thomas and Jed Etchells completed their 7 lap races without incident and with good placings.
Jamie Lewis took the hole shot in the SE2 race which had been grouped together with SE3 as a crowd puller. Jamie led for some laps but then prudently went into safe mode and was content to take 2nd spot in class an 3rd in race to claim the title for 2017.
Great Britain had a new European Enduro Champion in Jamie Lewis on his Off-Road Experience Yamaha.