4 Man Team Enduro event a huge Success

Conditions were perfect for last Sunday’s 4 Man Team Enduro at Tye Farm Great Cornard and eventually there were a line up of 19 teams with one team having only 3 riders because their fellow team member was injured a few days earlier. 

Last year’s winning team of Stevie & Jamie Roper, Ian Parker and Steve Mason decided to split up and form a team by make of machine so Team 1 was KTM (Roper J, Roper C, Parker and Waller) with Team 2 being Husaberg ( Mason, Morley, Mays G and Hockey J) and Team 3 was Suzuki ( Roper S, Roper R, Berry and Walsh).  However Team 17 consisting of top Moto Cross riders of Morland, Bales, Talbot and Dow were out to spoil the party.  

The 5 hour marathon consisting of 15 minute session saw Jamie Roper of T1 take the lead from the start and at the end of lap one was still leading, with T17 2^nd, T3 3^rd and T2 4^th and on lap2 T3 had overtaken T17 with T18 now 4^th and T2 5^th.  Lap 4 saw T17 regain 2^nd place from T3 while T12 took 5^th relegating T2 to 6^th. 

Lower down the order there were private scraps going on between various friends with positions changing regularly.  T17 were catching T2 and on the half hour took the lead and the positions after the first hour were: 1^st T17, 2^nd T3, 3^rd T1, all on 20 laps with 4^th T2 and 5^th T18 a lap behind. In the first session of the second hour T1 regained 2^nd place from T3 while lower down the order T18, T16, T4  and T12 were swapping places with T8 was surging up the order after a poor start. 

The top five after two hours were 1^st T17 (41 Laps), 2^nd T1, 3^rd T3 (both 40 lap), 4^th T2, 5^th T16 6^th T18 (all 38 laps). Lap 43 in the first session of the third hour T3 took over 2^nd place from T1 only for T1 to re-take this place on lap 46 but on lap 47 T3 were again back in 2^nd place.  Meanwhile T17 were storming on, the format of 15 minutes sessions seem to suit them as they are used to riding flat out in 15 minutes bursts while the Enduro riders are used to pacing themselves over a continuous 5 hour session. 

T17 completed 62 laps at the three hour point with T3 2^nd and T1 3^rd both on 61 laps with T2 4^th, 59 laps and T16 5^th on 58 laps.   During the fourth hour the first seven places remained the same although the leaders T17 were lapping the lower end of the field.  While positions 8^th to 12^th were constantly changing places.  T3 must have second wind as at the end of the fourth hour although still in 2^nd place completed 83 laps the same as the leaders T17 but were just less than two minutes behind which was 5/6ths of a lap.  T1 were still 3^rd (82 laps), T2 4^th (79 laps), T16 5^th (78 laps) and T18 6^th (76 laps). 

With the arrival of the last hour will there be any change of places, retirements or surprises as it has been hot and sunny and the riders needed all the stamina they can muster.  The only casualty was the overheating of the decoder which was recording the rider’s laps with 30 minutes to go and the good news was although it was not communicating with the computer it retained all the information which was later transferred to the computer later on Sunday evening.   

By lap 83 they had lapped four of the teams and were showing no slowing of speed and how many teams could they lap before the finish and they managed to lap all the other teams by lap 105 and finished the five hours with 106 laps.  T3 and T1 managed 104 laps with T3 taking 2^nd place by 21 seconds with T2 4^th (100 laps), T16 5^th (98 laps) and T18 6^th (97 laps.  T18 must be congratulated with their 6^th place as they started the day with only three team members and one of them injured his hand about half way through and could not continue and the remaining two members led by the veteran leader Adrian Coppen and Kelvin Vant with his first ride since his major operation earlier this year rode the remaining sessions between them.

Although there were fewer teams competing this year, the organisers Sudbury Motor Cycle Club were pleased with the outcome on the day and several competitors have started a countdown to next year.  The introduction this year of Electronic lap scoring and timing was another success and there is talk of introducing Classes and a Trophy presentation next year.