The 2013 ACU British Enduro Championship moves to Hampshire for the Natterjack Enduro on September 14-15 as the series comes to its tense last few races. Following the Abbey Enduro in August the fight for the overall title has intensified as recently crowned world youth enduro champion Jamie McCanney (Midwest Husaberg TE250) grabbed vital podium finishes while championship leader Tom Sagar (Colwyn Bay KTM 450EXC) fought his way to two painful eighth place results with a hand injury severely hampering his progress. However, having dominated the first half of the season with five straight wins, Sagar still holds the advantage and with his injury rested could wrap up the title at the Natterjack – a venue he likes having scored a 1-2 there in 2012.
The action is set to be equally tense in the Expert championship, with early leader Ryan McLean now caught in a very tight battle with newly-crowned Husqvarna British Sprint Enduro Youth 125 champion Brad Freeman. Meanwhile Lee Sealey looks set to tie-up the Clubman title unless pursuers Jack Staines and Andrew Bull can overturn the form book and pull wins from the weekend.
The Natterjack Enduro is the fifth of this six-round series which travels the UK from Scotland to Wales, Yorkshire and the South East before the final round in Norfolk in November.
NATTERJACK ENDURO
Run by Team REME the Natterjack Enduro is celebrating its 35th year and certainly is in fine health – very much a rider’s favourite. A 30-mile course – all off-road – is promised, combined with the now infamous ‘Sandpit’ motocross special test and the world-class enduro test (last year a full 11-minutes long).
Carl Bale, secretary of the meeting: “Everything is going ahead full-steam, we’ve crossed the threshold on entries and all land permissions are in place – the land is SSSI designated and so we’ve only just been signed off by Natural England. The plant will move in now to create a new cross-test in the Sandpit and we’ll have another variation on the enduro test. We’ll also have extra interest with Crescent KTM displaying 2014 KTMs, Michelin are sending their race support truck and the Team GB ISDE Rygor trucks will be there as part of the load-up and send-off to the ISDE in Sardinia.”