There were lots of surprises at the 4th round of the G H Motorcycles/Husqvarna/Eastern Centre Enduro Championship held at Home Farm Little Hadham by the Sudbury Motor Cycle Club. With rain days before the event it made conditions interesting especially in the boggy area in the Woods.
First of the surprises was Contest leader in the Championship Class Aston Bird (Woodbridge) who could only manage 4
th on the day being 15.849 seconds behind the winner Jamie Roper (Sudbury) and another surprise Sam Toy (Sudbury) finished 2
nd in front of his mentor Chris Hockey (Sudbury) making a Sudbury 1-2-3. Steve Mason (Sudbury) secured 5
th, Craig Roper (Sudbury) 6
th and Tim Rose (Diss) 7
th. All the riders in this Class accrued penalty points for lateness.
The leader in the Expert Class Will Hughes (Braintree) scored his first win beating Ross Taylor (Diss) by 22.283 seconds. This was Taylor’s first ride this year after an injury at the end of 2014 which has kept him out of all competitions. Rob Blackman (Colchester) finished 3
rd, Ben Alexander (Diss) 4
th, Chris Hart (Sudbury) 5
th and Alex Barkshire (Diss) 6
th.
Mark Chapman (Diss) was back to his winning ways beating Gavin Hockey (Sudbury) by 11.281 seconds in the Expert Veteran Class, while Phil Roper (Sudbury) was 3
rd, with another surprise of Paul Belton (Sudbury) securing 4
th in front of John Bishop and Graham Lazzari both Lowestoft.
Contest Leader in the Clubman Class Alex Ramption (Sudbury) had a bad day coming off in the special tests which relegated him to 8
th position while Ryan McDonnell (Sudbury) took his first win and he was 26.859 seconds in front of Rampton. Carl Honeywood (Lowestoft) was 2
nd, Ed Pooley (Stowmarket) 3
rd, Tom Sargent (Bury St Edmunds) 4
th, Martin Stevens (Diss) 5
th and Dan Willis (Stowmarket) 6
th.
A nice surprise for John Austin (Sudbury) with his first win in the Clubman Veteran Class beating following Sudbury rider Jason Carsboult by 7.156 seconds, following them were Terry Allen (TBEC), Jeff Turner (Sudbury),Phil Waldron (Sudbury) and Dean Curry (Sudbury).
Surprises keep coming for it was a first win in the Clubman Super Veteran Class for Gary Drage (Sudbury) beating second place rider Andy Mason (Sudbury) by 16.413 seconds while Simon Thake (Sudbury) took 3
rd place, Adrian Rickwood (TBEC) 4
th and Clive Stevens (Diss) 5
th.
Pete McDonnell (Sudbury) had his best ride in the Sportsman Class finishing 2
nd before fellow Club member Martin Smith.
Although the new wrist band transponder system was used for the first time in a time card Enduro the results are being treble checked so are only provisional so are the current overall positions. Bird’s lead in the Championship Class has been reduced to five points by J Roper with C Hockey 3
rd nine points adrift of J Roper.
Hughes has a 16 point lead over Alexander in the Expert Class and if round 4 results are confirmed he will take the Expert Title while in third place is Blackman.
G Hockey is still leading the Expert Veteran Class from P Roper and Chapman.
Rampton’s lead in the Clubman Class is down to seven points with M Stevens and R McDonnell level in 2
nd place.
Austin is now leading the Clubman Veteran Class by two points from Carsboult and five points from Curry.
C Stevens and A Mason are tying for first place in the Clubman Super Veteran Class followed by Rickwood 8 points behind.
In the Team Dave Roper Challenge there are only two points between Rampton and McDonnell and the final round on 30
th August at Butley will decide all the Class winners.