It was a sunny autumn day for the fourth and final round of the Dave Barkshire Motorcycles Two Man Enduro Championship at Tye Farm Great Cornard part of the double header for the Dave Roper Memorial Event staged by the Sudbury Motor Cycle Club. Before the start there was a minutes silence in memory of Sudbury member Gareth Young who suffered a cardiac arrest at the last Sudbury event.
Although there was a good entry the Championship Class had only two teams however these teams battled it out throughout the four hour session. Sam Mitchell/Brendan Mayers completed 80 laps to Harvey Mutten/Toby Morley 78 laps. Mitchell/Mayers wins the Class for 2017 from Mutten/Morley second with brothers Rick and Jamie Roper third who were only able to ride the first two rounds due to Jamie’s injury.
There a hard fought battle in the Expert Class for the first seven places. Tommy Clark/Jack Berry completed 77 laps just one more than Myles Saunders/George Eustace but when time penalties were deducted both teams were equal on 74 laps so it was down to which rider had the best lap time over the whole session which Saunders/Eustace did 3 minutes 53 seconds some 37 seconds faster than Clark/Berry. Kevin Palmer/Ben Grice secured 3
rd place on 73.33 laps with Joe Marsh/Mark Mitchell 4th on 72.67 laps. Dan Willis/Chris Wright completed 75 laps, while Paul Belton/Phil Roper and Paul Whitehead/Terry Allen finished on 72 laps. However when time penalties were deducted these three teams were equal on 71.67 laps so best lap times came into play. It was only by one second that Belton/Roper took 5
th place from Whitehead/Allen while Willis/Wright had to be content with 7
th place 36 seconds behind. The 2017 provisional final positions for this Class is a win the Palmer/Grice with Marsh/Mitchell 2
nd with Saunders/Eustace taking 3
rd place over Willis/Wright on the Series tie break system.
In the Clubman Class before the day Will Nice/Ben Marsh had a one point lead of Dan & Paul Hunt and these two teams battled it out for most of them being equal on laps ridden until Nice had a fall and was treated by the paramedics and had to retire. At the end of the session Shaun Palfrey/Toby Rogers finished on 73 laps compared to the Hunt brothers 72 but with time penalties deducted both teams were equal and the Hunt brothers took the victory with a better lap time. Michael Barker/Raymond Otoka finished 3
rd and Matt Smith/Marc Norton 4
th. The 2017 Clubman Class Title goes to the Hunt brother with Nice/Marsh 2
nd and Smith/Norton 3
rd.