Wednesday November 2, 2011 at 4:50pm
There is no denying that Total Enduro’s Total Extreme event at Westwood near Barnsley, was extreme. Organised by John Kerwin and Graham Jarvis, Jarvis thought he may have made it too extreme following the one-hour practice session before the main event as competitors who had competed at Erzberg said that the course was tougher than the Austrian event.
The challenges around the course were relentless, following very closely one after another, both man-made and natural, they provided a superb spectacle for the crowds of spectators who turned up to watch.
An open and relatively flowing section held a double jump then three sets of tyres, the first laid flat followed by two sets of uprights, followed by upturned skips which lead riders out into the more natural parts of the course. The natural sections were enhanced with logs and boulders all strategically placed to make life as difficult as possible for riders. Long pits were strewn with sets of logs which riders had to negotiate one after another. A quarry section provided very steep natural climbs and drops and a dry-ish streambed twisted and turned for hundreds of metres giving riders no place to relax.
A one-hour practice session before the main race gave riders a taste of what was to come and many finished the session visibly shaken, some having managed just one lap.
Before the main race of the day the Trials riders got a chance to show their stuff in a Speed trial race. The race was split into two classes, A and B and Luke Meredith rocketed into a commanding lead in the A class with James Stones, leading the B class, some distance behind. Meredith took the overall win followed by Gary Morley and Nick Reed in the A class while Stones won the B class convincingly from Matt Hockenhill and Will Emmott.
Six classes of riders lined up for the 1.00pm start of the two-hour Extreme race with the Pro and Expert riders leading the way, followed at one-minute intervals by the Clubman, Over 40’s then the Sportsman and finally the Ladies.
Gas Gas rider Dougie Lampkin got a flying start, essential in this type of race, closely followed by Jack Lee and Alexz Wigg with Graham Jarvis stuck mid-pack as the riders entered the first long sunken log pit. A mad scramble saw Lampkin exit first and shoot off into the numerous woodland sections.
The crowd eagerly awaited the riders to emerge onto the open section and it was Lampkin who appeared first with Jarvis just a few yards behind him. As the pair approached the first large double jump Lampkin launched strongly, missed a gear and dropped just a few feet short, casing his Gasser extremely hard on the crest of the second jump, stopping dead in his tracks. Jarvis grabbed the opportunity to take the lead as Lampkin, uninjured, rolled off the jump checking his bike and straightening his bars and forks before continuing onwards. This single incident put paid to Lampkin’s challenge. He continued, slowly by his usual standards, for seven laps before retiring with major front-end suspension problems on a bike which was near to unrideable.
Mike Brown kept the Gas Gas challenge alive alongside Alexz Wigg and James Dabill, all three fighting hard with on-form Paul Bolton, Dan Hemingway, Ben Hemingway and Jack Lee, chopping and changing places as the race progressed but Jarvis was long gone and lapping Expert riders within a few laps, closing down on the Pro riders with a faultless performance on his Flite Husaberg. Just after the halfway point Bolts got his game together and put the hammer down to take second place as Mike Brown finished third and edged Wiggy into fourth spot with James Dabill fifth.
Biff Smith had a really testing ride on his way to Expert class victory. A first corner crash with Dan Hemingway and Luke Meredith saw him work his way through the field of Experts to finish a lap ahead of Luke Copestake in second spot. Tom Healy held third place for most of the race but the most unfortunate Expert was Luke Flack. He started on the wrong row, believing he was in the Clubman class, so fellow Expert riders gained a minute on him almost immediately but he rode hard to eventually finish fourth in class ahead of Ryan Patrick.
The over 40’s class contained a handful of very talented riders and was won by Oakland International’s Craig Parkes, who had likened the toughness of the course to Erzberg. He admitted he took some time to get into the race and was unsure where he was lying early on as Rob McLeod was close behind in the opening stages but Parkes went on to gain an extra four laps to take the win. Mick Hammond, wondering what he was doing at the event and why he thought it was a good idea to enter, was a little downhearted after practice but hung tough to take third in class.
Clubman Josh Law spent much of his race mixed in amongst some very quick and agile Experts, which may have helped him to maintain a good pace on his way to class victory by a lap over Zak Sherwin who took second in class and Reece Emson who took third.
Mike Gilby excelled in the Sportsman ranks, winning his class by a clear four laps over Gary Morely and Steve Tomlin while Tara Johnson posted three tough laps to take the Ladies class win. Emily Davey, once she had recovered from knocking herself out, managed to finish the race in second position, just ahead of Fionn Griffiths in third place.
For mere mortals, just posting a single lap was a result in itself, the course proved to be every bit as tough as Graham Jarvis had anticipated but to see the likes of Jarvis, Lampkin, Bolton and company making relatively easy work of very extreme obstacles the event really can be described as spectacular.
The weather played its part with sunshine all day long with a hint of drizzle early on. If rain had arrived this could have been a nigh-on impossible course to negotiate. Many of the log sections and woodland areas were very slippy in practice and at the beginning of the race but improved initially until wear and tear made most sections progressively harder. The numerous lengthy chicken runs were well used as some of the lower ranks attempted the hard route once and opted for a more cautious approach as the race went on.
The event certainly lived up to expectations, it was Totally Extreme!