The final round of the Dave Barkshire Two Man Enduro Championship took place at the historic track of Little Loveney Hall Wakes Colne. The event was organised by the Halstead Motor Cycle Club who run a similar event several years ago jointly with their neighbouring Club of Sudbury.
The course was partly on the motocross track with tight twists and turns of the track and proved very challenging in the morning session for the 42 teams.
There were four teams in the Championship Class consisting of the 2013 winners Tom Braddock/Toby Morley and local riders from Halstead, Sudbury and Colchester of Brendon Mayers/Joe Marsh, Craig Roper/Rob Blackman and Jamie Roper/Stevie Roper who have won the solo title three times each. There was a ding dong battle through the day between these four teams and at the end of the morning session Roper/Roper were leading on 33 laps while the other three teams were on 31 laps.
However in the drier afternoon session it was a different story with Roper/Blackman completing 35 laps, Roper/Roper and Mayers/Marsh both on 34 laps and Braddock/Morley 32 laps. After time penalties were deducted it was 1
st Roper/Roper 65.75 laps, 2
nd Roper/Blackman 64.75 laps 3
rd Mayers/Marsh 63.5 laps and 4
th Braddock/Morley 63 laps. With the Championship Class Title already won by Aston Bird/Carl Grantham it left the battle for 2
nd and 3
rd and provisionally 2
nd place has gone to the Halstead pairing of Mayers/Marsh on 49 points beating Braddock/Morley by one point.
The Expert Class was just as competitive with Sam Mitchell/Harry Clark riding together for the first time completed 32 laps in the morning session followed by Kevin Palmer/Ben Grice and Alex Walton/Jamie Lagden both on 31 laps and behind them on 30 laps were Ross Taylor/Michael Ridge and Rob Aldridge/Ed Pooley. Mitchell/Clark continued in the afternoon session leading the field and completed 35 laps with Palmer/Grice, Dan Richardson/Mark Relland, Aldridge/Pooley and Walton/Lagden on 33 laps. After late time penalties it was a win for Mitchell/Clark 65.75 laps, 2
nd Aldridge/Pooley 62.5 laps, 3
rd Palmer/Grice 61.75 laps, 4
th Richardson/Relland 61.5 laps. With Aldridge/Pooley having already won the Expert Title on 87 points while Martin & David Stevens are 2
nd with 64 points and Kieron Snowling/Mark Sharman 3
rd on 58 points.
It was a win for Dan Willis/Chris Wright in the Clubman Class completing 59.75 laps, 2
nd Karl/Aaron Graves 58.75 laps, 3
rd Matt Smith/Marc Norton 57 laps and 4
th Phil Whiting/Perry Miller 55.75 laps. Willis/Wright has won the Clubman Class with 97 points with the Sudbury Veteran pairing of Whiting/Miller 2
nd with 58 points and 3
rd Kevin Gore/Dale Wiseman on 56 points.
An added attraction was Sub Classes and it was a win for Phil Roper/Paul Belton in the Expert Veteran on 58.75 Laps, 2
nd Graham Mays/Nigel Ross 55.75 laps and 3
rd Tim Ford/Jeff Sharp 53.5 laps. It was a welcome return for Jeff Sharp who suffered two heart attacks in March and it took 29 minutes to bring him back to life.
In the Clubman Veteran Sub Class 1
st Less Rampton/Martin Greenaway 54.75 laps. 2
nd Martin Gunton/Gavin Potter 50.75 laps. 3
rd Andrew Richards/Mark Plouman 50.25 laps, 4
th Paul Wright/Stuart Flatman 48.75 laps and 5
th Philip & Peter Barltrop 48.25 laps.
Wayne Miller/Paul Manning were the only team in the Clubman Super Veteran Sub Class and were declared winners on 47.25 laps while John Austin was the only rider in the Ironman (Solo) Class completing 57 laps.