June
Enduro 2003
Sunday 8th June 2003
Riders on enduro, moto-cross and trail bikes ride a 3.5-mile lap using the moto-cross track plus surrounding woods. It's an ever-quickening time schedule over 4 hours non-stop (except for refuelling). Speed helps, but its stamina and endurance that counts in enduros. Free admission - just watch where you walk as the track uses nearly every bit of the land.
Photos
There are now about 600 photos here on another of Martin Coulbert's sites (www.images2view.co.uk.)
Unfortuntely my camera is broken so no photos from me, more photos are welcome from anyone else who took photos.
Report 1
By Jamie Clarke
This year once again saw a capacity turn out of riders for the annual Sidcup & DMCC regional restricted, South Eastern Centre Championship round. With a lot of hard work from many helpers the club managed a 4.8-mile lap out the woods, car parks and motocross track to produce a technical enduro route. Tara O'Callaghan took the expert win by some distance, however all the expert lost points in an enduro that had tight challenging times for the experts. The Clubman A class was much closer with Paul Skinner winning on his special test time alone. Clubman B was even closer with Sidcup rider Mark Heaven winning. In the sportsman class with the schedule arranged so that their 3rd session was a break that coincided with the expert's fast session, Trevor Agar won. All riders were thankful for the free Red Bull energy drinks provided by Red Bull ladies. The club wishes to thank the many people who helped the club put on an excellent event and Yamaha UK for their assistance.
Report 2
By Glenn Howard (Fastbelly) from AdrenalinTrip / MX Trax Message Board and the Rides List (No 4).
Sunday 8th of June heralded the annual Sidcup MCC South Eastern Centre Enduro and this is how I got on.
I arrived with Cookie (Peter Cook) and the track looked similar to how it was a couple of years back when I last rode it. The track conditions were perfect and there was a little rain in the air. It was incredibly humid and riders were getting dressed and then undressed again to cool off. We did all the normal stuff wandering about talking gobshite in bucket loads and kicking each other’s tyres. All very well organised it was. I shoved my battered looking KTM 300 through scruitineering and sorted the pits. The lovely Michelle Peter Foleys other half had worked out my times for me, which was handy, so I only had to fill out my time card. All too easy really. Only bummer was that I had forgotten to buy any energy drink or chocolate and my Camelback was not in my damn van. I knew from past experience that a masochist at this event sets the time schedule and there would little time for drinking or eating in the pits. I found some water in the van and drank it and left some in the pit in case I had time to drink. Hmmmm, not looking quite so good now. Bad prep is the worst thing because you only have your self to blame. Suitably self chastised I wandered off to look at the special test with Cookie. It was short and quite smooth on the sandy MX track with jumps and all.
I was number four and off on the first min. We all checked out the track, Michaell Buttle passed me and Simon Beken in a daft place, dumped it and took Simon with him. They were ok and I had a private snigger. First reconnaissance lap, why overtake? Theres no hurry. Any how, the track was good and quite interesting, very technical in places with MX track, woods, climbs and descents, even some cool drop off steps thrown in for good measure. However it soon became clear that this would be a tough track because there was nowhere to rest.
After lap one it was also clear that the organisers had left virtually no slack time in the first “Slack session” for the two special tests. “Crikey” I had better get a move on. I did the first special and was the first rider to do it. I did the second special on the next lap and rounded out the first session riding quite hard to keep on time. So many riders were queuing and getting stressed out about the lack of time. This is totally wrong, there should be at least another ten mins built into the first check. No way should we have to ride our nuts off to stay on time in a check with TWO special tests. It’s not fair for those who get caught in the queue. Especially when there are only two stop watch operators.
Anyway, moan over. I completed the first session with just one min to re-fuel and get going again. Stupidly I neglected to drink anything again. I could have done because Michelle was taking care of refuelling for me. I set off for a five-lap session, which I knew we would not make. Head down I rode hard for four laps and was going well and still ahead of Cookie and James Jackman but then disaster. I arrived at lap scoring and the shift lever felt funny. I looked down and the lever was loose. I got my punch and headed back into the pits. I broke the blue tapes in the haste to return to the pits and got a right Royal Bolloking from an official. And rightly so. Sorry!!! I got Petes tools and fixed the gear stick good an tight. Again I missed the opportunity to drink… Doh!
Back in to the fray and complete the session. On parts of the track I can see some of the other experts on track and work out that I am a few mins in front of them still. But knew that I was well down on the leaders. I just kept my head down and went as hard as I could. Session three was two laps and not much time so again I got down to it. By this time my hands were getting really sore and I knew that with eight laps still to go I would have major blisters to contend with. The short session ended, and I pitted for fuel again knowing I now had five laps to go. Michelle and Ted once again put up with me shouting and did my fuel. This time I did remember a drink and drank as much as I could get down my neck in the time available. It was still not enough. Then Michelle noticed that fuel was poring out of the carb overflows. It’s done this before and usually stops when riding. But it would not start because it was flooded. Damn, can anything else go wrong? I enlisted some help and be bumped it in to life and off I went again for the final five laps in the hot conditions. The track was getting rougher and the woods was getting really whooped out. There was absolutely nowhere to rest. I was even more down hearted because I had thought that it was only four laps to go, so when Ted told me it was five I could have cried! Out on the course on the opening lap of the five the bike started to run really rough and was grinding to a halt. I could just keep it going but it was really loading up. I guessed that the carb float valve was still jammed open and it was flooding still. I admitted defeat and nursed the bike the rest of the way around the first loop of the track back towards the pits losing minuets of time. Then as I was approaching it suddenly cleared again and I was back in the race all be it way down. Oh well, I thought, just see if I can pick up a few points for Kingston club. I rode the next four laps and was getting more and more tired and making more and more mistakes. I was looking like a Keystone Enduro rider..The blisters on my hands were now bursting making it really hard to hold on. Eventually I caught Euan Harrison only to crash. I got up and chased him down again. I passed him with a lap to go and he was looking tired too. I worked out that he had started three mins behind me and so to beat him I had to put three on him the final lap. I tried and rode real hard for half a lap but only managed to put about two hundred yards into him so I gave that one up. I guess he knew that all he had to do was keep me in site to beat me. Anyway, it was all over. The toughest round of the year so far was over and I was in bits. I have only ever been in such a state of exhaustion once before and that was due to dehydration too. I drank loads and led in the shade of my van a while to recover. Changing in the van I stood up and very nearly passed out. I fell against the side of the van and sat down again quick.. Crashtest plied me with chocolate and Cookie gave me some Coke and water. What a mess I was in. After a while I was getting back to normal and we went to some nasty local pub for a lemonade and some bench racing stories. Suitably refreshed of we went in to the sunny evening with a few beers at our local in mind. And so it was.
When the results appeared on the net, to my astonishment I had managed to bag fourth place out of the seventeen experts and a Silver medal to boot! I was over the moon with that. Tara O’Callahan had won for Witley Club, Kingston Clubs James Jackman and Peter “Cookie” Cook were second and third. Euan Harrison, Croydon was fourth and little old me in fith. It just goes to show that you should never give up. I guess other riders were having just as many problems as me. Strange that someone of my limited talents can do so well despite the problems I had. Weird.
So it was a good day for the Kingston boys and that will keep our lead in the championship safe. Ted (Team mentor) will be pleased. The Clubmen did well for us too so well done to those guys too.
Many thanks to the Sidcup Club for staging such a good and tough event. Too many enduros are too easy nowadays so it good to have something to get stuck into. Many thanks to the marshals and of course to the lovely Michelle for doing the times and petrol. And finally, to Ted Smith for his support and work with the Kingston Club.
This weekend I am having a bit of fun wobbling around on my Venerable 88 air cooled KDX at Lane End Marlow with the Chiltern Hills enduro club……
Glenn “Fastbelly” Howard
Comments
All comments welcome - please email them to me.
From "CRM James", from the Rides List :- "A great time would be an understatement - thanks to all that made it possible!".
From "MXH", from AdrenalinTrip / MX Trax Message Board (No 6) :- "Yep, the Sidcup enduro was good, but hard work. Somehow managed a 6th in the experts - more to do with others falling off than me going fast, I think. The marshalls seemed to be pretty busy with track repairs all day - and I certainly took out my fair share of posts!! Oh, and remind me never to complain again about enduro times being too easy!!!"
From "Michael Hall", from the Rides List (No 9) , in jest says :- "Red Bull girls?? What Red Bull girls!!! Ah, perhaps being in the experts and riding for 4hrs 35mins without stopping (apart from to refuel) is the reason why I didn't see any Red Bull girls. Good event, though."
Results
These will be posted to compeitors and officials soon.
They are in PDF format - that means you need Adobe Acrobat to use them. The advantage is that the printed version looks correct rather than a HTML version and it avoids the virus and compatibly issues that are associated with DOCs. This means you will need Adobe Acrobat (click on the link to download it).
You may want to "open in new window" or "save as" to view these files.
Working Parties
Working parties on Saturday 31st May, Sunday 1st June, Wednesday 7th June and Saturday 7th June. Turn up at the Heights at around 10am (on weekends) and for the Wednesday 6:30pm onwards.
Update : No more duck, just eggshells, so they left once they hatched. We've used 600+ stakes and 10+ roles of ropes (none left), among other things. We've just got the tapeing and the paddock to do (so any help on the saturday would be greatly appreciated). The club wishes to thank all who have helped so far on the Saturday, Sunday, and Wednesday working parties and all the other suporting roles.