enduro news
© Bob Mullins   

Kielder

The Desert Rose shines at the kielder rally
As Patsy Quick wins the rally class

The Dirtbike Action crew set up camp at the Kielder Organic Meats farm on the outskirts of the town of Bellingham in the stunning Northumberland national park, to set up the first K2 rally. With a carefully planned route of 60 off road miles, coupled with a scenic 9 mile road liaison stage to the start of the forest stages at Elf Kirk view point overlooking Kielder Water and the dam. The liaison was ridden once in the morning and again in the afternoon as the riders returned to Bellingham. Saturday's mileage would be 160 miles as the riders completed 2 .3 laps and 3 special tests. Dirtbike Action always innovative had provided riders with 3 optional extra routes of true enduro going. Short in distance but never the less testing for those who wanted to be challenged and a good percentage of the riders tried the options during the weekend.

The special test proved to be a good mix of gravel tracks and trails with a few short sections of fire roads thrown in. With a little sting in tail as the final few meters dropped into a grass section before a short steep climb out on to the fire road and the finish. The conditions on the test varied as intermittent showers and sunshine were the order of the weekend, with Sunday suffering some longer spells of rain. With 4 tests Patsty Quick won the flagship rally class by 2 minutes, from Trevor Newton. David Griffiths made his long trip to Kielder worthwhile as he set the quickest times to take the win in the sports enduro class over 250cc, with David Watson finishing as runner up some 2 minutes behind. Richard Griffin won the multi cylinders class, while Anthony whitehead won the trail class up to 250 with Tony Woodhams not far behind. The award for best sports/enduro up to 250 was claimed by Ian Tyler-Bond, while Michael Cheneler won the over 50 class. Dirtbike Action were pleased with the riders comments at the end, and it was clear that the format of the event was well received. We feel that we can easily improve on this event to include a awards presentation at the end of the event and more optional sections. We would like to thank the new riders that we met over the weekend for supporting the event and to say it was one of the most pleasurable events we have ever run. We will certainly do more rallies in the near future in other parts of the UK. Pictures and comments on www.ukenduro.com .

Finally a big thanks to the Marshals, Landowners, Kielder Organic Meats Farm, Bellingham and especially to Northumbrian Air Ambulance.