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Enduroland Lucas Oil XC Championship Dan Boam consolidated his Lucas Oil Enduro-X Elite class win on Saturday evening with another first position on Sunday, even though fate took a hand in his favour while second placed Ben Murphy was left wondering what could have been. Nigel Wheatley usually does everything on a large scale and the seventh Endurofest event was no different. Traditionally at Adstone, the event moved venues this year. A massive XC course awaited riders at this year’s Endurofest which included the sixth round of the Lucas Oil XC Championship. The huge lap looked to favour 450cc machines with an extremely long start straight and wide open spaces of freshly cropped fields which were interspersed with ditches, small tree-lined sections, huge jumps and the odd rock section at Ali’s Arena near Daventry, Northants. It wasn’t all fast stuff, a few sections were tree-lined and several deep ditches and ditch crossings certainly slowed the flow for all but a handful of riders in the charge around the slightly rolling countryside of Northamptonshire. There was even a small quarry section with hard and easy routes but the easy route proved to be far too easy and most riders gave the rock section a miss, which was a real shame. The rocks were quite a challenge but careful planning revealed plenty of relatively easy options, which were fun to attempt. A hardy few tried it but at the front of the race, where every second counted, it simply lost riders time hand over fist. The Boam brothers Matt and Dan were prime examples. Both are very quick riders and they entered the section neck and neck on the second lap. Dan took on the rocky challenge slightly ahead of Matt who opted for the easy route and left the section nearly three seconds ahead of Dan, who was at midpoint, smoothly negotiating the rocks.
Paul Hanks did the Clubmen proud by taking fifth overall on his way to winning his class. He rode his own race and won the class by a minute and a half over Guy Britton, who beat third placed Jake Palmer to the line by just over 10 seconds. Enduro-X winner Neil Duffy was feeling his age on Sunday morning but still managed to be the top Veteran around this huge course by nearly two and a half minutes from Lee Allis-Smith, who was the last rider to complete nine laps. Julian Holmes took third in the Vets with eight laps under his belt. Sportsman rider Brian Till was extremely fast on his way to taking ninth overall and the Sportsman class win. He beat off intense competition from several Vets and Clubman riders who, in theory, should have been much faster. Luke Osbourn was next in line in this class, some ten positions adrift of Till, while Steve Elliott grabbed third in class. Neil Wailing showed no signs of fatigue from Enduro-X as he won the Supervets class from Graham Albrecht and Mark Glover, all three posting eight laps over the duration of the 90-minute race.
With an injured rider on the course and air ambulance staff in attendance the race was cut short by just a few minutes. The injured rider is well on his way to making a full recovery. As racing finished the fun side of Endurofest continued with dozens of riders taking to the course for a Sunday afternoon blast. With another successful Endurofest to his credit Nigel Wheatley is sure to already be thinking up bigger and better for next year. Results
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The
Elite class pair pair battled for the first five laps until disaster struck
and Matt pulled in with a puncture. Ben Murphy had closed considerably and
eventually took the lead from Dan Boam, looking certain for the win and
riding stylishly fast, possibly too fast. An injured rider was on the track
being attended to while marshals directed riders around the incident. Murphy
sped past and missed the directions of one marshal. He continued around a
sizeable loop that had been cut from the course. Dan Boam followed the
marshal’s direction to cut the course and gained a considerable advantage
over the unlucky Murphy. Neither did anything wrong, it was simply bad luck
for Murphy as Boam went on to win and Murphy ended up in second place. Dan
Johnson finished a minute later in third place.
Aaron
Bloomfield led the Youth 13-17 class home. He rode extremely well and mixed
it with many fast Sportsman and Clubman riders to finish two laps clear of
his nearest rivals Tim Hammond and Max Warren in second and third spots.