All content © Bob MuIIins

Pete Carter and the Cotswold Enduro crew got it bang-on at the weekend for the club’s Slow Pete meeting at Long Compton in Warwickshire. The course was tough enough for Experts and Championship but there were none present as the Slow Pete is for Clubman, Sportsman, Novice and Veterans so it was hard going and a chance to learn for many riders but one the race was underway things weren’t as tough as they seemed.

As Pete Carter always says: ‘It’s not supposed to be easy!’ and it certainly wasn’t around open fields dotted with drop-ins, pop-outs and off cambers not to mention the slippery slope near the start that found some riders having a few attempts to get up it, another of Pete Carter’s ‘learning areas’.

These Slow Pete events attract great numbers, over 120 on this occasion, so a 3.5-mile course might not seem very long but it was packed with features that broke up the field and gave everyone a chance to spread out over the first couple of laps. The finishing top ten was to be dominated by Veterans 40 & 50+, eight out of ten were Vets riders, who may not be as fast as they were but certainly have the bike skills to take on anything thrown at them, especially technical stuff. This was a good indicator to the nature of the course.

On the front row of the grid sat the Veterans 40+. Getting a real flyer off the line put Kev Freeman at the head of the pack with a clear track ahead of him and space to make some ground on the competition. He rode a virtually faultless race to take the win at the end of the two-hour period, easily negotiating the course and backmarkers to grab the top step of the podium. In the Vets 40+ class he was joined by Darren Bedford and Carl Harmstone, two very experienced riders but it was only Bedford who could match Freeman on laps and took third overall.

Second place overall went to Clubman 2t rider Rob Clark who managed to post the fastest lap of the day, the only lap under 11 minutes, but it wasn’t enough to catch the overall winner. Tom Collett took second in class behind Clark and just held out to beat third placed Bo Anderson by 8-seconds.

Rob Sewell upheld the honour of the more mature gentlemen, Veterans 50+, showing that youth and enthusiasm rarely beat experience and cunning. He had a terrific ride to fourth overall and narrowly missed third overall by just 5-seconds! Colin Griffiths took fifth overall and second in the 50+ class, just losing out by a single second to Sewell, it was that close a race. Mick Belcher grabbed third in the 50+ class ahead of a handful of fellow 50+ competitors.

Creeping into the top ten in tenth spot overall was Clubman 4t rider Dan Cameron. He won his class although he did have a challenger for most of the race in the form of Sam Keen, who took second in class and was the only 4t Clubman to match Cameron on laps, both posted 11. Just a little way behind was Dan Salmon, a lap down and third in class. Graham Ayliff was the sole entrant into the Clubman Plus class and held his own against the very experienced Vets.

Nick Hope topped the Sportsman Novice class by nearly a minute and a half over his closest rival Mike Ratcliffe in second spot. Tony Kirby was just two seconds behind Ratcliffe and took third in class.

Jerry Adams rode a lonely race in the Classic Pre-86 class and clocked a respectable 9 laps and finished on the same bike he started with which is something of an accomplishment for Jerry.

Anne Cherry and Wendy Ellis-Smith made the ladies class a two horse race and they battled hard for two hours before Anne took the win by just under a minute from Wendy.

The Slow Pete series was designed to give up and coming riders a chance oif a level playing field without having to deal with more accomplished riders tearing past them every few minutes. The Sportsman Novice class is always by far the biggest and it is good to see that there is a relatively easy ‘entry level’ series available for new riders to start somewhere.

Pete Carter sees it as a series where riders can learn new skills and gain confidence and he certainly doesn’t make his courses flat, just around the edges of fields. They are challenging but every rider present at Long Compton will have learned something, improved their skills and widened their experience. That’s what it’s all about.

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