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Olivier's Journey Enduro-X
Ashby Moto Park

A terrific night of entertainment at Ashby Moto Park on Saturday evening saw thrills and spills by the dozen as riders from Experts to Sportsman all competed in this special event with a cracking cause: Olivier's Journey, raising money for a local youngster to travel to the USA for an urgently needed operation.

Keith Staines had been very busy, the Enduro-X course was spot on and much harder than before with a rock wall, which caught out many riders across all classes but the whole course had been adjusted and improved whilst maintaining the special pipe sections and big tyres that provide so much entertainment.

With three races per class and a super final plus qualifying and practice the evening was packed with incidents and running commentary from Ben Murphy who fast one-liners made tricky situations even worse for the riders involved, much to the amusement of the crowd.
The first practice session gave an indication of what was to come as many of the experts fell foul of the new course, especially the rock wall, which had a rock garden just before it. The Clubman and Sportsman riders sat next to the wall looking on in dread as their turn fast approached, all discussing the best line or technique to conquer this new challenge.

All thoughts of lines and techniques went out of the window for most riders as they hit the wall in second gear with a quick blip on the throttle. It worked for some but not for most and paddling quickly became the favoured technique. Veteran Colin Blunt seemed to be practicing getting his rear wheel stuck between the same two rocks lap after lap and he was doing a pretty consistent job of it.

Timed practice was over fairly quickly and racing got underway with the Experts first up. Gary Daniels provided a clear sweep across qualifying and all three races and the super final, closely followed by sister Jane in the Expert class. Her constant battles with Jack Staines were the highlight of the expert races. Jane's persistence paid off with second place as Jack took third.

Ben Coleman nailed the Clubman class even though he didn't actually win a race, Elliot Bradshaw was on course to win but was DQ'd in the second race for missing an obstacle which saw him finish second overall, just three points clear of Lee Hattersley in third.

Tom Widd took a clean sweep in the Sportsman ranks with three impressive victories as Darren Cox took the runner up spot with two second places and a third. Dawson Marriott took third in class and was definitely one of the more flamboyant racers of the night with some spectacular crashes.

Andy Daniels one again just went out for a ride around and won the Veterans class while Colin Blunt did manage to unstick his bike for a finish in the final race.

A great nice for a terrific cause, there was no charge for spectators but they donated to the cause and appreciated an evening of top-notch entertainment.

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