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Billy Bolt #57

23/24th January Ales Trem extreme Enduro

Billy Bolt successfully made his European Extreme Enduro debut last weekend at the second edition of Ales Trem in southern France.

Due to the event using public roads and Billy's young age he would start on a KTM 125 EXC, the small bike is not the first choice for Extreme races or a 90kg rider but was certainly competative enough and would enable Billy to gain valuable experience.

Day 1 would include a Extreme test of around 11 minutes next to the Pole Mecanique racing circuit, 2 runs of this cross-country style test would see Billy place 13th out of the 400 entry, quite a respectable result since it was the first time he had competed on a enduro special test and only his 3rd Enduro style event after a career in junior trials.

The next stage would be the Prologue, basically an endurocross circuit in the town of Ales , with heat races and finals this would decide the main extreme race starting order . BB starting in his group from the second row would quickly move up to a qualifying position in the five lap race to move through to the finals , next outing would see him again place a top 5 and so go through to the Super-Final, where he would hold a comfortable third place until a mistake on the last lap dropped him to 4th on the line, the important thing was a top 10 result for the second day's start.

Day 2 and the Extreme race was scheduled for 4 laps but eventually cut to 3, Billy would start well inside the top 10 holding 7th place amongst the seasoned Pro's for the first few laps , however in the final lap some mistakes, fatigue and time lost when replacing a new exhaust pipe would see Billy dropped to 10th overall, still a solid result especially for a rookie .

Billy “ It was a long hard day for me on the little 125 , i struggled on some of the long slippy climbs , but it was easier to lift and push !! it was a big relief to arrive at the finish line and a big plus to make the top 10 . Saturdays qualification races gave me a big boost , i have never completed in a special test or Endurocross style event before and to be so competative really helped my confidence . I would like to give a big thanks to JW22 and Graham Jarvis for letting me tag along and sharing advice throughout the event and of course my support team and sponsors, i'm looking forward to getting back on my 300 EXC now and round 2 of the Fast Eddy extreme championship in 2 weeks”

RESULTS: 1. Jonny Walker, UK 2. Wade Young, RSA 3. Graham Jarvis, UK 4. Alfredo Gomez, ESP 5. Mario Roman, ESP 10. Billy Bolt, UK

Next Event: Rd2 British Extreme Enduro Championship, Cowm Quarry , February 7th

Photo Garry Barnes