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ACU EASTERN ROUND 4 SOLO ENDURO CHAMPIONSHIP

EVENT REPORT 18-06-2017

Report by Roger Chaplin 
Photos by Anthony Ridge

It was a very hot and sunny day for round 4 of the G H Motorcycles / Husqvarna / ACU Eastern Solo Enduro Championship at Little Hadham Herts. The organisers Sudbury Motor Cycle Club had laid out a blistering course of five miles through ditches, open fields and woods. The bog in one of the woods caused a few problems although not as wet as usual but if you rode the wrong line you got stuck in a deep rut which meant a lot of energy was needed to pull the bike out of it. On the first lap Jason Morland was experimenting on what line to ride and dropped his machine straight into the mud. However that did not deter the Halstead rider as Morland had two cracking rides on the two Special Tests beating second place man Matt Pope (Norwich) by 6.6 seconds. There was strong competition amongst the other Championship Class riders which finally saw Brendan Mayers (Halstead) 3rd, Tim Rose (Diss) 4th, Will Hughes (Braintree) 5th, Daniel Van Zyl from South Africa 6th, James Yearley (Braintree) 7th, Sam Mitchell (Woodbridge) 8th and Ed Pooley (Stowmarket) 9th. Provisionally in the overall standings Morland has increased his lead and with two rounds to go he needs 18 points to retain his Title.

The Expert Class so far has seen a battle Myles Saunders (Sudbury) and Kevin Palmer (Norwich) but Palmer pulled out all the stops having the top rides in the Special Tests beating 2nd place rider Dan Willis (Stowmarket) by 10.156 seconds with Alex Walton (Sudbury) 3rd. Saunders who was 12.279 seconds behind Palmer in Test Times had to be content with 4th while Jack Nicolaou (Sudbury) was 5th, Tom Sargent (Bury St Edmunds) 6th and Nick Barrett (Sudbury) 7th. Palmer has opened up a 14 point gap on Saunders for the Expert Title but still can be caught.

What can Contest Sponsor Gavin Hockey (Sudbury) do in the Expert Veteran Class to beat Michael Ridge (Stowmarket), in the first Test Ridge was .277 seconds quicker than Hockey while in the second Test Hockey hit back and was .263 seconds faster than Ridge. The win went to Ridge by .014 seconds with Hockey taking 2nd place and in their wake were 3rd Phil Roper (Sudbury), 4th Paul Spurgeon (Woodbridge) and 5th Paul Belton (Sudbury). Overall Ridge is 18 points ahead of Hockey but still can be caught over the next two rounds.
There is a keen rivalry between two Sudbury members James Barker and Lee Monger in the Clubman Class and Barker beat Monger by 13.139 seconds in the Tests however had a 20 second penalty earlier in the day for failing to start his bike in the prescribe time which gave Monger the win. Up and coming youngster George Eustace (Sudbury) secure 3rd place with Paul Hunt and Scott Chaplin (both Diss) 4th and 5th places. Barker’s lead over Monger is now down to one point. It was a third win on the bounce for Dean Curry (Sudbury) in the Clubman Veteran Class beating 2nd place Terry Allen (Sudbury) by 8.498 seconds in the two Tests while Jeff Sharp (Sudbury) was 3rd and Michael Wyatt (Diss) 4th. Curry now has a 31 points lead in this Class. Andy Mason’s (Sudbury) one hundred percent of wins in the Clubman Super Veteran Class came to an end with Graham Mays (Sudbury) beating him for the win on the day by 6.768 seconds and two further Sudbury riders Nigel Ross and Gary Drage were 3rd and 4th. Mason lead Mays by 14 points in the Super Vets but is still catchable over the last two rounds.

Results