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All content © Bob MuIIins | |||
 
McCanney storms to BEC opener win Marking the start of the 11 round series, the ACU British Timecard Enduro Championship returned to action near Yateley in Hampshire over the weekend. The Witley Enduro proved to be an enjoyable but challenging event, with the club setting out an 18 mile lap weaving its way through the local sandy based forest at Warren Heath using two physical special tests per lap. With a mix of weather conditions throughout the weekend & with check times spot on, the enduro proved to be a very well organised event by the hard working & experienced Witley Motorcycle Club.
In the biggest class of the day, youngster Lewis Ranger took a well deserved Clubman overall win from Harry Houghton. Ranger tipped as one of the favourite for this year’s title had a scorcher of a 1st test & held on to his advantage for the rest of the day over Houghton. Third saw the ever improving Luke Thomas put in a strong performance just holding off Josh Player in 4th by 8 seconds. The ladies class saw a close battle between Nieve Holmes & 2017 Ladies British Enduro Champion Rosie Rowett. After battling it out over 3 laps & 6 special tests Rowett had to accept the runner-up spot this time as Holmes took the premier award by a narrow margin of 3 seconds. Taking up the final podium spot was Chloe Richards taking home a fine third. Andrew Edwards started the season where he left off from last year; the current Over 40’s British Champion is simply unstoppable at the moment & took the class win beating nearest rival Russell Millward by 1˝ minutes. Season campaigner Andrew Reeves a further 56 seconds took 3rd spot with Karl Greenall in 4th just 21 seconds adrift. The Over 50’s saw Julian Oakes take an impressive win pipping Jason Rees by close on 2 minutes. The battle for runner-up was a lot tighter though with Rees beating Jack Twentyman by just one hundredths of a second. Last year’s Over 50’s champion Paul “Elvis” Davies started his campaign off scoring some good points back in 4th. All in all it was a superb event put on by Witley club, a great addition to the BEC series! 2018 ACU British Timecard Enduro Championship: Round 1 –Sunday 11th February Rounds 2/3 – Saturday/Sunday 12th/13th May Rounds 4/5 – Saturday/Sunday 26th/27th May Rounds 6/7 – Saturday/Sunday 7th/8th July Rounds 8/9 – Saturday/Sunday 25th/26th August Round 10/11 – Saturday/Sunday 8th/9th September The next round of this series is organised by DirtBike Action & will be
held at Helmsley, Yorkshire over the weekend of 12th/13th May. Entries are now
available. http://www.dirtbike-action.co.uk
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With
the previous days rain clearing up & temperatures close to freezing, it was
set up to be another great day of action in all classes. After completing 5 laps
& 10 special tests Manxman Danny McCanney proved too hot to handle in the
series opener. McCanney recovering from a recent broken wrist put in a
commanding display winning 7 tests with Billy Bolt, Tom Sagar, & Joe Wootton
all taking wins in the other 3 remaining tests. By the end of play McCanney had
just over a minute in hand over runner-up Tom Sagar, with Joe Wootton back to
his best in 3rd trailing Sagar by 26 seconds. Sagar making a comeback to the
series after missing most of last season was looking super smooth & will
surely pose a threat in the future rounds. Extreme pro rider Billy Bolt was a
welcoming addition to the entry list & put in a strong gutsy ride finishing
just 5 seconds behind Wootton. Daryl Bolter showed that he still hasn’t lost
any of his speed since hanging up his boots, coming out of retirement &
claiming 5th place! Flying Cornishman Josh Gotts brought home 6th, while Alex
Snow 7th & Tom Ellwood with his best performance to date in 8th. Youngsters
Jack Edmondson & Dan Mundell both looking good early on for podium places
both had mixed days, with a dislodged chain resulting in Edmonson losing
valuable time on the one test while Mundell struggling with a sudden lack of
energy from lap 4 spoiling his day too.
Dylan
Baynton topped off a brilliant days riding by taking the Expert class win
narrowly beating the impressive Max Ditchfield by a single second. Jon Hunt was
next up, with mixed fortunes during the day with a combination of some rapid
test times spoilt by mistakes on other tests saw Hunt having to settle for 3rd.
Ben Murphy started the day off slow but quickly got into the groove finishing
the day with a fine 4th. Ex-Championship class rider Luke Flack, on-form Richard
Tucker & Rihard Ely all finished within a few hundredths of a second of each
other for a very respectable 5th =, 6th & 7th places , while Ricky Wiggins
rounded off the top 8.