SEEC HARE N HOUNDS RD4 
HOSTED BY WITLEY & DISTRICT MCC AT SLAB COMMON 06-7-2014
Report/Photo by Teamsnapper

With some heavy showers the day before it made conditions near perfect at Slab Common near Bordon in Hampshire, a fast flowing loop of sand and woodland and a bit more sand for good measure. I must say sometimes clubs try and make the longest loop possible with the land they have but today which is rarely seen is a shorter loop but better quality if you get my meaning and the feedback from riders to me is that it was a superb well thought out flowing loop.

CHAMPIONSHIP CLASS
No denying the talent of teenager Jon Hunt but today he also showed how he knows how to use his head and control a race from the front as led from the off and pushed very hard early on and had over a minute lead after one lap and simply upped or slowed his pace to keep a safe distance ahead and won by over 5 minutes from an injured Jack Turner who to be fair was only going to do a few laps but once the adrenalin kicked in he was on fire and by then Jon had too much of a lead to catch but fair play to Jack as he never gave up the chase, 3rd was Cornwall’s Kyle Jacobs whom i don’t think had ridden at Slab Common before but very much enjoyed it which was evident in his body language, 4th Jason Bowen who is predominately an MX rider but every enduro i have seen him at recently he improves and it won’t be long before he really is a regular podium finisher, 5th Dan Lawry whom has not ridden 2 wheels for a long time as is currently driving a sidecar regularly on Sundays but still put in a sterling performance and seemed to be enjoying his rare 2 wheeled outing.

EXPERT CLASS
Another rider who has had a bit of time out recently which seems to have had some positives as riding better than ever and makes very few mistakes was Stuart King (1st Place) and what Stuart does well is finding a good fast pace and keeping to it like clockwork and i tend to use him as my marker when snapping, runner up Christian Fairclough whom is another newish rider to the dark side of Enduro and making leaps and bounds in progress from one event to the next and can see him being a major force to be reckoned with if he continues on the enduro scene, 3rd Dave Coles whom is the older man of the class and without doubt gets better with age and has a way of making his riding look so effortless and had a battle all day with Gav Maggs as both took turns holding 3rd place but Gav dropped some time towards the end which curtailed his podium but came a very safe 4th, 5th was CORE OFF-ROAD events rider Matt Ward whom i don’t think had ridden Slab previously had a great event with 15 laps completed and to top his day he beat fellow CORE OFF-ROAD rider Slim Tyrone 6th who was also on his virgin induction to Slab and it’s great that they come such a long way to ride and very much help support lots of clubs in the Southern Centre, 7th Dan Jarratt who will be simply happy posting a finish as no doubting his talent and want but just needs a decent bit of kit underneath him, 8th Graham Maunder whom has no luck whatsoever and was probably a very evil person in a previous life still managed a finish despite his pre race mechanical gremlins.

VET A CLASS
I thought Tom Moore would struggle without Chris Stanger to tag on to today but how wrong i was and showed very much that he has come on a long way this season to take top spot and very much a different rider from a couple of years back, he is still a bit crazy but has smoother edges now, 2nd Mick Stradwick whom like Tom is making small but significant improvements that are becoming very evident and are now reaping the benefits, 3rd Steven Bryan who for whatever reason has not had much luck this year but am hoping this podium will give him a boost of confidence and if i was to be critical is that Steven likes to take the first lap a bit steadier to find his bearings and comfort zone and then has to play catch up.

VET A 050 CLASS
Euan Harrison has now found that bond between man and machinery and is now very evident as the man looks confident, fast and dare i say enthusiastic and when he is like this he is pretty much unstoppable and very much deserved the victory, runner up and another podium was Graham Reid with his usual rhythmic consistent pace, just behind Graham pushing hard was Croydon’s Joe Beard who very much seemed to be enjoying the loop and was very close to getting the runners up spot, 4th Colin Cowley who has lost his enthusiasm recently but rode well and looked like he had a wry smile under his helmet at times and can be pleased with posting a finish.

VET B CLASS
Another victory for LFB rider Iain Judkins who is the man to beat in the class was chased all day by Andy Sharp 2nd but a few costly errors from Andy curtailed any chance of victory, 3rd Matt Hubbard who yet again proves consistency lap after lap will make points, Michael Toussaint who at times looked very out of shape on the big 350 especially in the deep sand managed to hold on for 4th place, 5th Paul Lane whom was very lucky not to crash in front of me a couple of times whilst entertaining me over the jumps, 6th Andrew Gilden and great to see back riding, Stuart Littler 7th, DNF’s for Tim Newman who eased up early as hurt his hip and wanted to fight another day, Martin Turner who had mechanical woes and eyesight problems as very nearly ran me over in the most open part of the course, Dene Hart who became very red faced and puffing hard early on which was not surprising as not ridden in over a year.

VET B 050 CLASS
Ever the optimist but would a class victory put a smile on Carl Smye’s face ..... probably not but a great ride from the poker faced Carl was given a hard time by the man mountain Hans Gilham (Runner up) who without doubt is riding better than ever and has bags and bags of enthusiasm and is a joy to photo, Rob Giles 3rd who was way behind on the first lap but Rob being Rob dug deep and kept going to bag that final podium, Tony Copp posted a DNF.

CLUBMAN A CLASS
Class winner Niles Reid is very much on form at the moment and runs a very similar pace to his Dad Graham which makes good racing and always good to beat your best mate/team mate or even better your Dad, runner up and so close to the win was Liam Thomas who is getting sharper and fitter with each outing and is showing us the talent he has, Josh Kirby 3rd who seemed to be enjoying his race but does prefer the more challenging technical courses, 4th Jack Nixey whom i had running in second for a while was very quick through some of the small sand copses and picked his lines better than most, Tony Fletcher 5th whom i know nothing about except he is a very competent capable rider and enjoy his style, 6th Matthew Ward on the Motoward Yamaha who excelled on the fast open sand areas and would like to see him ride more enduro, 7th Felix Warren who was a lot quicker than his position dictates and without doubt one of our rising stars in the SEEC, 8th to my good friend Donovan Pearce who doesn’t give a damn about placings and results as he just wants to race and have fun and today he did just that and was smiling till the end, 9th to pretty boy Matthew Lawrence who is the only rider i know of in the SEEC that brings his hair tongs with him, finishing off the top 10 was Barry (Bazza) Keeys who not only rode without any mechanical problem, managed to finish but most importantly he was still smiling at the end, Ian Hill posted 15 laps but still not at one with the colour orange, Barry John baffled me a bit today as good fast class A rider but somehow down in 14th place so maybe had a problem later on or maybe lack of bike fitness, Rob Knight was another rider down the placings but looked like he was riding well and body language was positive, Cole Nother posted 12 laps on his wee 125 and it could be heard screaming its head off in the unrepentant deep sand, Aaron(Dibs)Dibnah was riding well early on so not sure why not in the top 10, Alex Mace had a bad day and was very tearful in the paddock as he made a very public announcement to all that he is a transgender and will be very soon a woman and would like to be called Glenda in the future, Chris O’Grady posted a DNF.

CLUBMAN B CLASS
A great day for teenager Adam Brady in conditions that require a lot of skill and fitness and Adam is proving to all what a great enduro rider he is destined to be with class victory, Lee Boulden who is always at the pointed end bagged a podium with runners up spot, Martin Delves 3rd with another solid hard earned podium, 4th Aaron Pearse who seems to spend more time in the air than on the ground, 5th and a solid performance from Tom Vandy who is making good progress event after event, 6th Richard Jones who really looks a different rider from a couple of years back and will be well pleased not only with a finish but a solid 6th spot, Harvey Bish 7th struggled for first 2 laps or that’s what i felt but once he got into a rhythm he made good progress, 8th Nick Summers who started well and then dropped a few places mid race but seemed to make up some ground later on, LFB rider Ben Young 9th whose body language i could not read but was happier in the wooded areas than the open sand, 10th and 11th for Father and Son Matt and Jonathan Casey although Matt looked a lot happier out there than his Pops, 12th Matty Taylor, 13th Nick Rumble who seems to have mellowed these days as did not see crash once, Frank Little looked a lot quicker than his finishing position dictated but he did have a heavy crash in front of me which would have knocked the stuffing out of the best, Tim Lunn Posted 12 laps which i know he will be chuffed with and is looking fitter than ever, long may it continue Tim.

EVO CLASS
was won convincingly by Normandys very own laboratory experiment gone wrong Andrew Greenwood.

SPORTSMAN CLASS
Neil Marshall won with 14 laps, Callum Thompson runner up, 3rd was the man with the hair James (“What Comb”) Bowman who is making great improvements with each outing and despite rumours he has 3 thumbs and from Dorset i can confirm he has 2 thumbs and is from Hampshire, 5th Liam (Dog Mad) Hastings who rode a great solid event despite trying to take me out ;-) and his regular riding is showing with small but noticeable improvements, Was great to see Nick Windsor (The tall blonde giant) make the trip up and put in a good show and hopefully see him a bit more regular on the SEEC calendar, as always John Coyne put on act to try and be the slowest rider out there but was out shone today but don’t despair John plenty more Sundays left for you to shine, however there is always a silver lining and you did beat Jack Coyne who was dressed for the Wacky Races and not a hard core off road event, Brett Hohls posted 10 laps and very much enjoyed the day but not as much as the beer he drank later that evening eh Brett, Andrew Rayner also posted 10 completed laps, Harry Hellis has very much struggled since his venture into enduro but today on the same bike but with different and much improved graphics he has come over that steep learning curve and was very much an improved rider today with 8 completed laps and that i salute and long may it continue, James Negus completed 7 laps.