Clonaslee is a small village in the Slieve Bloom mountains in Co. Laoise and on the 20th of September the TORC club made their usual trip there for the latest race in the Southern Centre and club championship.
It wasn’t particularly warm and it wasn’t particularly cold on the day, but none of the riders or organizers were bothered just as long as it wasn’t raining. No one likes rain at any Enduro and especially not this one as it has a lot of fast forestry tracks that link the off road sections of the course as the club are only permitted to use certain areas of the land for the lap. However, they didn’t let this worry them and set out a great course with some freshly made wide firebreaks and tight single track ditches that could take your feet of the pegs, both of which were ridden fast but cautiously.
The test was based in the same area of forest as the last few years but had a new start – a grassy track that twisted up a hill that had loads of hidden tree roots and stumps under the grass that were just crying out to send a front wheel the wrong way and add valuable seconds to a riders test score. The rest of the test was noticeably drier than the last few years and rode a lot easier as it wound it’s way round a small area of forest. A surprisingly tricky 300m long downhill ditch was thrown in at the end of the test and had to be ridden with care in order not to give Dave McCann something to laugh about as he manned the timing lights.
In the Experts ‘Veteran’ MX rider Graeme Vigors had decided to try his hand at Enduro but retired on lap 2 with oil pouring from his 250f. Husaberg dealer Phil Caldwell also dropped out after his chain wrapped round the front sprocket and Ciaran Hayes lost the back brake on a different blue bike than he normally rides. This left Andrew Reeves to win from Mick Kearns, Reeves posting consistent test times totaling 829.40.
The Senior class produced some close racing as the top 3 were separated by 25 seconds with Pat Kinlin taking the win from Richard Burke and Seamus Muldoon in 3rd. Surely these 3 riders will be competing in the Expert class soon enough.
The Clubman class top 3 was also separated by a small margin as Dave McNulty piped Ger Price to the top spot by a mere 4 seconds and Chad Hamilton was 8 seconds adrift of Ger in 3rd.
In the well supported Sportsman class, Richard Leonard claimed the win by a full minute from Sam Brown and C Ewing in 3rd and of the 6 finishers from 7 starters in the Novice category, Richard Ferris was fastest from Simon Prendergast in 2nd and Robin Cooper in 3rd.
A good days racing was had by all with the possible exception of Ciaran Kelly who unfortunately dislocated his shoulder and a ‘spectator’ that suffered a broken leg – Get well soon lads, hopefully you’ll both be ready for the next race.
Once again thanks to all at TORC.
Next race is at Tinahealy in Co.Wicklow on the 25th of October, see you there.