Danny Connolly grabs the overall win at round one of the Southern Centre Enduro Championship at White Mountain, Wexford. Ian Kelly secures victory in Seniors while Richard Murphy leads the way in Clubman…
Sunday April 22nd saw the first enduro of the season running at White Mountain. The weather was a typical April mix of torrential downpours, bright sunshine and a shower or two of hail stones thrown in just to keep things interesting!
Event organiser Collie Maher had laid out a lap of about 30 kilometres, which was split into 3 checks with expert riders allowed about 1 1/4 hours to complete each of their 4 laps. The lap was nicely laid out with a mixture of fast forestry road, jeep trails, some quick woodland going and the rocks out the back!
Although nowhere was particularly difficult a careful choice of line was needed to negotiate the uphill rocky terrain without losing momentum. After the rocks there was time to settle down and catch your breath before queuing up to start the special test.
The test was probably one of the most challenging parts of the lap. From the start it was a quick blast down a wide rut to a 90 right where it turned up hill for the first time. As the day wore on and the ruts near the top of the hill got deeper a good choice of line was key to a good start to the test. Onto the forestry road and open the bike up before braking hard and back into the woods again. The first run through the test was slippery and it didn’t get any better than that for the rest of the day!
Richard Murphy pushes hard for the Clubman win
Quickest of the experts and unbelievably consistent was Danny Connolly, his first time at an enduro race in quite a while but showing he has lost none of his speed. The only rider who was able to match Danny for speed but not consistency was newly TM mounted Paul McLoughlin – a crash in one run while passing a slower rider cost him dearly and left Paul in 3rd place and allowed Paul ‘bionic knees’ McCarthy to take a well deserved second place.
In the senior class Ian Kelly was quickest out of the blocks, setting a good first test time which was enough to take the win despite losing time on his last run. At the end of almost 27 minutes of flat out special test only 1.5 seconds separated him from second placed man James Farrell. James might be laid back but that doesn’t mean he hangs around on the big ‘berg. Never far from the sharp end of the action, Jonnie Mercier had to settle for 3rd place by 7 seconds for his first senior outing; no doubt he won’t be far from the front next time out either.
In the clubman class Richard Murphy pushed hard from the start to put in a sub 400-second time and that was enough to secure the win despite losing time on his next 2 runs behind slower riders. Colm McHugh pushed hard on every lap but had to settle for second by 11 seconds, half a minute clear of Jonathan Woods in 3rd.
Sportsmen had 2 laps to do and Conor Doherty easily took the win from Pat Bourke with Jason Owens close behind in third.
Interviewed after the event Collie said “yeah I’m happy enough with how the day went, everyone seems to have really enjoyed it. The lap seemed to hold up well considering there was a decent bit of rain on Saturday and Sunday and we left the check times loose being the season opener and it looks to have been welcomed by the participants so it seems to have been a great days racing all round.”
“This event couldn’t happen without the help of the local lads who do a huge amount of the work so big thanks should go to Noel (the guy on the quad), John, Ciaran and Simon. Not to mention the usual crew is Stewie, Jonny, Liam, Ian, Stephen and Eoin. It’s a team effort to make an event like this work and it shows true in the end as it has turned out such a success”
Collie gives it the seal of approval...
Words: Richard Murphy
White Mountain Results:
Expert:
1. Danny Connolly (KTM) 1317.65; 2. Paul McCarthy (KTM) 1435.97; 3. Paul McLoughlin (TM) 1473.22; 4. Seamus Muldoon (Husaberg) 1528.45; 5. David McNulty (Husaberg) 1537.25…
Senior:
1. Ian Kelly 1613.24; 2. James Farrell 1614.73; 3. Jonnie Mercier 1621.71; 4. Danny Balmforth 1644.54; 5. Jason Jackson 1663.89…
Clubman:
1. Richard Murphy 1246.21; 2. Colm McHugh 1257.13; 3. Jonathan Woods 1289.61; 4. Keith Tiernan 1317.50; 5. Thomas Regan 1319.19…
Sportsman:
1. Conor Doherty 841.47; 2. Pat Bourke 892.45; 3. Jason Owens 906.28; 4. Declan Squiggle 910.92; 5. Pat Walsh 917.34…
Novice:
1. Ciaran Richason 493.51; 2. Killian Byrnes 503.33; 3. Keith Farrell 548.50
Detailed Results: white_mt_2012_results