Stuart Edmonds #32 at BEC RD 9
As recent tradition goes the last round of the British Enduro Championship is held in Thetford forest, originally known as the BRECKLAND, when it was a 2 day as the season opener now the MOUNTJAC and a one day event held on the original Banks Enduro course. The “banks” named after the famous John Banks, world MX GP winner in the old days of BSA, Dad to Mark another world MX rider and granddad to Elliott Banks Brown British MX champion . Definitely in the family.
Bec 2016 RD 9
McCanny in Action – Bec 2016 RD 9
It is a very untraditional Enduro in terms of terrain focussing instead on multiple tests and two very tight checks of short (36 min) duration …. Hard in its own way as it is physical looping through the loamy forest of East Anglia and then final two checks are very, very hard to clean.
Tradition again dictates that a smattering of MX riders tackle this event to rub shoulders with the established Enduro stars and right now the UK has a number of world class and world champion riders . E3 world champion Steve Holmcolm was not there but European champion Brad Freeman was, world youth champion Jack Edmondson, E 1 runner up Danny Mc Canny with Josh Gotts heading the U 23 class riders. Fast guys anywhere. Louis Tooms and Alex Snow top British MX riders were there also.
#32 Stuart Edmonds on TM 300
Aidan Mc Donagh Ready on TM 250
And we had our own MX riders pitting against them …. Stuart Edmonds took on the Championship class and young Cork MX rider Aidan MC Donagh the experts.
#23 E3 Contender Euan McConnell sizes up the competition on his TM 300 machine.
Stuart in particular made the UK stars stand up and take notice finishing in 6 TH position but only after a crash on test 4 dropped him from 3 RD (and only 12 seconds off the pace) to 6 th with insufficient test time left to make up the difference .Stuarts test times were impressive, particularly so as he was riding an unfamiliar bike and a 2 T at that. Rain also made the going tough and rutty but Stuey was able to clean the last 2 checks with time to spare. Little doubt he had the speed to finish on the podium. Thanks to Paul W. for the loan of his 300 TM.
Bec 2016 RD 9 – Start Line
Young Aidan showed good test pace up in the top 10 of the experts , no mean achievement on a first forey into enduro land , however the last 2 checks took a toll when head butting a tree he dropped some minutes on the check . A fine effort nonetheless where many failed to finish.
Walking the course at Bec 2016 RD 9
Getting Ready …
Danny MC Canny won, Edmondson second with Freeman 3 RD. Tight stuff.
Test 6 – Bec 2016 RD 9 :
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