Sudbury MCC’s Endurothon at Foxborough yesterday was my first event since the ISDE in September last year. My injuries have all healed so I’ve been desperate to resume racing again. I made the long trip from Wales to Suffolk on Saturday morning with Wyn and Tracy Hughes. We went to Hit the Dirt’s new practise venue near Swaffam for some practise for the Breckland. It was bitterly cold and some parts of the track were frozen but we still had a good days training.
Sunday’s Endurothon started at 9.00 sharp and caught many riders unaware. Edward Jones got the holeshot and my teammate Chris Hockey was left struggling on the line with the other 4-strokes that wouldn’t start. Chris made good progress through the pack until after 2 laps he bent his chain guide in a rut and broke his chain. I then took over and started pulling back our deficit. After 1 hour we were up to 3rd and closing on the Roper Brothers in 2nd. There was a break for half an hour at lunch and by then we were in 2nd and the only pairing on the same lap as the leaders Edward Jones and Andrew Edwards although over 2 mins behind. At the restart I got the holeshot as Edward struggled to start his KTM. Edward rode well to catch me as we both moved clear from the rest of the field. We came into the pits together and Chris just managed to get out ahead of Andrew. He quickly pulled out a gap of 20 seconds but then Andrew managed to stay with Chris. When Edward and I took over I tried to pull a gap on Edward and was keeping a gap on him until I suffered a big crash as my wheels got cross rutted. My front mudguard broke and was getting caught in my wheel so I pulled in early and caught Chris unaware and without fuel in his bike. He stayed out for 20 mins and came in earlier that I was expecting so caught me without my helmet on. By this time we had lost a lot of time on Edward on Andrew but we kept pushing till the end to secure second.
To cut a long story short we had a bad day but somehow managed to finish in second. Stevie and Ricky were third. The Yamaha teams were stuggling as I kept seeing Robert and Rowan jones stuck in a rut. Robert was stuck for over a lap!
Thankyou to the Sudbury Club for laying on another good event. Perhaps we will see more of this ‘two man’ format in the future.
Next event Breckland in a fortnight.