The Enduroland Chacombe 10
Report Tim Tighe

Enduroland’s annual 10-hour hare and hounds event, The Chacombe 10, had its best attendance yet last Saturday with around 140 riders willing to take on the intricate and testing course at Seals Hill Farm, Chacombe.

Plenty of effort had been put into not only the course but also the pit area and the paddock to give a real big event feel to proceedings. Flags flew in the gentle breeze, banners waved around the marquee, which had been set up for the evening’s Ciderfest and there was a real buzz in the paddock before the start of the race, which kicked off at 9.00am

Masterminded by Nigel Wheatley, the course gave a lap of around 15-20 minutes although it never strayed too far from the pits. Open fields lead to woodland and plenty of short, sharp climbs, which culminated in the hidden valley that Chacombe has become renowned for. Off cambers combined with fast and flowing sections that favoured the quads but the woodlands contained several technical sections that gave the advantage back to the solos.

There were four main categories in the schedule: Solo Ironman, Quad Ironman, Two-man Open and Three-man Open, with the two and three man classes containing a mix of both solo and quad riders. The Iron Man classes were also sub-divided and held Elite, Sportsman, Clubman, Vets, Super Vets and Youth riders in both quad and solo classifications which mean that competition was fierce from the very start as battles for supremacy in each class developed over the open few laps.

The mix of quads and solos made for interesting racing as the quads gained ground in some places but lost out in others. Add to this the fact that the team riders could afford to ride harder than the Iron man riders over the first couple of hours of the race, completing two or three laps each before handing over to a team-mate whereas the solo and quad ironman entrants had to pace themselves.

In the Solo Ironman group, Elite rider Matt Boam stood head and shoulders above the rest, leading the race up to the halfway point. He was the only Elite rider in this group and it really showed as he powered away lap after lap, fending off several challenges along the way. He was given a run for his money by two Supervets; Garry Skelding (right) and John Muizelaar, who both completed 44 laps to take second and third in class with Supervet Adam Savage in fourth and Lee Allis-Smith in fifth, a great effort from this Veteran rider.

The quad Ironman class was dominated by Clubman Amy Keitch (left) although luck was on her side as a couple of the early front runners had technical problems and dropped down the order but, that said, reliability is key in a race of this duration, plus a good pit crew who are always on the ball. She thoroughly deserved the win for her determination and commitment alone. Elite rider Shaun Murphy took the runner-up spot some 12 laps behind Keitch but it was Youth rider Joe Bacon who made the biggest impression with his third place against stiff opposition. Clubman Dave Plant took fourth and Rooky Gary Bacon fifth.

Keeping track of who is where over such a long race has proved difficult in the past but a new timing system was in place, which gave more than enough info to keep even Bill Gates happy. The MotoTag system reads a barcode strip, which each entrant had fixed to the underside of his or her visor. Team riders all had the same barcode on their strip and the system checked to make sure only one rider from each team was on the course at any given time. Not only giving laps times and race position, this system also gave an overall view of the whole field and individual riders could be monitored and checked for their performance against their competitors at any point of the race. WiFi allowed pit crews to log on and follow proceedings on smart phones or tablets. Not quite Formula One but certainly a huge step up from previous timing systems.

The two-man Ironman class saw a mix of quads and solos fighting for the win. Initially the quads seemed to be getting the better of things but two great riders in the solos from the Bowden brothers, Ash and Jacob saw them secure class victory and the overall win with 51 laps to their credit. They were only really challenged by Guy Britton and Dan Boam who nearly caught the leaders but missed out by a single lap. Very close over 10 hours of racing. Amy Draper and Craig Harford (right) upheld the quad side of things by grabbing third place in the class with 46 laps to their credit and eventually finishing as the third placed quad entrants on the day. Solos Callum Swan and Luke Bradford finished fourth in class followed by Ryan Burrell and Richard Anderson in fifth.

The three-man Ironman teams definitely had an advantage around the 15-20 minute lap, each rider benefiting from lengthy rests as the other two team members did their stints. Lee Kelly, Sam Sault and Sam Price were close to taking the overall win from the Bowden brothers but just fell short taking an extra nine minutes to match the Bowdens on 51 laps. Kelly, Sault and Price took the 3-man class win and seemed to have worked out the perfect strategy to complete the 10 hours of racing but they didn’t could on an epic effort from the Bowdens in the two-man class.

Bridge Samson and Eagle were just a lap behind the class winners and were the top quad team of the day as solo riders Vinny Brown, Jack Law and Bradley Sullivan took third in class. Sullivan was entered in the two-man event but his team-mate failed to show. Luckily, Brown and Law welcomed him into their team and moved to the three-man class although Sullivan did manage to blow up his 125 halfway through the race and continued on a 250 from that point without losing much time at all. Quad riders Price, Draper and Griffin took fourth in class ahead of solos Pete Jones, Matt Yerrell and Ross Dover.

A terrific event was crowned by the evening’s Ciderfest. Nigel Wheatley always knows how to put on a great show and the 2014 Chacombe 10-hour was a great show. The weather certainly helped, one day later and it would have been a completely different story.