All content © Bob MuIIins

Cotswold Enduro Club
Rock Oil H&H, Club Championship and Slow Pete Series
Ashby Moto Park

Cotswold Enduro Club's last minute change of venue to Ashby Moto Park was a great move, one that ensured a full capacity on the start line and plenty of competition throughout a tough three-hour race.

The Rock Oil H&H event combined with a Slow Pete and Club Championship race, all rolled into one, proved to be a tough contest with everything from the MX track, plantation section (both very dry) to the woods which held water in places creating a long and tough muddy rutted sections just to make things interesting.

It took some planning but Pete Carter managed to get over a 10-minute lap out of this cracking venue. Matt Porter took the honours around a course, which was totally reversed to the usual Ashby set-up. Reversing the course was a brilliant move by Pete Carter, even Jack Staines (son of the site operator) who possibly has more laps of the venue under his belt than anyone else on the planet said it was the best course he had ever ridden there.

The massed ranks of riders left the start line at 10.00am following a vote for two and a half hours of racing or three. Three won by a large majority but two hours into the race there were plenty of riders who wished they had voted for the shorter race as the rutted woodland took its toll, sapping strength lap after lap as the ruts deepened.

Ross Benton took the hole-shot as the Pro Championship and Expert classes left the line with Brendan Griffiths and Kirk Giles tight behind him but it championship leader Matt Porter no time at all to get to the front and begin his flat out assault on taking another win. His smooth style and effortless way of getting his bike through the trickiest of the challenges saved plenty of energy although it was a good job he still had some left in the tank for later. Expert Matt Boam hung with him briefly at first but Porter eventually pulled a gap of three minutes before easing off on his way to victory. Boam didn't ease off and halved the gap as the final laps fell, causing Porter to up his pace to finish with a 69 seconds gap at the end of three hours.

Ben Murphy hadn't looked at the wet woodlands before the race and it came as quite a shock on the opening lap but he soon settled in to his rhythm and took second place in the Pro Championship class. Jack Staines rode hard to take third in class with his rear brake playing up for over half the race, he was around half a lap down on Murphy as the finish flag dropped and separated by a lap on the final score sheet.

Matt Boam had pushed hard throughout the entire race and took the Expert class win with ease, a full lap ahead of second placed Roger Holland. Dan Boam made it a double podium for the Boam family as he took third in class, finishing just over a minute behind Holland.
At the head of the Clubman 2T class Blake Summers gradually pulled a three-minute gap over close rival and friend Steve Norbury while Sean Flannigan stayed just behind the leading pair to take third in class.

Sam Keen had something of an easier time in the Clubman 4T ranks. He won the class by a clear lap over Russell Pullen who had third placed Tony Adams breathing down his neck for much of the race. This class is always tough, full of talented competitors riding hard for the win so Keen's victory was a very sweet one.

Kev Freeman took a significant win in the Veterans Over 40 class, helped by the fact that close rival Martin Jakeman was taken out hard part way through the race and lost time, and his front mudguard, getting his bike sorted. Jakeman has generally had the better results over the season but Freeman has found his form of late and is always pushing at the front of the pack. Jakeman gathered himself and continued on to eventually take second place and managed to create a decent gap ahead of Darren Bedford in third.

Mick Belcher was gasping for breath at the end of three hours, wondering why he had voted for the longer race, but his efforts were not in vain as he took the Veterans Over 50 class win despite a last-minute charge by second placed Roger Billam to try and close the gap on the leader. Richard Holland took third spot a lap down on the leading pair in the class.

By far the largest class was the Sportsman Novice. It proved to be a very close race between Anthony Kirby and Nicholas Hope, just 12-seconds separated them at the end of three hours with Kirby taking the win ahead of Hope with James Flannigan not a million miles behind them in third spot.

In the Classic pre 86 class Jerry Adams had his own small victory. Rarely having anyone to compete against, his victory was actually finishing the race on the same machine he started with although he had brought a couple of spare bikes, just in case. Anne Cherry was another lonely rider, in the Ladies class. She clocked nine laps to valuable points to her championship standing.

The race ran really well. The course proved to be a massive hit with the riders with its mixture of several types of challenges, fast bits and technical sections. It will be hard to revert to the usual layout after such a successful day but Pete Carter and his team always come up with something new for each event, which is why Cotswold Enduro Club is so popular.