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© Bob Mullins   

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Slab Common, The MOD land at Bordon was the venue for the Denny Bowden Memorial Enduro, Round 5 of the SEEC combine hosted by the Carshalton club.

The venue seems to host Enduros in either one of two weather conditions - either a wet slog that wrecks the bike and causes a huge retirement list as local dealers rub their hands as cash tills ring for weeks following replacing chains/sprockets and pads or it’s a 24 hour heatwave and dust and dehydration is the order of the day, this month it was the latter.

At signing on the session times and laps required were on display with the Championship required to do a dizzy 18 laps over a 4 hour period. It was explained at the riders briefing that the course had been designed as open and flowing and would avoid the wet holes that litter the venue, with a separate loop for the special test to be ridden twice, and so at 10.30 the first of the Championship class led the field away.

Dan Beaven recorded his 2nd consecutive win of the series aboard his 250 TM, with the two fastest tests and losing less time on the going than Simon Beken and Dan Lawry who finished 2nd and 3rd.

The Expert class was much closer with 7 riders staying clean on time, and Jack Turner finishing on top of the podium by less than half a second from Richard Benham, with Chris Howman a further second adrift.

A name to look out for in the future, young Max Varney lost out on the Clubman class win in the cruelest way as his bike failed to fire into life on the start line and lost 20 marks, and with 12 Clubman riders remaining clean, even claiming the two fastest times he could not claw back enough over the 4 minutes of tests and dropped to 6th in class. Greg Hodge claimed the win from Mitchell Merriman with Gareth Hughes in 3rd.

The hotly contested Over 40’s class had 4 riders stay clean on time, with the Croydon club claiming a 1-2 with Joe Beard taking the overall from Ian Mitchell with Rich Smith riding for Normandy in 3rd.

In the Sportsman class, Daniel Warner will be getting his entries off sooner in the future as he was the quickest in class but was a late entry. This left Tony Marshfield to claim the overall, with Mark Barter 11 seconds behind and Bob Hardwick claiming 3rd a further 7 seconds adrift.

Round 6 of the South Eastern Centre combine championship returns to Slab Common on Saturday 21st August, with the event being hosted by RAFMA. Entries available online