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All content © Bob MuIIins | |||
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SO, DO OLDER GUYS RULE ? Report by Martin Southwick For the first time in the clubs relatively short history, Lincolnshire Enduro Club headed to a venue never raced on, for the fourth round of the LEC/Back Office Pro 2022 series . Taking place at Great Gonerby near Grantham, the circuit provided a lap of mixed going with some off camber hill climbs and fast field sections in the Lincolnshire sunshine. Quite a few last minute alterations were made to the course during track set up due to some "sticky patches" found en route. In the end, the club provided a lap of 3.6 miles for the 120 racers. Conditions were warm and windy (weather kind !). Short sharp rain showers during that track set up couldnt dampen down possibly the worst thing on race day though . . the dust !!
Well done to the half a dozen Beginners who took part at Gonerby. The club
hopes to see you at the next "event". This is a practice day at
Ropsley, once again near Grantham. . . . on 3rd July. Details of that and all
other club info is here for members . . https://www.facebook.com/groups/LincolnshireEnduroClub
. . . And here for for non members . . https://lincolnshireenduro.wixsite.com/lec2016
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Looking
back at club records, there was another first for the club on Sunday too. It is
the first time that an LEC race winner has not come from the Experts class. The
Clubman or Sportsman classes couldnt provide a victor either. It did however
come from perhaps an unlikely source, a super quick lad in the over 40's group.
Hailing from the deep south (Kings Lynn !), Jon Pearson romped to a maiden
victory with the club. Taking into account the fact that Jon's class started
some two minutes behind the Experts, a win is even more impressive. Given that
he would have had to battle through some of the other fast LEC riders to get to
the front, the Husky FE250 "Enduro21" rider won by over a minute after
180 minutes of racing. Jon's first lap was slower than his nearest challengers
as he scythed through traffic but as soon as he got his nose in front, he
chipped away and was faster by those few vital seconds each lap over his rivals.
Actually, some of the other Over 40's must have been dining on raw steak the
night before. That class provided the fourth place rider overall on the day too,
in the shape of Paul Hanks. Both riders were on twenty two laps when the
chequered flag descended, but it was a large margin of victory ...some six
minutes. Third in the Over 40's was James Andrew, one lap down. In the Experts
group, Rob Johnson claimed top spot. It was quite marginal though as there was
under a minute between himself and runner up Toby Hales. Elliot Milburn came
along in third place., a further three minutes adrift. Only two riders in the
Clubman class garnered twenty two laps after the three hours. Tristan Palmer
came home in runner up spot but by a little over one minute; beaten by Luke
Taylor. Matthew Woolridge made up the podium, a lap adrift. In the four stroke
Sportsman class, only two lads had twenty laps under their belt at race end.
Bradley Tapper was chasing hard at the end but had to succumb to the faster Alex
Shaw. Once more, the winning margin was near a minute. A lap down in third place
was Ben Lonsdale. 
The
best scrap of the day came along in the Two stroke Sportsman class. The top two
lads, Christian Humphrey and Scott Stone could not be separated. Both finished
on the same amount of laps in exactly the same time. ...to the second. They were
though, split by a few hundredths of a second. Whilst Christian was declared the
winner, Scott can take some solace in the fact he won the "mystery
lap" prize for the day. Sponsored by (