enduro news
© Bob Mullins   

Rogershill Raceway

A glorious summer evening in Dorset for round 2 of RORE's Enduro Series was what greeted the riders on their arrival at the renowned Rogershill Raceway, due to the recent heat wave Danny Hall decided not to use the MX track due to dust but ran a lot of the loop alongside it in the grass and along with James Hall on the tractor and bowser watering the loop it showed how much effort RORE put in to each event.

Championship Class
What a fantastic array of Southern top talent in this class and topping the class who is on super form at the moment "The Holkster" Steve Holcombe who went off like a scolded cat and pulled a massive lead by the end of the first lap and totally controlled it from there to take the win with 11 laps, Brad King played the hunter most of the evening and very much works out his plan of attack and as Brad does best he stalks then pounces to eventually get the runners up spot, Tyson M Jones did not look that happy in the very early stages but as the event wore on he was firing on all cylinders for the final podium place, Steve Harding along with Mark Cornick both had flying starts and held positions 2 and 3 for a while and to be honest the pair of them were flying but sadly towards the end Steve had to settle for 4th and Mark 6th and in between their sandwich was Nick Life who had an awful first lap but not sure why but was way behind after one lap and simply played catch up all night, 7th was Ross Sturmey whom i have not seen before but he has left me with a good impression as fast and committed and i hope we see him again, Adam Kerr was 8th, 9th was a wee man called Si Wakely whom somehow missed the start i think and then played for the remainder of event but as always with Si he was smiling throughout.

Expert Class
To keep up the Wakely good name it was left to Kate and by damn it did she do a good job and made light work of the hazards and hard routes to take victory with 10 laps and was good to see how much crowd support she had from family and friends, 2nd was Jack Hooper who rode well despite getting a jagged rock in his face that slowed him down for a bit but luckily his boyish good looks were undamaged, 3rd was Jack Spracklen who looked to me like he was riding exceptionally well and very much committed and entertaining and took the hard routes so i am a bit surprised at only 8 laps completed so maybe had problem i was unaware of as thought he had done 9, 4th was Dylan Baynton who lost his rear brake about half way through and seemed to lose interest from then on, 5th was Chris Ayre whom i know nothing about but seemed to be having a good time and posted 8 completed laps.

Clubman Class
Steve O'Keefe from the off looked like he really wanted it, very much committed and from what i saw rode without fault and kept his pace for the 2 hours and very much impressed me and was my rider of the evening, but he was given a hard time especially early on from Tony Revell who enjoys his evening events and if i was to be honest i think he just holds back a bit as he does not want to get injured and if he was serious he would have had a shave to keep cooler ;-)
3rd was Shaggy Mulliner and what a cracking result for him, works hard at his enduro and not only rode great tonight but rode great for the full 2 hours and Shaggys weakness is probably lack of self belief so let's hope this boosts his confidence up, Paul Gentle 4th and as usual spends his time chasing snappers rather than podiums, another good ride in the clubman class for Paul, 5th Elliot Croft, 6th Ross Curtis i have no idea why he is down this far...... look at his photos !! he really is a good fast rider that has style , struggles a wee bit over some of the obstacles but can see a good future in enduro if he sticks at it, 7th Dave Sawtell well what a result for the battered local rider who was carrying a shoulder injury and a wee bit tired from extreme off roading abroad, 8th Tony Wilde who as always likes to style it but lacks a bit of fitness later on but that's the cost of new fatherhood, Kev Gurr had a rock solid ride for 9th, Excess Energy's Paul Sheehan completed the top 10, James Derbyshire was 11th with 7 laps completed, Richard Sayer and Paul Feltham DNF.

Veteran Class
My good friend Gary McCoy was firing on all cylinders tonight despite his moans and groans beforehand to take the top podium and i am sure he will have had a wry smile as he was in with some good company tonight, i must give Andy Claxton some credit as his bike would not play ball and just when he was about to throw it back in the van it sorted itself and he literally joined the start line as the flag dropped and considering he was stressed, over heated and at sixes and sevens he deserves a round of applause for getting runners up spot (Well Done Bud), 3rd was Phil Lewis who was very much giving Andy a hard time all evening and was a good battle all evening between them, 4th was Wayne Player who was running top 3 till the latter stages and looked well on for podium but not sure why he dropped back , Simon Thomas completed 9 laps and looked a lot better than 5th but in this company it has to be expected but some great riding from Simon, 6th was Chris Marsh, 7th was wanna be Rock Star and local favourite the one and only Jeff Goss who seemed to enjoy the fast flowing loop, 8th Darren Caines who gelled well with the loop and could be seen smiling through his helmet, 9th Jim Hawkins, 10th Steve Taylor who i am quite sure would not have enjoyed the loop due to the open fast bits so mid table is fair result, 11th Ivan Finkelstein who has just come back from a very extreme enduro holiday abroad and was showing signs of being totally knackered, 12th Greg Smith who looked very promising in the early laps, 13th was Matt Seare whom we see so rarely these days but great performance and 8 completed laps, 14th Brian Hawker is another rider we don't see that often and tonight he was lent a bike by Wayne Player and did not disappoint with 8 completed laps and a massive smile, 15th Ben Simpson, 16th Lennie Jones and Dave Wright 17th, Craig Redmond does not enjoy riding in extreme heat so he just did the odd lap came in for refreshments and popped out again but is down as DNF along with Paul Simpson, Mik Hill, Jonathan Gilbert and Adrian Harris.

Sportsman Class
Have known tonight's Sportsman Class winner George Leyland for about 3 years and very much a green lane type rider until this year and not sure how or why but his progression has been very noticeable and now with two class wins in the series he is showing times and skill level of good top ten clubman riders, runner up Rob Nash chased Big George all night and will be pleased with podium although i am sure his Dad Pete will say it was down to his Pit Bitching duties, 3rd was Justin Short, 4th and a great result for the man with a mid-life crisis Nick Windsor, 5th to Andy Curtis who did an awesome jump in front of me on the first lap but never repeated lol, 6th Rhys Williams, 7th Paul Delaney, 8th Mark Kemp who looked a lot better than 8th place, 9th Tim Clark, 10th to Emily Hall with a very credible 6 laps on a loop that was very fast and could have been a bit daunting so well done Emily, Steve Hall 11th, a very happy Simon Colvin 12th with 5 laps completed, Jonathon Strong 13th , Ross Packard posted a DNF along with Gareth Fonteneau, Simon Richens posted DNF's, Sam Hooper lost his rear brake early on and posted a DNF.
A superb event all round and a massive thank you to the RORE/Rogershill team as they do go the extra mile to make it better for all of us.

Photos