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Round 6 – NEXC Championship Round 6 of the North of England XC Championship hosted by True Grit Off Road saw yet another new venue for 2013 added to this very popular championship. Cherry Wood on Sledmere Estate, on the outskirts of the village was the perfect setting to host an XC event with the kind permission Of Sir Tatton Sykes, this would be the first time an off road motorcycle event was to be held on the estate. As the TGOR crew began to arrive at the venue Friday lunch time, the sun was shining and the track that had been prepared and cut into the virgin wood some 3 weeks earlier, was looking in perfect condition for the Sunday programme. As if on cue inevitable rain clouds began to gather, and what seemed like some kind of micro climate developed directly over our heads, which then proceeded to dump some 15Hrs of persistent rain over the venue. Someone shouted mid - way through Saturday as we trudged through the now sloppy car park area with our wooden stakes, arrows and tape “Not to worry lads, Sunday forecast looks good” fingers crossed. Sunday morning around 0600hrs the alarm went off. Peeping through the curtains hoping for a glimmer of brightness beyond the clouds, and there it was a clear blue sky. From 07:00 onwards a steady stream of riders and support began to arrive, and the first major task of the day for the marshals was getting over 200 vehicles parked in some sort of order, in which to avoid the wet parts of the paddock and an exit out. Youth Race The Youth boys saw an impressive Matt Trigg score 12 laps to win, with Tommy Grimmer taking second place and Luke Owen in third place. Two young ladies entered the Ladies/Girls class and kept up with the boys out there, eventually Rachael Davis took the win with a brilliant 10 laps and our own True Grit Off Road rider Leanne Field rode for 7 laps taking 2nd place win, and another trophy to add to her ever growing collection! Well done to all the Youth class riders. At 10.30 am the Over 50’s, Sportsmen, Moto X and Novice riders sped off into the wood amongst the cheers from their support crews and spectators. The Novice class saw 14 riders give it a go around Cherry Wood, one or two never having rode in a Hare and Hounds Enduro before. The eventual winner of this class was Tom Ward who managed 10 laps, with Darren Bailey in second place scoring 9 laps and Ryan Smith also scoring 9 laps to take 3rd place. The Moto X class saw 4 riders closely competing, each doing well on the lap scoring, but the eventual winner was Danny Hyde on 9 laps , Matthew Bean in second scoring 8 laps, and the 3rd place went to Luke Campbell. The Sportsmen were a fairly big class split into E1, E2, and E3, in which 3 Sportsman girls competed: Ellie Cooke from the North Riding Enduro Club, Kate Smith from the Yorkshire Enduro club, and Emily Schneider. The girls rode well, showing the boys some ‘Girl Power’. The Sportsman E1 class was won by Dalton Shannon with 11 laps proving that you can make a comeback after time out from the saddle due to injury. The second place went to Robert Pickard also scoring 11 laps, and 3rd place was won by Tom Rial. In the Sportsman E2 class it seems that the 11 lap score continued with Elliott Shaw taking the win, Anthony Priestly in second, and Ian Todd in 3rd all 3 boys scoring 11 laps. In the Sportsman E3 class 8 lads took to the track, all doing really well amongst the other Sportsman riders. Eventually, after over 2 hours of riding the winner of the E3 class was Craig Tompson Who notched up 11 laps, closely followed by Ross Hall in second and Captain John Poole from the Queens Royal Lancers in 3d place, again all three scoring 11 laps.
The Clubman E3 class saw George England take the win scoring 14 laps, with Danny Clark in second on 13 laps, and Russ Rooksby in 3rd also scoring 13 laps. True Grit Off Road would like to thank Sir Tatton Sykes of Sledmere for allowing us to hold a never before off road event in Cherry Wood, all our Marshals and everyone from the North of England clubs who helped on the day, a special thank you to Phil Cooper and Craig Altass from the REME Enduro Team who helped over the weekend, and a big thank you to Karl ‘Bod’ Latham who came across from Wales to give his support to the club and to also help out over the weekend. Thank you from Club Secretary Helen Altass to Margaret Field, Tilly Altass, Kate Smith, and Lucy Anderson who gave their time to help with the signing on and get the lads on their way riding. Thank you to Medics UK for their fantastic medical support over the weekend, and we would like to thank the Le Petit Café team for some outstanding food. A really big thank you to ScootMx for supplying numbers and bike bits and pieces for all the riders, and thank you Nev Altass for doing a great job as car parking attendant! And one last final thank you to you the riders and their support crews for making it a fantastic entry to a new venue and for your continued support for True Grit Off Road. All the best for a speedy recovery for those riders who injured themselves racing, and hope to see you all again at the next one.
True Grit Off Road Host Round 2 of the NEXC
Championship Team True Grit Off Road hosted Round 2 of the NEXC Championship at one of their new venues: Epic Dirt at Middlesbrough. After a postponed date of 17th March due to “that” wintry weather! TGOR looked forward to the 28th of April and hopefully better weather! Saturday morning was upon us and the team arrived at Epic Dirt overlooked by big black rain clouds. Not to be put off they cracked on, with plenty of help from members of North Riding Enduro Club and Epic Dirt Staff to make sure the course and venue looked it’s best for the event on Sunday. Windy weather and grey skies loomed over Epic Dirt on the Sunday morning, but nothing was going to stop the event going ahead. Just before 9.30 am the youth class lined up at the start ready to tackle the course, race starter Gus Gorse was up on the scaffolding bridge ready with the popular flag start and at 9.30am prompt the flag dropped. First away and getting the hole shot was Dan Lappin, the rest of the riders followed in hot pursuit. Three young riders in the junior class followed on their smaller machines, all getting off to a good start. The battle for first place youth boys was a close one, Matthew Trigg and James Lawson went head to head each scoring 13 laps, but Matthew managed win by a time of 2mins and 52 seconds ahead of second place rider James Lawson, Nathan Cooke and Dan Lappin both from the North Riding Enduro Club, did their club proud with a great battle for 3rd place between the two boys. Nathan and Dan achieved 12 laps but Nathan took the 3rd place, only just ahead of Dan by 1 minute. The three junior riders rode their hearts out; even young Sam Boyd managed to lose a front mud guard in the process! Not to be outdone by the older youth class they each put in some magnificent laps. The eventual winner was Richard Moorhouse with a very credible 11 laps, Sam Boyd was the second place winner with a fantastic 7 laps and Josh Bell rode his socks off to achieve 4 laps and take 3rd place. Fantastic effort and ones to watch in the future! Leanne Field riding for True Grit Off Road in the youth Girls class did us very proud putting in some excellent laps, and added another trophy to mark up her winnings, well done Leanne. At 12 noon the main race was ready to get started, there were over 60 riders lined up ready to watch the flag go down signalling go, go, go! Championship class rider Tom Healey was going well until he came off and was forced to retire due to an injury to his leg. We wish him a speedy recovery and hope he gets to full fitness again in time for the Ertzburg. The Expert class saw some great riding over the 2.5 hours, eventually the win was taken by Daniel Haswell, but he didn’t take it easily as Michael Gilby was hot on his heels, and took second place with Mark Marshall in 3rd place. The Clubman riders were quick over the course and after True Grit Rider Dan Bewlay taking the holeshot in the E1 class, ended up back in the pits and a worried Mum looking over shouting “what’s wrong Dan have you fallen off” the reply was “no I haven’t but my seat has”! team mate Scott Altass was quick doing a repair and soon had Dan back on the track. He had a superb race throughout, and eventually took the win with Chris Raynor in second place, and Liam Radcliffe getting back in to swing of things after a bit of a layoff, taking third place for the Clubman E1 class. The Clubman E2 class saw Daniel Hurd and Darrell Patrick knock up 21 laps around the track closely followed by Scott Jobling and Michael Tatham, also Roger Winspear each scoring 20 laps. The eventual winner of the E2 class was Daniel Hurd, Darrell Patrick in second and Roger Winspear taking the 3rd place win, well done to those lads. Clubman E3 had just one rider Paul Raine, but he rode round the track scoring a magnificent 20 laps, so well done Paul, a sterling effort. The over 40 class saw Dave Salkeld knock up 22 laps to take the overall win, but Paul Westgarth and Mark Fenwick each scored 21 laps to battle for second and third place, at the end it was Paul who took second place a minute and a half ahead of Mark Fenwick taking third place, great result lads. Four Over 50 riders did brilliantly in their class each knocking up a few laps, but it was Paul Askew who scored 20 laps to take the win, Gary Court took second place also scoring 20 laps, Andrew Bradley took third place with 19 laps, well done to you guys. The Sportsman E1 class had two female riders Ellie Cooke from the North Riding Enduro Club and Kate Smith from the Yorkshire Enduro Club, both girls challenging the lads, well done girls. The winner was Tim Miller on 21 laps, followed by Andrew Howe also scoring 21 laps in second place, it was nice to see Andrew back racing again. Third place went to Will Trigg with 20 laps, well done everyone in this class. Sportsman E2 class saw three riders finish on 19 laps, a close battle indeed, but ahead was Darly Gee who finished 1st, with Andrew Willaby a close second. Third place went to Tony Parkin also scoring 19 laps. The E3 class had three riders all trying to battle their way around the course to take 1st place. At the end of the race it was Ross Hall taking 1st place with an impressive 20 laps with Leigh Tempest in 2nd place scoring 19 laps, and Mark Ellison in third place with 19 laps. Well done to our novice riders who gave it a good go around the track, and didn’t give up in the slightest. Nick Belllas took 1st place with 18 laps, Phil Raine in 2nd place also 18 laps, and Dan Gilman in 3rd with 16 laps, hats off to you guys. Team TGOR would like to say a massive thank you to you guys for supporting us and giving our new venue a go. Thank you to Epic Dirt for letting us host our event there, and to all their staff for helping on the day, and to Lee for cooking up some excellent burgers over the weekend. Another big thank you goes to everyone that helped from NREC and also Phil Cooper from Team REME ( Royal Electrical Mechanical Engineers) who gave up his time to come and support us. Thank you to Medics uk for providing us with medical support on the day, we wish a speedy recovery to the riders who were unfortunate to injure themselves during the race. Thank you all once again, and we hope to see you all back racing with us for the next round we are hosting in June, look out for details on our website coming soon. Team TGOR
Fantastic Support For TGOR At their end of season Putoline Hare and Hounds on 7th October 2012. As the end of the Autumn sunshine took hold over the weekend, team TGOR prepared for their end of season Hare and Hounds at the ever popular Driffield XC venue. The track was prepared and overhauled with help from Steve Leaming plant hire with use of a mini digger, thus creating a smoother track for at least the start of the race. With team TGOR's additional race feature of real time live results being uploaded to rider's friends and supporter's smart phones, which helps to make it an even more exciting day. At 8am our youth riders signed on, and prepared themselves for the
9.30am start. Well over 30 young riders were ready and eagerly awaiting
the flag start by race starter Mr 'Gus' Gorse, and as the flag went down
anxious parents and support crew watched to see who was going to be first
away. Dalton Shannon had a fantastic start and took the hole shot, he rode
his heart out the whole race battling with Neive Holmes in Senior B class
for the front runner position, but unfortunately Dalton finished in 5th
place due to a missed transponder swipe on one of his laps. We truly felt
for Dalton, but considering a full season out last year due to injury,
that was a fantastic ride Dalton, so be proud of yourself. The eventual
winner was Neive Holmes from Ride Off Road with a fantastic 8 laps, and
second place went to Tommy Grimmer with 7 laps. The runner up spot went to
Dawson Marriott . The Junior class winner Jack Bintcliffe managed an
outstanding 6 laps on his 65cc bike, closely followed by Richard Moorhouse
in second place who was only 2 seconds behind Jack! Young family rider
James Rial took third place trophy with 5 laps, as did Jason Sharp
finishing in 4th place. The 5th place trophy in Juniors went to James
Barker who managed a fantastic 4 laps, and the final trophy went to Little
Harley Archer who succeeded in riding 3 laps around our XC track. Four
young ladies lined up with the youth classes, one being our own club rider
Miss Leanne Field, all four girls finished with excellent lap scores. The
winner of the ladies class went to Hollie Hirst who completed 7 laps,
followed by Sarah Thomas in second place, and Leah Tokelove took the final
trophy. Leanne rode a magnificent 6 laps just missing out on a trophy.
Well done to all our youth riders who supported TGOR and made it an
exciting first race of the day. At 11.45 dead, Tony gave race director Martyn Field the go ahead to let riders warm up their machines, the sound of over 140 bikes revving was exhilarating and exciting. There was then silence as the flag was raised by 'Gus' Gorse race starter, and after a very short wait the flag went down and riders headed out on their way around the course, for some it was short lived due to bike problems ( sorry to those riders). Many battles took place throughout the two and a half hours, some really close for second and third place. The Expert class saw James Goodall and Steve Gardham both succeed in completing an outstanding 15 laps each, as did Aiden Wharten. The winner was James Goodall, with Steve Gardham in Second, and the 3rd place trophy went to Aiden Wharten. The Clubman riders saw one closely fought battle for second place, George England and Alistair Griffin had the race of their lives and George just pipped Alistair for the second place trophy. George finishing in 02:35:35 and Alistair in 02:35:43, very close indeed! Matty North took the win finishing in 02:34:33, well done you three. Our over 40, but not over the hill class saw some brilliant riding from these riders especially Mark Fenwick and Paul Westgarth both finding it in themselves to complete 14 laps of a demanding course, and after 2 and a half hours of fantastic riding only 3 seconds split first and second with Mark taking the win from Paul. Jan Thundercliffe took 3rd place with 13 laps.
Senior A top three riders each scored 13 laps, but Tim Gardham faired best in 1st place , with Robbie Wallace in second, and Ben Clemmit taking the 3rd place win. There were some riders who lost the battle and hurt themselves, but we are pleased to say that all are well, and back recovering at home, much to the relief of their families and friends.TGOR would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your support this season, and wish you all the best for the rest of this year, and look forward to seeing you in 2013. We would also like to thank all our Sponsors: Putoline Oils, DP Brakes, Steve Leaming Plant, Northern Moto X and everyone who has helped to put together some fantastic tracks for you to race on this year. A big thank you to all those who have volunteered to Marshall for us, and the continued support from Adam Mc Conkey who provides the remote medical team, and Steve Sullivan who has given extra medical support from time to time. So until next time, take care everyone. See you soon, team TGOR
Cloudy skies loomed over TGOR’s ever popular venue at Driffield XC, on the August Bank Holiday weekend. Team TGOR were running their first Ironman event at the Driffield venue. Despite the huge downpour of rain on the Saturday afternoon as the team set up for the Sunday racing, they pushed on and set up a fantastic course to challenge all those riders looking to aim towards being the best Ironman/Team over 4 hours of hard racing. Over 70 riders lined up eagerly waiting for the Popular flag start by race starter Gus Gorse. The flag went down at 11.30am and off went the front row of Ironmen closely followed by the first of the two man team Ironmen. First rider back to lap scoring after completing 1 lap was John Bradford in the Over 40’s, John continued to have an excellent race and won the overall Ironman for the over 40’s with a fantastic 29 laps. Chris Cooper also completed 29 laps as did Lee Smith, Chris finished in second place, 1 minute and 10 seconds behind John with Lee coming in 5 minutes and 14 seconds behind John. The Clubmen Ironmen had a fantastic battle throughout the four hours, the eventual overall ironman was George England who showed great determination to complete 29 laps, and Alistair Griffin finished in second place with an amazing 28 laps as did Chris Raynor who finished in third place. There was a superb Sportsman entry which after the 4 hours the overall Sportsman Ironman was Paul Raine, closely followed by Martyn Thomas who also completed 26 laps and only 22 seconds behind Paul. In third Place was rider Mick Savin with 26 laps and came in 4 minutes and 19 seconds behind the leader, a fantastic battle between these three guys. We cannot forget our two young lady riders in this class, Miss Ellie Cooke from the North Riding Enduro Club, and Miss Kate Smith from the Yorkshire Enduro Club. Both girls did outstanding to finish the 4 hours, and should be proud of themselves, Ellie Finished in 7th place with a fantastic 23 laps, and Kate battled between 9th then 10th place and with tiredness setting in she stopped for a quick bite of a chocolate bar (not liking the Jafa Cake Bar) for some much needed energy, she battled some more to take the 9th place position, well done to the girls.
The Expert Ironmen rode extremely well during the 4 hours, Gareth Lodge
took the eventual overall Ironman with a fantastic 27 laps ahead of one
of our guest military riders’ Phil Cooper from the REME Enduro team
who completed the race with 22 laps and finished in second place. Ollie
Leddy succeeded in 3rd place with a marvellous 20 laps.
Over 40’s team riders John Hedley and Mick Robson showed great team tactics to take the first place trophy with a resounding 28 laps, and Andy Kirby teamed up with Steve Hall to give John and Mick some great competition in the 4 hours, and finished as runners up. The Sportsmen teams rode with a lot of will power and determination, especially two young riders who rode for the very first time in the adult class were Nathan Cooke from the North Riding Enduro Club who teamed up with Dan Lappin to complete the 4 hours race in 8th place with an impressive 24 laps, outstanding boys, and again you should be proud of yourselves. The overall win went to team riders Andrew Pulfrey and Lee Parry who clocked up 28 laps, closely followed by a mere 18 seconds and also 18 laps was Chris Richardson teamed with J Bailey in second place. Ben Clemit and George Stanley were only 1 lap behind the leading and second place team with a fantastic 27 laps. The days’ racing was enhanced by TGOR’s on line lap timing and race positions monitor which was in the signing on area, and gave the race an exciting atmosphere with support crew and team riders monitoring the riders laps and positions, then urging them to compete a faster lap next time! Team TGOR would like to thank firstly one of our main Sponsors Putoline Oils, the riders and their support crews, all our Marshals, and people who helped us over the weekend and gave support to a fantastic first Ironman event at Driffield. A special thank you to our Military Riders from Team REME Enduro and DST at Leconfield, and our medical support provided by Remote Medical Supplies. We had an enjoyable weekend, hope you all did too. Keep your ‘wrists on the twist’ take care. Team True Grit Off Road
Sunday 27th May saw the 2012 return of TGOR's ever popular Driffield Xc event, including our new 6 lap Putoline Pursuit and online live results updating every 15 seconds. Track Conditions could not have been better with the welcomed perfect summer weather. A Massive Thank you to Steve Leaming plant hire for providing a 3 tonne digger and grading equipment which made it possible to produce a course boasting 70% Virgin going. The work put in by Team TGOR proved well worth the effort with the amount of positive feedback received. At 8AM riders began to sign on for the first event of the day 'The Pursuit'. Some riders decided they were up for a challenge and asked if they could compete in the Pursuit as well as the Hare and Hounds competition later on in the day. 9AM soon came round and Pursuit riders were ready to try and produce their best lap times for the fastest overall time. The Expert class had a good number of riders who battled intensely resulting in Tom Healey taking the win despite taking out his finger on a tree. 2nd went to Danny Morse on his Suzuki and KTM's Luke Gorse in a solid 3rd position. The Clubman class was competitive with the winner, TGOR's young gun Dan Bewlay taking the win by 48 seconds ahead of Chris Raynor. 3rd went to Andy Williams a further 20 seconds behind Raynor. The clear winner in the Over 40's class was Lee Smith, nearly 3 minutes clear ahead of Simon Syrett 2nd and Andy Kirby 3rd. Dave May-Miller travelling all the way from Southampton kept his big CCM up right in the Over 50's class to take the win.
At 11 Am the Youth and Ladies were at the start line ready to endure the Driffield heat. The flag dropped and it was clear that Dalton Shannon would be the kid to beat. Showing skill and style!. He took the win by a lap ahead of the fast Jamie Dilworth 2nd and Luke Owen 3rd. The Ladies class was won by Hollie Hirst in her debut ride, a lap clear of Emily Schneider 2nd and 3rd went to Hope Jennings. Well done to the girl power class.. The conditions were tough!. The Juniors on board the 65cc machines were looking good as they set a good pace around the shortened XC course. Cain Tailford was the eventual winner by a mere 24 seconds ahead of Reece Pickersgill and James Rial 3rd on 11 laps. 1.00 Pm, the Sun now at its best, creating some hot and dusty conditions was to try defeat the best as the Expert class set out on their way. Andrew Gorse from Portsmouth was out front early on after taking an impressive holeshot on his KTM 300, but it was clear that Scott Austin had the intentions of winning after his disappointing Pursuit. First to lap scoring was Scott who had started to build up a lead with Danny Morse pushing hard to try keep up the pace. Wayne Braybrook was also looking good on his Sherco early on. At the Chequers it was Austin that took the win by a clear lap a great recovery from the morning's event. Danny Morse came in 2nd and Wayne Braybrook 3rd on 15 laps.
The Aggressive Over 40's class was dominated by Lee Smith, even after competing in the Pursuit he didn't look tired, taking the win by 6 minutes ahead of John Lofthouse and David Heap 3rd. The 3 Over 50 riders showing no mercy in the 28'c unusual British heat pushed right to the end. Trevor Petrie was the class winner 4 minutes ahead of D Wallace 2nd and Paul Weston 3rd. First of all we would like to say a big thank you to the Sportsman class with the 59 strong field. James Heaney was out front on his KTM 150 still on a high from his great ride in the Pursuit earlier on in the day and he kept it up to the end of the race, winning by 2 minutes in front of Tom Johnson 2nd and Paul Daley-Smith 3rd all on an outstanding 13 laps. A few mentions go out to the riders in this class with our Putoline Distributions manager and TGOR sponsor Dylan Brown finishing in a strong 7th. Also it was great to see the DST army riders amongst the class with one in particular standing out Liam Thornley in his first race coming 25th despite running low on fuel.
TGOR would like to thank all that supported our event, Our Sponsors DP Brakes, Putoline Oils, Steve Leaming Plant Hire and Northern Motox for making the event possible. Also Thanks again to the Remote medical service and Steve for the extra medical support. A special mention goes to our Military friends who joined us this weekend having travelled the length and breadth of Britain to be with us - Team REME, Team DST and Team QRL nearly an "Army Championship" Great Event Once Again - TEAM TGOR Full results they are at www.truegritoffroad.org.uk Report Tony Altass |
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Main Race
Sportsman
rider Daniel Hurd rode with sheer grit and determination as we say to give
a magnificent 14 laps, taking the win. In second place was Ryan Heinz with
13 laps, and Rick Rial brought home the second family trophy of the day in
3rd place.
The
eventual Expert team winners were Declan Helliwell who paired up with
Reece Emson to complete an outstanding 31 laps, 1 lap ahead of team
riders Craig Altass from the REME Enduro Team and Luke Gorse who
finished in second place with 30 laps.
Senior
A winner Michael Tatham had a superb ride winning the class by just shy of
4 mins which would have put him at the top of the Clubman class. Aaron
Coupland came home with a 2nd and Matthew Mills in 3rd. The Sportsman
class was won by Paul Daley-Smith ahead of James Heaney who was 30 seconds
back and Danny Laz came in 3rd.
Second
category to go was the Clubman riders. It was clear that 3 riders in
particular were gunning to win the class. An impressive 14 laps later it
was Ben Allison Hughes who won by 32 seconds over George England and Mike
Slater in 3rd. The Top 3 were within 1 min and 30 seconds of each other
which was very close after 2 hours and 30 minutes of racing.
Senior
A class was won by the Pursuit winner Micheal Tatham on 13 laps and a
minute and a half clear of second place rider Robbie Wallace. Sam Clemit
also on 13 laps came a strong 3rd 7 minutes behind Tatham.