The Motul British Enduro Championship Brandon Park 26^th February Results
Class Results  Sub Class Results.

Scottish Riders Report by Campbell Chatham 

The one-day format at the Diss British Championship Enduro attracted a full entry. The weather was perfect and the event ran on ‘A’ schedule as the rain did not materialise. The course was extremely rough and the times were very tight. There were no Experts or over 40 riders who managed to finish clean on time. 

Enduro World Champion David Knight started the season on blistering form, David won by just short of a minute over reigning British Champion Paul Edmonson. At one point Euan McConnell was up to third place, a fantastic achievement, he ultimately finish a superb fourth. Richard Hay was continuing to enjoy himself on the KTM 125 racing with Chris Hockey on the course and challenging him in the tests. Richard had one of his best results for a couple of years in 8^th place overall and second E1 ahead of Ed Jones. Derek Little was on tremendous form during the first four laps until the gruelling schedule caught up with him, finishing 23rd. Derek will have his revenge when the British Championship comes to his home event in Elgin, it will be Derek who will time the course. Ricky Mair set some brilliant test times but ultimately his clutch failed and he had to retire. The going was so rough that brakes and clutches were put under incredible stress.

In the Expert Class James Yearly won this very competitive class. Murray Thomson was best Scot in 23^rd place despite this event not being one of his favourites, Murray prefers the mud to the sand. Murray was recovering from a bad cold through the week but he put in a good performance despite this. Paul Chatham riding a new bike in the British Expert class for the first time found the going tough, his suspension was too stiff for this event finishing 35^th. The Honda CRF was a great tool for the job in the early part of the race, as he tired the suspension proved too firm which slowed his progress on the last tight lap. Euan Syme rode the Expert Class and completed the four laps on injured Chris Hays’ KTM 250 and he thoroughly enjoyed his day out. 

Wayne Johnstone won the Clubman Class and Darren Phillips finished second, these were the only riders to finish on time in this class. Allyn Scotland travelled down for his first British Championship and following a cold night in the back of his Fathers Land Rover finished 22^nd. Allyn is still recovering from his broken elbow sustained last year and this event is very rough so his result at this British Championship event is very good.

The Over 40 Class has attracted a large entry with riders from Enduros, Motocross and Trials realising they can have a fresh start in the twilight of their careers. The pace was hot from the start with some excellent test times although none of the riders completed the course on time. Jack Chatwood won on a KTM 525. Double British 0ver 40 Champion Graeme Naismith found the pace very quick this year and finished 4^th. Graeme had a trouble free day and enjoyed the event. Campbell Chatham came out for his last ride in a British Championship event. The last time Campbell rode in a British Championship event was in 1984. Unfortunately his carburettor problems returned and cost him some time. Once the problem was repaired Campbell charged on to finish 14^th.

The Diss   Motorcycle Club put on an excellent event once again and hopefully they will not loose this great location and superb event. 

Stapleton & McConnell shine at ’06 BEC opener – By Jonty Edmunds

Electraction TM UK riders Jake Stapleton and Euan McConnell started their ’06 British Enduro Championship campaigns in fine style placing in second and third positions respectively in the competitive Enduro 2 class at the Diss MCC Ltd organised Brandon Park Enduro. Finishing just 16 seconds apart at the end of the challenging one-day event the pair placed in third and fourth places in the overall Championship class results beaten only by reigning Enduro 3 world champion David Knight and former world champion Paul Edmondson.

After competing in the event for the first time in ’05 Australian Stapleton showed that he will certainly be a force to be reckoned with in this season’s BEC series and placed as runner-up to eventual event winner David Knight on the opening timed special test. Determined to top the E2 class Jake’s hopes of victory took a turn for the worse on the second special test when he broke his left foot peg after hitting it on a tree stump. Despite the obvious handicap of having to finish the test with just one foot peg Jake still managed to post the fifth fastest time before recording the second quickest time on the third timed test. With just a handful of seconds separating him from four-time world champion Paul Edmondson the fourth and final run through the rough and technical special test proved to be a frustrating one for the Aussie rider. Failing to beat Edmondson Jake dropped to the runner-up spot in the E2 class and into third in the overall Championship class results. Despite his obvious disappointment Jake showed that he has the speed to challenge for the E2 BEC title in ’06.

For Euan McConnell the event also proved to be a good one. Competing on a mid-sized four-stroke in BEC competition for the first time in many years, the Scott wanted to simply finish without mistakes. Despite his reserved approach to the race Euan showed that he had clearly gelled with the 450cc machine in the few short weeks he had been riding it. Fourth quickest on the opening and second timed special test, McConnell placed as the fifth quickest rider on the third timed test before again recording the fourth quickest time on the fourth and final timed test. Reaching the end of the event’s tight check without penalty on both the fourth and fifth laps of the race McConnell, like Stapleton, proved to be very much on the pace and finished with a solid result.

Jake Stapleton: “I managed to clear the tight check but I really had to work hard to do it each lap. It made it a really hard race. I felt pretty comfortable during most of the event but it has certainly been tough, really tough. I was using a bit too much energy during the tight check, which meant that I was getting a tired nearing the end of it. Apart from that I’m really happy with my speed and the way my event went.

            “My first test went really well, I think I was second behind David. But on the second test I hit a tree stump hard and basically had no left foot peg for half the test, which obviously slowed me down quite a bit. I think if that hadn’t of happened then I would have finished a lot closer to Paul Edmondson. My third test was pretty good, like the first one, but then I blew through a berm on the last test, which was enough to lose me some time. Everything went fine on the last test but I just didn’t get it together as well as I would have liked.

            “Not losing any time was a big thing and I feel like my speed on the special tests was pretty good. If things stay the same then it looks like being a really interesting championship.”

Euan McConnell: “With it being a new bike my game plan was just to make sure I didn’t stall it on any of the test, or fall off on any of them. I’ve only been riding the bike for two weeks so I’m still getting used to the four-stroke. I managed not to make any mistakes on the first test but I felt so comfortable on the bike that I pushed a little too hard on the second lap and fell. It was just a stupid crash in a slow corner. I calmed down after that and just tried to ride as smooth as I could. The third and fourth timed tests went well after that.

            “I used my minute on the tight check on the last two laps but managed to get into a pretty good rhythm. There were a lot of riders to pass on the second to last lap, which made things interesting, and then on the last lap I was really tired. I’m really happy with my result and really enjoyed the event.”

Results – Championship class (overall)

1. David Knight 525 KTM 1337.83

2. Paul Edmondson 250 Honda 1391.98

3. Jake Stapleton 250 Electraction TM UK 1398.32

4. Euan Mc Connell 450 Electraction TM UK 1414.18

5. Simon Wakely 250 Honda 1418.33

6. Wayne Braybrook 250 Honda 1447.55

7. Chris Hockey 250 Husqvarna 1461.48

8. Richard Hay 125 KTM 1461.66

9. Edward Jones 125 KTM 1571.53

10. Tim Forman 250 Kawasaki 1575.23

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Issued for and on behalf of the Electraction TM UK by Jonty Edmunds. Any questions or comments to be directed to either nick@electraction.ie or jonty.edmunds@attglobal.net

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