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The Second Round of the Suzuki 2003 New Zealand Enduro Championship was held
on Sunday 29th June in Rotoehu Forest, 30 mins north-east of Rotorua. This
round also doubled as the final round of the five round Suzuki 2003 Northern
Enduro Series (Oparau, Riverhead, Woodhill, Waimiha, Rotoehu).
7:30 a.m in the forest was beautiful with a light mist falling and the
trails looking good. Unfortunately it couldn\'t last and, before sign-in was
complete, the rain had arrived. The awesome turnout of 104 enduro riders
remained in good spirits and everyone headed off hoping for a cracker day.
The rain didn\'t let up and, coupled with the constant rain in the days
leading up to the event, the course became very slippery and began to cut up
in places, (apparently some ruts were developing into canyons!) The
organizers didn\'t hesitate and, instead of leaving the majority of riders to
grovel on, they shortened the course so as to acheive a reasonable finish
rate.
This still left the intermediates with 63km and 2 terrain tests, while the
experts rode a respectable105 km and 3 terrain tests. Despite the slipperery
conditions the only injuries were a banged knee and some mud in an eye.
It was a day of drama. Chris Birch (KTM250) won by nearly a
minute despite having to fix a punture half-way through. Even more incredible was the fact that he still finished on his minute!
Meanwhile, Steven Bird (YZF250) lost 5 mins when he drowned
his bike in one section and ended the day 18 minutes down. Todd Mardon
(KX125), on the other hand, had a flyer. He finished the day in second place
overall, 3 seconds in front of a hard-charging Sean Clarke (DRZ400).
At the end of the event most people were in a hurry to find somewhere warm
and dry and so the finishers medals and Northern trophies were put aside, to
be presented at Gwavas (the last round of the NZ Championships,and the last
round of the Central Enduro Series) in September.
Despite the weather most riders appreciated that they were competing in a
mid-winter endurance event and that things could have been a lot worse. It
wasn\'t cold and windy, the organisers handled things brilliantly, and there
were a lot of smiles at the end of the day. All-in-all another very positive
event which leaves all classes open (e.g. Expert 0-200 2 stroke, the top 4
riders are seperated by ONE point!) going into the final round at Gwavas in
September
Full results are - HERE - but NOTE that the overall does not compare apples with apples as the experts rode a differing course to the other grades.
