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The final round of the Suzuki 2005 NZ Enduro Championship, run by the Waitemata MCC, was held on Sunday 26th June at Woodhill forest, just north of Auckland.
There was supposed to be a low sweeping across the country but there was only blue skies and a festive atmosphere among the 112 enduro riders who turned up for this awesome event.
It was Dene Humphrey (Honda CRF250) who set the pace in a very classy field. He won the first three terrain tests outright and, after Sean "Junior" Clarke (Suz RM250) matched him in the 4th, was 14 seconds clear. Junior rose to the challenge and, in the 5th and final terrain test, pulled out all the stops.
It was the end of the day and the riders were tired. This was reflected in the times being slightly slower than the first time through this test. However, the 11 second gap back to 2nd place-getter Karl Power (Hon CR250) was the biggest winning margin of the day and, more importantly, was 20 seconds ahead of Dene, giving Sean the overall Expert title.
EXPERT TWO-STROKE OVER
Karl Power, 3rd fastest expert on the day and one of only 5 expert riders not to lose any trail time, finished 55 seconds behind Sean Clarke but this wasn't enough to overhaul Michael Phillips in the series standings.
EXPERT TWO-STROKE UNDER
Chris Power (Hon CR125), 4th fastest expert on the day, was just too good for a very fast Reece Burgess (KTM 125), with Dhugal McLaren in third.
Chris also took the series from Mark Fuller (KTM 200). Mark ended up *equal* on points to third place-getter Dhugal McLaren but took second in the series thanks to his 2nd place at Riverhead (Rnd 3).
EXPERT FOUR-STROKE OVER
Rob Howe (KTM 450) finished just 25 seconds in front of perenial hard-man Kevin Archer (Suz RMZ450) who was a mere THREE seconds ahead of Glen Manning (KTM 450).
Rob also took the series trophy with Glen second (yet again!). Kevin was relegated to third overall, largly due to his poor 7th place at Riverhead.
EXPERT FOUR-STROKE UNDER
The series came down to Dene Humphrey and Steven Bird (Yam WRF250); whoever won on the day would take the title. Dene was on fire and finished over 2 minutes ahead of a disappointed Birdman. Mark Flemming (Hon CRF250) was third on the day, and also for the series.
EXPERT VET 35+
This class could not have been closer. Terry Cameron (GasGas EC250) was easily the fastest on the day. Phil Skinner (Hon CRF250) and Mark Haimes (KTM 400) tied for 2nd, with Gary Powell (Yam WRF450) just 8 seconds behind them in 4th.
However, in all of the previous rounds, Gary had just beaten Terry and this meant that Gary took the title with 90 points. Terry and Phil were *ONE* point back, equal on 89 points. Terry's victory on the day ensured his 2nd place in the series results.
EXPERT UNDER 23
This is the most interesting class because it is the future of the sport. Look carefully at these names because they are the names of champions.
Karl Power cruised to a win over 17 year-old Mitchell Nield (Hus TE250). They were followed by 20-year-old Allan Burgess (KTM 250), 17-year-old Sam Speedy (KTM 200), and 16-year-old Jason Davis (KTM 200). 19-year-old Heath Howlett (Yam WRF450), usually very fast, retired after some minor trouble with his bike. The bike is being shipped to Australia next week in preparation for the A4DE and he decided not to risk turning a 'molehill into a mountain.'
Michael Phillips (not at Riverhead) took the series title from Karl. Mitchell finished three points ahead of 4th-placed Heath, with Jason (the youngest of the group) a further six points back in fifth.
And remember that Jason started the year as an intermediate! In fact, he was the *2nd* fastest (by a mere 3 seconds) *Intermediate* rider at Oparau, the first event in the 5-round series, before he took the step up to the Expert class at the next round.
And don't let young Sam Speedy's lowly 10th in the Under-23 class fool you. This was his first round as an expert after already having wrapped up the Intermediate 2 Stroke Under class for the year.
Along with the overall increase in entrants, this class shows the strength of the sport in NZ in the build-up to next years ISDE.
View full event results
OR download the days results (Excel 95, 36 kb) file or the series results (Excel 95, 32 kb) file
