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A few \"bugger\'s\" floated across Moonshine valley during Round 5 of the Suzuki National Enduro series. Organiser Justin Stevenson had left nothing to chance and it was to be expected that a few riders would find his testing track was asking questions that they didn’t want to answer.
In places, where the track wound through the trees, low branches and scrub obscured the riders vision. The fast sections were damp grass on rock and clay – fast and treacherous - and there were some rocky descents and monster bogs that had a few riders looking for the B-Loop.
On the other hand, the terrain test times were more competitive then at any other event this year. The first terrain test saw the top 5 riders separated by only 2 seconds, the second had the top three riders within 4 seconds of each other, and in the third the top 19 riders were separated by 19 seconds.
One rider who definitely wasn’t grumbling was Sean Clarke of Tokoroa (Suzuki RMX250). He was either fastest or equal fastest in every terrain test and was one of 5 riders not to lose any trail time, winning the day by 8 seconds from Kevin Archer (Te Kuiti, DRZ400), with Stephen Bird (Pahiatua, RMX250) another 5 seconds back.
Pahiatua rider Paul Whibley (CR250) was within 2 seconds after the first terrain test but a puncture then effectively put him out of contention for the day. Richard Ebbett (Pahiatua, CR250) also had a minor mishap, in which he managed to bash in his exhaust pipe and put a tear in the expansion chamber. Both riders finished 13 minutes down for the day.
In the final tally there were 13 DNF’s although 39 of the 42 riders finished the third terrain test. In other words, there was an eminently ridable track, perfect weather, and superb organisation. Between the National, Northern, and Central series there have been a wide variety of tracks and a high standard of organisation. It doesn\'t get much better then that.
Round 5 Results
Round 5 Photos
