KTM ENDURO SERIES WRAPS UP

The fourth and final round of the KTM South Island Enduro Series kicked off in Hira Forest, just minutes from the centre of Nelson city at the weekend with riders looking forward to the possibility of finally riding a pleasant, sunny enduro.

Their hopes were soon dashed as the heavens opened and riders proceeded to be pelted with high winds and horizontal rain.

Muddy, slippery, tree root-infested trails proved a real challenge for the experts as riders set about navigating the two separate loops. For one loop, riders were given one hour to complete and the other an hour and a half.

Loops consisted largely of gravel roads for intermediate riders, with the odd technical section thrown in.

While the expert riders were treated to a variety of steep, rocky fire break hill climbs and tight, slippery forest trails.

Each loop had it’s own terrain test, with loop one consisting of a fast, flowing fire break trail that saw the size of riders “balls” tested as the threw everything they had at the test. Launching themselves over blind hill crests in to gnarly rock gardens.

Loop two’s terrain test consisted of a tight, slippery forest trail littered with tree roots snaking its way through the Nelson tere ferme.

With all the usual suspects other than series leader Mosgiel’s Jol Hennessey making an appearance in nelson, the series was thrown wide open, with a handful of men capable of taking the number one spot.

After a tight day of racing it was local rider and event organizer Shane McGowan (Suzuki RM250) who took the number one spot, followed by Christchurch’s Jacques Bakkenes (Husaberg TE300) and Alexandra’s Logan Forsyth (KTM 300XC).

With day one all done and dusted it was time to head to the Anglesey farm near Tapawera for day two and an endurocross style event to finish the series off.

In true enduro fashion, and defying suggestions from weather forecasters, rain returned in style to water the Tadmor endurocross track which consisted of everything from skidder tyres to large logs and many other tricky man made obstacles.

The event was run in motocross style with start gates setting riders on their way.

Classes were combined in to heat races with unders and overs class riders pitting it against each other while the two vets’ classes did battle and the intermediate and trail rider classes set about finding who was the top dog when it came to endurocross.

In the combined unders and overs class races, it proved to be a close battle between Maruia’s Ethan Bruce (Yamaha YZ250) and Christchurch’s Angus MacDonald (KTM 200XC) with MacDonald eventually coming out on top.

The combined vets class races was all but a full gone conclusion right from the get go as experienced trials and off-road racer Christchurch’s Grant Oliver (KTM 300XC) set about a clinical demolition of his competition, with good starts and quickly building solid leads over his three outings. While the fight for the number two spot was a close affair between Christchurch’s Kelvin Bakkenes (Husaberg TE300) and Southland’s Campbell Moore (Honda CRF450R) with Moore eventually proving to be the quicker of the two.

In the intermediate class it was a close battle between Christchurch’s Chris Haig (KTM 300EXC) and Nelson duo Jeremy Cosgrove (Yamaha YZ250) and Gareth Jordan (Yamaha YZ250) with Haig eventually emerging as the victor.

At the end of the two days it was final round no show by Hennessey who had done enough to take the overall series win with a one point deficit from Rangiora’s Kelly Paterson (Yamaha WR250F) and Alexandra’s Logan Forsyth (KTM 300XC) a further point adrift of Paterson.

With the 2013 KTM South Island Enduro Series now at an end, riders would like to say a huge thanks to all the clubs who gave up their weekends to make the events happen, Mark MacDonald and his family for doing a fantastic job of co-ordinating the series and KTM New Zealand for sponsoring the series.

Series results at www.myrides.co.nz