How busy could your weekend be? Well, the clue is that there are going to be two big events back-to-back on consecutive days.
Both the National Club Enduro Series (NCES) opener and the annual No Way In Hell (NWIH) extreme enduro will take place in South Waikato, at the same venue at Oparau.
This coming Saturday (February 28) it’s the first round of four in the NCES and on Sunday (March 1) it’s the eighth annual Husqvarna-sponsored NWIH, these two major events are set for farmland about halfway between Kawhia and Otorohanga.
Not only will some of the nation’s most brilliant and skilled dirt bike exponents be pitted against one another, but they’ll be challenged by some of the most brutal terrain in New Zealand and have their fingers firmly crossed that rough weather or just plain bad luck doesn’t also play a part.
The two events are both run by a man with vast experience in the sport, Tokoroa enduro wizard Sean Clarke.
The 2026 NWIH extreme enduro will be only the eighth time the event has been run and, quite frankly, that’s quite a surprise because so few riders actually survived the inaugural event in 2010.
In fact, only two out of more than 60 starters did finish that first race 16 years ago and that’s also probably part of the reason why there was something of a hiatus after 2014 and the resurrection of the extreme event in 2024 had been so eagerly anticipated.
Again being held on steep farmland at 654 Hauturu Road, Oparau, this year’s NWIH enduro, run by the Forestland Motorcycle Club, will perhaps be just as soul-destroying and body-breaking as always.
Competitors are again being warned to brace themselves for a challenge like they have probably never faced before.
The NWIH extreme enduro is a stand-alone event and just surviving it, let alone winning it, is considered a fantastic achievement.
“The Forestland MCC is preparing for a big weekend at Oparau this coming weekend,” said Clarke, himself a former international racer.
He said that, with the NCES enduro series event on Saturday, it will be the first enduro that Forestland MCC has run at the Scott family property (at 654 Hauturu Road) since 2014.
“The club-based enduro series proved popular last year with its rideable courses and easy times for the sections. The event will cover about 100km and there will be a minimum of four special tests. The terrain is high country farmland with some nice native bush sections.
“Running the first round out at Oparau is a good change from the rest of the NCES competition which will run through pine forestry.
“The NWIH is an extreme see-how-far-you-can-go race with a five-hour cut-off time. The race itself starts out relatively easy and progressively gets harder as the race goes on.
“The first 35 or so kilometres will be the same as the enduro loop from the day before, with just a few slight changes. Then, once lap one is completed, it starts to get hard with the first obstacle being the big face, a massive grass hill not far from the pits, a site which is also great for the spectators.
The track this year will feature three new sections of track that have never been used before. I have been going out to Oparau for the past 30 or so years and the farm owners, Mathew Scott and Nigel Scott, always seem to find us something new.”
Leading contenders are likely to include riders such as Kiwi international Chris Birch, from Thames, Inglewood’s Renny Johnston, New Plymouth’s Sam Parker, Taupo’s 2023 national cross-country champion Wil Yeoman, Papakura’s Ryan Hayward, Amberley’s Archer Pascoe and fellow South Islander Luke Corson, from Whitecliffs, to name just a few.
Birch was winner of the in augural NWIH event in 2010, the only individual to finish unaided, in a time of three hours and 12 minutes. Hokianga’s Mitchell Neild was two hours behind in second place. Birch also won the NWIH twice more after that, in 2013 and 2014.
Yeoman won the NWIH event last year, finishing just ahead of Birch and Sam Parker.
Event organiser Clarke is a multi-time former New Zealand champion and a four-time medallist at the “Olympic Games of enduro racing”, the International Six Days Enduro, so he knows first-hand what it takes to win at the ultimate level of the sport.
A prologue race from 9.30am on Sunday morning will determine the start order for the main event, starting at 11am.
The weekend is sponsored by Husqvarna motorcycles, Forbes and Davies accessory distributors, O’Neal apparel, Maxima oils, Arai helmets, Ogio bags, Blur, Maxi Grip, Kiwi Rider magazine, Muc-Off, Metzeler tyres, USWE and SATCO logging attachments.
For more information, call Sean Clarke on 027 599 6046
© Words and photo by Andy McGechan, www.BikesportNZ.com
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