Dunmere Enduro '06 - a shock win.
  Full Dunmere Results Here     Small Video Clip Here 

Chris Dustow really put the championship lads in their place on 
Sunday with a brilliant win against tough competition.

Report and Photos by Adrian Harris

How many clubs provide a full colour map to aid safety!
This is how you get a 9+ mile lap into a small woodland.

The weathermen had forecast torrential rainstorms, so all arriving through the mornings drizzle, kept a nervous eye towards the sky. But a tough lot these enduro riders, whatever the weather everyone was hyped up, raring to go and waiting for the 10am start.

Early morning drizzle caused sportsmen some real hassle
as the hill quickly became slippery.

Despite the outlook and long trek for many to sign on, the competitive banter as riders passed each other whilst setting up their pits was always friendly. In a last minute bid to tame his high powered race machine, Nick Life was seen fitting a gnarly pipe - hoping it might help smooth things out a bit when feeding the 60BHP his 250 2-stroke Yamaha produces, which for the day would be going through a trials tyre.

As the track dried Sportsman Pete Jago gets on the gas.

At 9.45am prompt, clerk of the course Mike Roose gave a rider safety briefing, of which one of the main points - and definitive tip of the day was 'its slippery out there, so watch it!'.

Brad Williams almost out of control on his fastest lap of the day.

Actually this was no idle threat, the high speed forest road sections were always notoriously dodgy after a bit of rain moistened any clay that got dragged onto the stony road surface. Opening the throttle to quick here always spelled disaster!

Forresting had dried out the wood, but Clerk of the Course
Mike Roose still managed to find some for everyone to enjoy!

At 10am sharp the first 4 championship riders started out on lap1, the first of 8 laps for them that were going to get quicker and quicker and then much much quicker!

Gary Prisk gassing it across the roots on the speed test.

As with all proper timecard enduros, riders are set a time limit to complete each lap and the first lap is always a bit slack. Mike Roose being kind had set this at 40 minutes for the top boys, but the lesser classes had an even easier time, being allowed an extra quarter of an hour to do the same distance.

Mayhem on the slippery hill just before the Champ boys arrived for 
their first hi-speed timed test, could have caused chaos if the 
marshals hadn't acted quickly!

WATCH VIDEO clip - how to and how not to ride a steep slippery hill !

As the day progresses all classes times tightened so that the last lap - 4 hours later, was going to take some serious focussing to achieve within the set target without getting a penalty. Laps timed to the minute mean that 1 minute late equals a 60 second penalty. If riders 'cleaned' their times, then it would be all down to the high speed special tests - which were timed to a 1/100 second to sort out the heroes.

Gerald Spiers enjoying the flowing wooded trails.

Competitors were started off at 15 second intervals to race around the two and a half mile special test individually against the clock. After the first few laps the drizzle stopped and the sun broke through with a vengance. Although the track started to dry in places the shaded forest kept much of it very slick and the top riders Nick Life, Jason Fraser, plus Chris and Steve Dustow almost looked slow as they fought to each be the quickest. But their smooth riding style is so deceiving. Whilst others revved and screamed their bikes, the top guns all rode a gear higher than normal to ensure no mistakes were made on these special tests, where a single mistake could cost the whole race. Speaking to Jason afterwards - but before the results were posted, he said it was so difficult to try and put the power down or brake hard when the track is as slippery as that. In fact many said if you tried to hard, you were more likely to throw the race away than win it.

Ian Putt was the first Championship rider to retire when his forks broke.

St Blazey's MC's Steve Annear was unlucky enough to catch his foot in the forest and was carted off to hospital with a broken ankle, where he spent the night alongside another local rider Mark Budge who was in the next bed, which helped pass the time! (Ed: Get well soon Steve.)

Mcilroy power drifting this turn didn't make up for his 2 last lap spin outs.

The first lap proved a bit much for more than a few Sportsman riders who found the greasy surface more difficult than they would have liked, - and when they finally reached the steep hill in the woods chaos ensued. As most sportsmen - and a few clubmen, tried to power their bikes up the climb, first the front ends seemed to hop around then the rear would step out - often spinning the bikes around completely and powering them back down the hill to try once more. However, that was the lucky ones. Many others high sided and had their bike fall on top of them. To some the hill seemed so slippery they couldn't believe anyone could get up there. But then as CVMC marshalls rushed to help them - and temporarily clear them to one side, the Championship lads came around for their second lap - and whizzed past as if they were riding on tarmac, which I am sure made more than a few strugglers feel ever so slightly sick!

Colin Eddy styling it through the slop.

Sadly the results showed that a lot of sportsmen could face a second lap and many packed up early and went home. Which was a double shame, because as the day went on the track got so much easier to ride!

Ridng number 92 Spencer Turner who had come all the way from Barnstaple, was unlucky enough to get a puncture only 10 minutes after the start of the first lap. He said he will be running mooses in the future!

It wasn't all tight woods, many fast miles were superb open trails.

Tim Edwards No.104 had the oil pipe come off the bottom of his engine and had to pull out half way through the day. His friends gave him quite a bit of stick about this, saying that he was so worried about being promoted up to the expert class next year, that they bet it took him ages to pull the pipe off. (Its good to have friends!)

Kawasaki 4-stroke rider No79 Paul Gould from Saltash, pulled into the pits to refuel and it seems that kwaker 4 bangers still don't start. He kicked and kicked the bike for ages until he was completely exhausted. After about 10 minutes of watching I moved off - I wasn't allowed in the pits to help, thankfully.

A fun spot on the special test.

The first championship rider to retire was Ian Putt from Exeter. The front forks on his 250 Yam 2-stroke started to clang and bang half way around the first lap. He pitted after lap 2 saying it didn't feel at all right, but was determined to continue. But after 2 more laps he came in shaking his head and said the bike was seriously not right. The front end was now skittering everywhere and had thrown him off big time in the test as the front end - now not gripping - had washed out on a very fast turn. (and I can assure you, the forks went off in the post next morning to Steve Plain.)

No5 championship rider Carl Mcilroy smiled as he told me he had completely spun the bike twice during the last lap on the slippery fire roads as he raced hard to try and get inside the tight lap time, - which had now dropped form the original 40 minutes, down to only 25 minutes for the top boys. (It's always awesome watching the championship riders on their final lap!)

Off cambered rooted sections required good bike skills from riders.

As the best riders in each class had all cleaned their fastest lap times, it was all down to the hi-speed special tests results to sort out the winners. Championship class talk in the pits said that Chris Dustow had dropped it in the test, but was seen to get up again quickly, Nick Life had overshot on a corner and Jason Fraser had struggled to get the power of the big Berg down through a trials tyre. So it was anxious times until Camel Vale posted the results.

…and it was a surprising - one, two, to the Dustow brothers, with Chris taking first place to Steve in second, by a total of 17 seconds. Expected favourites Jason Fraser and Nick Life had to settle for 3^rd and 4^th, trailing Steve by more than 10 and 20 seconds respectively after 4 hours and over 70 miles of tough going.

Steve fought hard and rode with style, but had to 
settle for 2nd spot behind his brother.

Max Hembroke took the Expert class win from hard charging Charlie Richards by just over 40 seconds.

Other Snippets:

Nick Life seemed so keen to do the Isle of Man Fast Eddy round, his mates were teasing him that he must have a woman over there!

Rumour has it that the 'Ride-It' organisation intend putting on a series of 6 hare & hound type enduros over the winter period in the south west. Lets hope Scott manages to pull this off, his events have been sorely missed by many.

Congratulations have to go to all the CVMC marshals who worked so hard today ensuring that all riders who were prepared to 'have a go', got lots of help if they got stuck. I noted that both Mike Roose and Dave Cholwill looked 'quite tired' after lifting so many bikes on that first slippery hill - but didn't they do well.

Two riders getting timecards marked at the beginning of their next lap.

The atmosphere at a time card enduro is certainly something very special and it was great to experience it once more. There appeared to be no bitchiness or any of the one up-manship games that go on at some other types of dirt bike sport. I pondered on this for a while and wondered if it could be something to do with that although riders know they are competing against each other, they feel their biggest competitor is the demanding track and lap times that the clerk of the course has set. The fact that they are all in this together against the clock and the track - in whatever weather conditions prevail, seems to create a bond and is probably also why enduro riders will go to a lot of trouble to actually help each other, even when its likely to cost them a placing.

At Dunmere before the race this bond and all the friendly banter that went with it seemed even stronger than in most other events I have been to recently. It occurred to me that the awkwardness of parking at Dunmere - all strung out along a narrow track, had probably helped with this, as riders and pit crews all had to keep walking past each other during the morning. So the opportunities to have a chat and a laugh were plenty, as opposed to when parked in a large field, which although is better as regards less distance to walk to get setup. It also means that you don't pass or get to see so many 'pals'.

Incredibly Pete Bulley saved it from this without going down...
...He was actually turning right - not left as it looks here!

Thanks must go to Camel Vale for putting on such a top notch event. Their organisation is always first class and totally professional. All riders there at the end of the day said that they had loved it. Sadly a few had gone home early after finding lap one a bit tough. It is important to remember that when you go to Cornwall to race, you do need to know how to ride a bike properly. If you like riding around flat fields, it is definitely not the place for you!

Finally are you tough enough - If you do think you are a good rider, on the 10^th of December CVMC are putting on a real toughie at Hell'vana. Instead of clearing the track, they are going to be putting all the rough stuff back in to ride over - or around!

Entries for this will be strictly limited - and sportsman need not apply, as there entries will not be accepted. But if you think you are any good - and can cope with difficult terrain, this will be the one that sorts out the men from the boys! - I'll be there filming ;o)