sheffield endurocross 2009

this year Sheffield hosted round 1 of the World indoor enduro cup -WIEC.

the program consisted of qualifying races and 3 mains for the WEIC riders.

Pro/experts races.

clubman races

trials races.

I did take a camera but gave up taking photos pretty quickly as I was missing the action so just stick in 'Sheffield endurocross 2009' into any search engine and I’m sure there will be a load of photos, vids and reports available.

Anyway 7 of us did the 3 hour trip up to Sheffield and upon arrival immediately went to around to the pits where we promptly found we couldn’t get in without the correct passes.

luckily my travelling companions happen to be one of UK enduros dynasty families so we were able to get passes. funny thing is getting the passes meant we didn’t need the tickets we'd paid £35 for, but hindsight is wonderful and if we didn’t have the tickets you could of guaranteed sod's law would have kicked in ands we wouldn’t have got the passes.

getting the passes and being able to go around the pits and basically everywhere except on the track made night.

KTM had the biggest pit, then Midwest racing Husaberg, everyone else was pretty much awnings out of medium to large vans.

factory bikes were there from Beta - the new 400rr for Dougie lampkin to ride, Sherco - graham Jarvis, KTM - taddy, Cervantes and mike Brown, Husaberg - jocke and mena, Husky - Antoine meo, plus many more.

Going into the stadium we had an area to sit in for the pass holders but as it turned out our ticket seat had a better view and for most of the event we were in them, only changing seats for the final 3 mains of the night.

The stadium was only about half full so they wee a lot of spaces to choose from.

Race wise Taddy won though Browner and Jarvis did give him a run for his money in a couple of the races but once he was to the front that was the last anyone saw of him.

Knight collapsed after the first main with breathing problems and didn’t race again.

Mena didn’t qualify, jocke was going well as were a lot of them but this indoor racing seems to be a bit of a lottery as several times the faster riders lost out to slower riders due to outside interference. I.e. some lapper crashing in front of them and taking them out as well.

As for the other races. The pro/experts was good as was the night race they held for the WEIC riders who didn’t qualify for the mains. They switched the stadium lights off and the riders had to use bike and helmet lights.

Mena took the early lead using a set of lights that must have come off the front of a rally car, the amount of light they put out, but it did him no good as he dropped the bike in the rock and smashed in the counter shaft sprocket, locking the bike up. Ollie Moyce on the Midwest Husaberg 390 then took the lead and whilst those about him were going fast, crash, fast, crash he just rode steady to the finish and took the win.

Pro/expert races were good but there was a big difference in abilities between those at the front and those to the rear.

Clubman races were ok, but apart from the top couple of riders they were more about survival than racing.

The trials race was pretty much a one horse race with a young Scot, Johnnie Walker - yes that really is his name taking the lead and wiping the floor with everyone. Infact I can see why they run the trials bikes separately as I reckon he’d of beaten Taddys lap times. Or at least been right up with him.

Overall a pretty good night.

Little disappointing there were not more people there and they could have done with a big screen or something to show up the results of each race and the podium ceremonies as despite it being a small arena the podium was a long way away for most.

Anyway now I’ve been to see this I’m up for some more indoor action. 28th November and 5th December I’ll probably go to the first 2 superiors rounds here in the uk then January they have an international indoor trial in Sheffield which I’ll also try and make.

Off to get some tractor tyres and a digger and see what I can build.

jarvis is a factory sherco rider having ridden with them in trials for a few years and won things like the red bull romaniacs on the enduro bike.

Got some photos of his bike in the pits prior to the racing.

if thats stock i think i'm riding the wrong brand!

you can tell he's a trials rider as cervantes and brown both from MX backgrounds really stuffed it too him in the bermed left hander before the finish. They came in hard with alot of revs on then cut under him and block passed him. He Lost 2 places in the last two laps like that.

As Taffy says with Brown he's doing exactly what he does in MX. Gets the holeshot, leads for a couple of laps then starts going backwards. is it fitness, pressure or old age? who knows whatever it is he's still hell of alot faster then most people i know.

im uploading my crappy photos to photbucket as wel type so i'll update with the link in a minute or 5

bit of gossip from the event was that on the friday night 3 gasgas including nambotain's factory bike were stolen and they had been contacted by the thieves who were ransoming the bikes for £3000 each!

then on Saturday there was an unconfirmed rumor that one of the thieves had been killed whilst riding one of the bikes around sheffield, dont know if that last bit was true but that'll teach him for stealing bikes.

Here's a link to some rather crappy photos from Sheffield.

bit obvious why i stopped taking them once racing began.

The enduro pro and expert bikes have to run with enduro or mx tyres.

The WIEC riders have to use enduro tyres

They'd probably all be on trials tyres if they were allowed

As for the italians, i didnt bother picking up a program, was there any top flight italian riders there?

Taffy said:

i know you go on the TBM site. any chance you can find out all about the front tyre on that morini on page 5 of the november edition? it's an absolute whopper? but is it 21" still and what is the tyre size and make on it?

morini have been declared bankrupt (again!).

regards

Taffy

Click to expand...

19" metzler karoo. (we think)