Rain didn’t stop play for Frost.
Report: Lee Davey
Images: Imageconsortium.co.uk

If ever there was a weekend when animals should consider going in two by two, it was the weekend of the 9th December when the Southern Counties Enduro Club held their final round of the year and one which would decide the 2007 championship standings.

Somehow, the rain was nowhere near as heavy on the Sunday as it has been for countless days leading up to the event, but needless to say the course was going to demand very careful line-selection and this became very clear as the race progressed.

The marshals were out in force, helping to keep riders moving, but as soon as one bike was removed from the quagmire, another was waiting to take its place in exactly the same spot where someone had obviously had difficulty. Sometime ago, I was told that Enduro could be a thinking man’s game and this proved true in the wet conditions with the leading riders carefully plotting a course around the buried bikes – one of which was submerged so deeply in the opening stages that it remained in place for a further 5 hours until it could be dug out!

The Championship class looked to be going Andy Frost’s way from the early stages and this was reinforced as the race progressed with the retirement of the usual top-runners such as Mark Cornick, Danny Hall, Jeff Goss and Wayne Player. From here Frost (pictured right) was unchallenged and proceeded to build an insurmountable lead – so much so, that when I was (briefly) following Frost, he came across a rider trapped beneath his bike at the bottom of a steep descent. Andy took the time to lift the bike off of him; made sure he was OK and then remount to still finish with a 2 lap lead over Phil Studley and John Leigh who finished second and third respectively.

A couple of front-runners in the Expert class also suffered from retirements which left Steve Harding and Gary McCoy at the front of the pack with Chris Salt in third. Harding lead until the halfway mark before being passed by McCoy and from here Gary never relinquished his lead, finishing some 3 ½ minutes over Harding, who in turn finished 2 laps ahead of third placed Salt.

Ian Shuttleworth enjoyed a convincing win in the E1 Clubman class, eventually finishing with an entire lap between himself and second placed Darren Morgan. Morgan also has a significant 10 minute buffer at the end of the race over third placed Richard Tucker.

The E2 Clubman class had another convincing winner – Tyson Mayton-Jones. Strangely, the E2 class had the fewest retirements, but Jones remained unchallenged with a 2 lap lead over second placed Terry Beecham at the end who, much like E1 entrant Darren Morgan had gradually built a 10 minute lead over James Courtenay in third.

The Sportsman race ran for 2 ½ hours instead of the usual 3, but this still gave Nik Rowbotham enough time to romp away into the distance, never to be seen again. Things were somewhat closer for Pete Fry and Nigel Perring though. Fry would gap Perring for a couple of laps and then Perring would close the gap. This continued for the duration with Perring seemingly missing Fry after a couple of laps and pushing to close the distance between them, but sadly for Perring, second place was not to be, which meant that the top three were Rowbotham, Fry and Perring.

In a copybook example of most of the other classes, the Over 40’s class winner Mark Tucker finished a whole lap ahead of the rest of the bunch. It wasn’t quite so easy for second and third placed Dave Salkeld and Peter Archer though as they were barely separable, especially during the closing stages – but Salkeld held second place with just 30 seconds over third placed Archer.

Championship places are never easy to come by and the final round of the year made sure that the remainder of the points had to be fought for. Attrition rates were high and no doubt helped shuffle the pack when it came to the final standings. Enduro may be a thinking man’s game, but conditions like that will make sure that Enduro is never a betting man’s game


SCEC Enduro results 9-12-2007:
Championship: 1st Andy Frost, 2nd Phil Studley, 3rd John Leigh
Expert: 1st Gary McCoy, 2nd Steve Harding, 3rd Chris Salt.
E1 Clubman (up to 125cc 2-stroke, 250cc 4-stroke): 1st Ian Shuttleworth, 2nd Darren Morgan, 3rd Richard Tucker.
E2 Clubman (over 125cc 2-stroke, 250cc 4-stroke): 1st Tyson Mayton-Jones, 2nd Terry Beecham, 3rd James Courtenay.
Over 40: 1st Mark Tucker, 2nd Dave Salkeld, 3rd Peter Archer.
Sportsman: 1st Nik Rowbotham, 2nd Pete Fry, 3rd Nigel Perring.

2007 SCEC Championship final standings:
Championship: 1st Andy Frost, 2nd Gary Wright, 3rd Mark Cornick.
Expert: 1st Gary McCoy, 2nd Dave Nuttal, 3rd Lee Wheatley.
E1 Clubman (up to 125cc 2-stroke, 250cc 4-stroke): 1st Ian Shuttleworth, 2nd Richard Middleton, 3rd Gareth Thurgood.
E2 Clubman (over 125cc 2-stroke, 250cc 4-stroke): 1st Matt Guppy, 2nd Tyson Mayton-Jones, 3rd James Courtenay.
Over 40: 1st Peter Archer, 2nd Patrick Wills, 3rd Paul Hart.
Sportsman: 1st Pete Fry, 2nd Mike Owen, 3rd Nigel Perring.

Simon Dobinson cleans the mud from his bike mid-race.



Mark Cornick shortly before retiring.



Oops. Tim Clark falls at the start.