There was excitement, suspense and drama at the sixth and final round of the Eastern Enduro Championship at Butley, organised by the Woodbridge Motor Cycle Club, writes Roger Chaplin.
Three of the class titles had already been won so all eyes were on the other three classes – and one of these was the Expert Class, where Kevin Palmer (Diss) was leading Myles Saunders (Sudbury) by five points at the start of the day.
And a drama played out after the day’s racing, with Saunders doing enough to look like he was set to claim the title, only for penalty points to be awarded to other riders, which promoted Palmer up the standings and gave him the title by a single point. There was another battle in the Clubman Class where James Barker (Sudbury) had a four point lead over Lee Monger (Sudbury) and these two had fought tooth and nail over every round.
On the day Barker won all three special tests and as hard as Monger tried to better Barker he made silly mistakes which lost him precious seconds which George Eustace (Sudbury) took advantage of, finishing second on the day behind Barker and ahead of Monger. Barker took the 2017 Clubman Class Title with Monger second and Eustace third.
Paul Davis (Sudbury) who lives and works in the Netherlands made a rare appearance in the Clubman Super Veteran Class and was the overall leader after the three special tests with Andy Mason (Sudbury) second and Graham Mays (Sudbury) third – and it was these two who were battling for the 2017 Title.
Everything changed on the last lap as Davis and Mays received 60 penalty points while Mason was clean giving him the win on the day with Davis second and Mays third. Mason duly won the class title for the fourth year running.
Jason Morland (Halstead) who had already won the 2017 Championship Class, won the first and third special tests but dropped his machine in the second test, losing 11 seconds which was enough to give Ben Clark (Halstead) the win on the day.
Michael Ridge (Stowmarket), 2017 Expert Veteran Class champion, again won the class while Dean Curry (Sudbury) who had already won the 2017 Clubman Veteran Class title, won the three tests overall but suffered 120 penalty points, letting Kevin Gore (Norwich), take the win.
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