Metzeler ACU British Enduro Championship
Round 1 "The Muntjac"
Thetford Forest

Report Courtesy Of Cpl Tony Cotty
Photo Right Cpl Cotty  

It’s Saturday the 23rd of February and I find myself wondering what the weekend will bring as I travel to Thetford Forest with the Team REME Support Team Manager (SSgt Al Cook), in anticipation of the first British Enduro Championship round of the season. It`s the first time I’ll be riding in a British Championship round and I find myself questioning myself about all sorts of things. Have I prepped my bike properly, will the cold, but otherwise good weather take a turn for the worst, what is the track going to be like.......... it goes on and on until we finally arrive.

   Once I see the rest of the team I put all thoughts to the back of my mind and crack on with getting the bikes out and helping to do any last minute adjustments. Once we were all happy, we all
moved up to the Special Test and proceeded to have a good look at the course so we
would know what to expect tomorrow. There was no sighting lap so we would be going
straight in to the test on the first lap. My initial thoughts were that I was surprised by how
long the test was. The following day I would learn that our quicker lads would be completing
the test in 5mins where as I was nearer 6mins
(got to start somewhere).
 
  Sunday 24^th February RACE DAY. With start times between 9:00 and 9:30 most of the team were up and milling about by 7am, joking about who would be going home in an ambulance and how many times they would be lapping one another. Others in the team were busy trying to blag bacon butties from anyone with a camper and some were carrying out pre-race rituals, like visiting the kazzie to get rid of pre-race nerves. The support crews were getting themselves organised setting up the fuel area and laying out the check boxes. Before the race started the team got together for a few pre-race photos of us with the bikes modelling the new clothing and graphics for the season.

  My start time came around all too quickly and I was off in to the race. Thankfully it stayed dry and the going was excellent, there was plenty of grip and there wasn’t anything technical. My plan was to try and ride as smooth as I could and keep my bike upright, and keep pushing at the lap. As I am in the Clubman class I was scheduled to do 4 laps. Working out the times the night before I knew it would be on laps 3 and 4 that decided the final finishing order in my class. Even though the Special Test was cut out on these laps I still found it very difficult to stay on time. Pushing myself as much as I could I still dropped precious minutes and mentally I was beating myself up about my performance. I was very relieved to finish my last lap. I later learned that out of over 85 finishers, only 9 clubman finished without dropping any time. So note to myself in the future, if I am struggling, chances are that the other Clubman riders will be too.

  Once I had finished my 4 laps of the Enduro Loop, I had time to change quickly and head up to the Special Test to see our “Top Boys” go through one last time. I don’t know how they do it but a special mention has to go to Cpl Kev Murray, who managed to snap his right foot peg off 4 bends in to that final test of the day. Having this problem with his bike he still managed a very quick test time, putting him right up there with the lads that do it for a living. The whole team did very well in the event and I am sure everybody is looking forward to Round 2 in the Championship and our long trip to Elgin in Scotland, with the chance of gaining more Championship points.

With all that said and done I can happily say
 "I’ve popped my British Championship cherry"

 I can look back on a very enjoyable event. Hats off to the race organisers DISS MCC, the course and the whole running of the event was excellent.

Photo Left Cpl Andy Williams