As some of you may already know I was unable to make the last CHEC event at Penn Wood due to sickness, but thankfully Club DB member Tony was able to step into the breach and produced a ride report for the website. So many thanks to Tony - I hope this is the first of many, as it would be nice if more people produced things to add to the site to broaden its appeal.
Tony's Report:
Sunday 28th June 2009 Penn Wood Newbury
Round five of the Chiltern Hills Enduro
Club’s championship took place in glorious sunshine. The weather
report the night before forecast temperatures of up to 29 degrees -oh
heaven forbid!
Parking didn’t seem too much of an issue due to the depleted numbers,
only about 70 riders on the day, reflecting no doubt that this venue never
seems that popular and it clashing with several other events on the calendar
including the WSB at Donington. After ‘signing on’ I grabbed
a cuppa and was informed by one of the organisers that some locals had
been in the woods turning the course markers around! The marshals had
been out that morning, riding the course to put everything back to normal
and they were confident all would be well.
As i can't find anyone
that took photos this year i'll add some 'library shots' from last year.....
to illustrate what the venue is like.
Penn Wood location.
Whilst collecting my bike
to put it into parc ferme I bumped into Pete rider no:78 (fellow Club
DB rider) who had just arrived with his bike afflicted with a puncture!
As an example of the friendliness of the average CHEC competitor he managed
not only to source a replacement inner tube but someone to fit it as well!
The start on the race was the usual CHEC affair with riders going off
in groups of ten every 60 seconds. I was sat in the shade of the trees
waiting for the off and was being gassed out by the usual 2 stroke starting
in the sixth group, I was no:56.
yep those 2T's can be a bit 'smokin'
Within 100 yards of the start some guy in my group fell under his Yamaha
and couldn’t get up so I parked up and lifted his bike up off him
by which time the next wave had caught us up and it made rejoining the
lap a bit hectic. Lap one rapidly descended into chaos with no-one knowing
where the hell they were going! I rode around trying to find other bikes
to follow whilst looking for markers, often meeting bikes coming from
all directions. A guy on a quad asked me if I new where I was going as
he’d been following me while I was going round in circles disappearing
up my own asshole! Running off the course for the n’th time with
marshals (who did an excellent job all day) running in all direction retrieving
people and machines you had to see the funny side. I decided to just site
and try and get my bearings while the goings on around me looked very
Keystone Cops! As time went on people, including myself, started to get
their heads around the course and things settled down nicely.
Part lap of the track supplied by Lee Bartram
The course was set out in five sections and all flowed well except for
section three which was far too tight and slow for my liking and this
made overtaking impossible. I can’t really go into details about
how the lap was put together because I haven’t a clue, more than
once I would be approaching a corner thinking “ oh yeah –
I remember this bit, it goes right, then left over a log” only for
it to go left then left through some trees?!
Stopping for the one hour lunch brake the initial chat was of the times posted on the first lap. Apparently the first group clocked eight minute laps whilst some of the later groups took up to twenty minutes, depending on how lost they got!
After juicing the bike and picnicking
in the shade everyone was a little reluctant to get going for the afternoon
session, motivation had ebbed away and it took those stinky strokers to
start gassing me again to get me to my feet and back onto the bike.
Session two is usually my favorite as competition thins out and the course
matures. However, with the high temperatures of the day, after two laps
I was sweating like a slimmer in a cake shop! Plodding on regardless I
managed a couple more laps but with my lunch was trying to revisit and
my legs cramping I decided to take a brake.
another shot from 08
Having stopped for and embarrassing ten minutes to compose myself I went out for one last lap with twenty minutes to go – only to get twatted by a tree and parted company with the bike. I couldn’t believe my luck to have fallen right on the track. If I had just fallen to either side I could have stayed there for rest, but lying where I was I was sure to get run over which was my only motivation to drag my arse off the floor and retrieve my bike.
To rap up – what a great day, even though it might not sound like it! Many thanks to everyone involved and I’m looking forward to the next event. Hopefully RBJ will be back off his sickbed for the next one and no doubt his race report will be accompanied by piccies and helmet cam footage, see you all then.
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