Dorset police enduro- 7th February 2010

It was an early start as I took a drive for about 30 mins or so to meet up with Adam and his other half Vicky to travel up a to Dorset for the race. Of course I’m still bloody injured (although it’s getting better) so I went up to help out and have a general natter to a few riders that I knew were riding and to give ‘Blakey’ a bit of support seeing as he was riding in the champ class today.

A nice journey it was too, until the inevitable happened, we got lost! No bloody orange arrows anywhere. After 30 mins or so wandering round the countryside like a fish out of water, I decided to phone Mark Tucker (who’s son Rich was riding), but after a couple of goes, got no answer, more about that later! Time was getting on and panic was starting to brew so we stopped at a local petrol station as asked a ‘yocal’. ‘Turn right about 2 miles up the road pass the cress fields’ he said. Off we went then, and after a few hundred yards up the road we all looked at each other and said, ‘cress fields?, what the f*ck is he on about?’. Was it a pub? A housing estate?, A name of a house,a hotel?, the name of a road? The name of a shop? We didn’t have a clue! After 5 minutes of driving we couldn’t believe our eyes, we actually came to the ‘cress fields’, we couldn’t believe it, it was a farm that grew CRESS! There were acres and acres of fields to our left with CRESS growing in them! Do people still eat that stuff? First time I’ve seen one of them!

So with still no orange arrows in sight, we took the advice of the ‘yocal’ and turned right, and sure enough within a couple of miles there was a massive sign in the middle of the road, ‘Dorset police enduro this way’, at least, we’ve arrived!

Now then, how long did it take me to get to the pits and the lap scoring area to have a look around after I got out of the van? Bloody ages, that’s how long, coz as I made my way down I bumped into every bugger and had a chat with everyone one of them! Dan and Pete Lawry were in good spirits, and I’m telling you this, Pete (the dad) belies his age, he’s still racing at 60 something! Michael Brooks (Brookster) was relishing the thought about trying to keep up with ‘mad Jack. Andy Smith was as cool as ever (with his personalized number backgrounds), Phil ‘lover boy’ Harris was there with his other half Claire, or should I say Siamese twin? Can’t seem to pull them 2 apart! Gary ‘nothing gets in my way’ Mcoy was full of banter, along with Mark ’I don’t answer my phone’ Tucker. I said to Mark, ’I rung you a couple of times, why didn’t you answer’? He said he looked at the number and thought it was work calling so he didn’t bother! Reason being I rung from Adam’s phone and he didn’t recognize the number so he ignored it. Bloody good job we found our way in the end then Mark! Also had a quick chat with ‘mad’ Jack Twentyman, Jason Duggan, and Paul ‘Racersedge’ Cowshal who on his spanking new Suzuki 450.

The start was quite a way from the pits and transponder area, so after watching the riders on their 1st lap about half way round the course, it was back up to the lap scoring to see how everyone was doing as each lap passed by. The course from what I saw looked awesome, loads of woods, just what I like. The fire road just before the pit and transponder area was a great place to stand with the top riders ‘pinning’ it along that bit just before they had to brake hard and slow down in order to record each lap (I sound like a reporter now), I was stood there with Mark (Tucker) and he’ll be the first to tell you that ‘mad’ Jack Twentyman was most entertaining to watch on that part of the course. Jack came round that corner hunched over the bars with the bike wobbling everywhere, and when he passed us, he looked like he was a man possessed! Such a contrast to Rich Tucker who by half way led the champ class, dead smooth and looking fast with what seemed like was minimal effort.

I helped ‘Blakey’ pit at half way and told him to get his arse in gear, which he did and ended up 4th at the end, well pleased he was. Rich won the overall, and at 18 yrs old to beat the guys he did today, that’s some going. Jack had a great result for a vet, 6th overall. Gary ’nothing gets in my way’ Mcoy went swimming with his bike half way through the race due to trying to find an alternative route around some stuck riders. He tried to jump a small river and didn’t quite make it, had to drag his bike out and turn it upside down to drain the thing. An hour and 4 plugs later he managed to get it going again and went on to finish. Did we have a laugh about that at the end or what! Brookster dnf’d, so a mixed bag few a few riders that I knew today.

Had a good day out today, and what’s more, we didn’t get lost on the way home!