Local riders excel at Enduro

KOUGA riders fared exceptionally well at the first race of the 2012 Eastern Province Regional Enduro Motorcycle championships at Crossways Farm Village in Thornhill on March 31.
Despite heavy rain creating extreme, and challenging riding conditions on race day, no less than 57 riders started the race with 40 finishing by late afternoon in wet, cold and muddy conditions.
Organised and managed by the Humansdorp Trail and Enduro Club (H-TEC) under the auspices of MotorSport South Africa (MSA), the Crossways Regional Enduro catered for five classes of riders – regional open, regional senior, regional junior, club class and novice class.
Racing on a circular 31km route through varied sections of riding terrain including long grass, riverbed and steep downhill sections, local rider Dale Ferreira won the novice class with Dewald Labuschagne in close second place with Dean Oosthuizen third.
The club class was closely contested with Leon Mostert from Port Elizabeth taking first place with Derek Harvey finishing only 12 minutes behind him and Jaco Malan in third place a further six minutes behind. The regional junior class was won by Cameron Guscott from Port Elizabeth with local Jeffreys Bay rider Derick Ferreira (son of Dale Ferreira) finishing strongly in second place. H-TEC development rider, Joey Moolenschot finished third.
The regional senior class had two local riders dominating the first two podium positions with Kevin Bremner taking honours and Ronald Goldstone in second place.
Third place was won by Andre Mostert from Port Elizabeth.
Competing over four laps of 31km each, the strongly-contested regional open class saw the most action and drama of the day with 20 entrants on the starting line, and 14 eventually finishing.
The highly-talented Port Elizabeth national rider, Timothy Young won the regional open class in 3 hours and 22 minutes with Kevin Lawson finishing second in 3 hours 40 minutes. Johan van Eyk finished third just nine minutes later.
According to overall race winner Timothy Young, riding conditions became more extreme as the day progressed due to the impact of the heavy rain.
"The track was highly enjoyable but got rougher as the day wore on,” said Young.
"The rain created different lines on each lap which made it far more challenging, and also created far more mud holes which you had to be careful to avoid. All in all Crossways is an awesome track to race on and it's great to have a new riding area for Enduro riders.”
Race organiser and director, Grant Comley of H-TEC, thanked the management of Crossways for their generous hospitality and use of the superb facilities which all participants thoroughly enjoyed despite the bad weather.
The next Enduro event to take place is the Liquorland H-TEC National Enduro Championship at Twisters Sports Ground this Saturday (April 14), where the top national enduro riders will be competing in the second National Enduro of the year.
For more information visit or contact Cheryl Gibson-Dicks on or 071-686-3440.