Altus de Wet (Husqvarna) became the third winner in this year's SA Enduro Motorcycle championship when he won a wet, slippery and cold Kei Enduro, Round 3 of the series, on Saturday 11 May at the Spring Valley Farms outside East London in the Eastern Cape.
De Wet (28) won all three of the longer special timed stages during a well organised event where only a handful of points (seconds) separated the competitors.
It was De Wet's second consecutive E1 (Open Class) victory and the first overall win for Husqvarna in South Africa, as he came in ahead of Yamaha rider Kenny Gilbert, who had a solid race to claim second in E1 as well after completing a race where the route turned into quite a slippery affair due to overnight rain in the area.
The overall podium was rounded off by Wade Young (Husaberg) who won E2 (200cc Class) after almost running out of fuel and receiving penalty points. He won two of the short 2.5km motocross-type special timed stages in front of an appreciative crowd.
SLIPPERY BUT ENJOYABLE ROUTE
Penalty points pushed Marc Torlage (Yamaha) off the overall podium to ninth place overall (fourth in E2) after he also survived the slippery but enjoyable route. Two more riders, Yamaha team mates Timmy Young and Michael Pentecost, also had to settle for positions out of the overall top 10 after receiving penalties and were eventually placed 16th and 20th on the overall standings. Young was ninth in E1 while Pentecost finished eighth in E2.
KTM rider Scott Bouverie finished second in E2 and fourth overall, 65 points (seconds) ahead of Louwrens Mahoney who rounded off the E1 podium. Mahoney, who also claimed a special stage win, lost time during the final regularity section when his rear tyre came off the rim.
He would not have finished at all if fellow competitor Reinhardt van der Merwe had not given him the wheel off his own similar bike in the field and enabled Mahoney to finish the stage. Torn ligaments in his thumb hindered Nicholas Pienaar (KTM) but he managed to come home sixth (fourth in E1), just ahead of James Hodson (Yamaha) who posted his best result so far this season and rounded off the E2 podium.
TOUGHING IT OUT IN THE SENIOR CLASS
Privateer Dwayne Kleynhans (KTM) finished eighth (fifth in E1), Torlage had to settle for ninth with youngster Brett Swanepoel (KTM) claiming his third top 10 result this season with a 10th place overall (fifth in E2).
Dakar hero Riaan van Niekerk (KTM) returned for the first time this season to the SA Enduro series but had some bad luck, losing time due to a problematic throttle, and had to settle for 17th, while Blake Gutzeit (Sherco) injured his knee again and had to call it a day.
Mahoney's saviour was the only Senior Class rider who did not complete the race with the competition at the front as tough as ever - the same three competitors finished on the podium for the third consecutive race with defending champion, William 'Wild Bill' Gillit (Yamaha) claiming his second victory of the season.
MASTER CLASS
He had to fight off a determined Bruce May (Yamaha) who was faster after three of the five special timed stages (they posted the same time for one of the stages), until two crashes cost May some valuable time.
The consistent Jody Engelbrecht (Husaberg) rounded off the Senior Class podium, finishing only 79 points ahead of Matthew Barker (Yamaha) while local East London rider, Steven Landman (Yamaha) rounded off the top five.
The Master Class competitors would have liked another go at more special timed stages as their race consisted of two of the shorter motocross-type stages and one long stage.
Graydon Ilderton (KTM) posted the fastest times on both the short track stages with defending champion, Denzil Torlage (Yamaha) winning the longer stage comfortably to claimed his second class victory of the season.
Ilderton finished a respectable second with regular Iron Man competitor Richard Cunniffe (Yamaha) third in his first-ever national enduro.
The fourth round of the National Enduro Motorcycle championship will be run on 27 July in the Pilgrim's Rest area of Mpumalanga.