The season-long battle between teenager Wade Young (Husaberg)and defending E2 champion Marc Torlage (Yamaha) for the 2013 SA Enduro Motorcycle title continued at the weekend's Pilgrims Rest Enduro in Mpumalanga, Round 4 of the series, with Young notching his second victory of the season in this brand new event.
Young didn't have it all his own way, however; in the end only 22 seconds separated the Husaberg rider from (who also won the E2/200cc Class) from a sick Torlage (second in E2) with Young winning the short 3km stages on all three occasions - despite crashing in this stage on the final lap - while they posted the same time after their first attempt at the longer 9km stage.
Competitors would have had to race the longer stage three times, but could only ride it twice after a bushfire broke out, forcing the organisers to reroute around it.
The win strengthened Young's lead in both the overall and E2 standings, with Torlage still second overall and in E2.
WET WORK
Behind them Altus de Wet (Husqvarna) took his third consecutive E1 (Open Class) win and rounding off the overall top three, only 40 seconds behind Torlage - and 40 seconds ahead of Scott Bouverie (KTM) who lost time and got drenched early in the race when he fell in the river during one of the various crossings. Torlage's team mate, Kenny Gilbert, took second in E1 (his third E1 runner-up finish of the season) and fifth overall, just eight seconds behind Bouverie, in a race characterised by testing climbs and long, steep descents in the mountains around the historical town of Pilgrim's Rest.
KwaZulu-Natal youngster Bronson Louw (Yamaha) posted his best result of the season with sixth overall (fourth in E2), a scant six seconds behind Gilbert, while Nicholas Pienaar (KTM) retained his lead in the E1 Class standings with a third in class and seventh overall.
Eight seconds further adrift was Timmy Young (Yamaha), after a late challenge for an E1 podium spot, in eighth overall. Only 44 seconds sparated Louw and the three riders behind him with Brett Swanepoel (KTM) ninth overall, five seconds behind Young.
At just 16, Travis Teasdale (Husaberg) was the youngest rider in the top 10. He was competing in E2 for the first time, after earning his chops in the Silver Class Challenge until his 16th birthday; he finished 10th overall and sixth in E2.
SENIOR CLASS
Defending Senior Class champion William 'Wild Bill' Gillit (Yamaha) had a clean run to a comfortable victory, 117 seconds ahead of Bruce May (Yamaha) who lost time when he drowned his bike early in the race. Matthew Barker (Yamaha) finished third for his first trip to the podium this season.
Husaberg rider Jody Engelbrecht had to settle for fourth place - the first time this season that he'd finished off the podium - but retained his third place behind Gillit and May in the points standings championship, while Stevan Prost (KTM) rounded out the top five.
MASTER CLASS
Because of the fire Master Class riders scored points from only one short stage, with no points awarded for the long stage. That resulted in Prost's brother Garth (KTM), in his first season in the Master Class, making history as he became only the second rider since 2010 to beat Yamaha stalwart Denzil Torlage, who'd ridden conservatively on the 3km stage with the expectation of making up time on the faster 9km stage.
Barries Barnard (KTM) made a welcome comeback from injury to finish third while a fourth place for regular competitor Carl Rohrbeck (KTM) lifted him to second behind Torlage in the Master Class points standings. Richard Cunniffe (Yamaha) was fifth and Marc Rugani (KTM) the last finisher in this class for riders older than 46 years.
THE REST OF THE SEASON
The fifth and penultimate round of the SA Enduro championship, the time-hallowed Castrol Winterberg Enduro, will be run on 14 September in the Hankey area of the Eastern Cape, with the final round, another new addition to the calendar, on 19 October at Matatiele in the foothills of the western Drakensberg, on the border on the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.
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