Billy on tip top form at Tong! 2022 British Extreme Enduro Championship Round 1 – Race Report, Results & Highlights

Fast Eddy Racing returned to Parkwood Offroad Centre, one of the most famous UK extreme enduro venues last weekend, returning to the tradition of hosting the opening round of the British Extreme Enduro Championship at Tong.

Report by Tilde Tighe – Images courtesy of Neil Sturgeon – Highlights Video by Enduro DKA

Now in its 11^th year, Tong is one of the few places that attracts huge turnouts of spectators year on year, as proven this weekend. The fire roads were busy all day with spectators eager to get in on the action that was happening all around the course, and with 180 riders entered across both races, it was a guaranteed exciting day of enduro!

With the usual AM and PM race structure, there was 4.5 hours of true extreme enduro action for those lucky enough to watch on! Tong is known for its famous sections such as the waterfall, ditch jump and rock garden, and the team, led by Tom Sagar, didn’t disappoint this year with the track design. Extreme tracks are notoriously hard to create, as there is a fine line between it being too hard, causing bottlenecks and traffic jams, and being too easy for it to be considered ‘extreme’. However, the Fast Eddy team struck the perfect balance to lay out a track that provided a range of difficult sections along with short flowing sections through the woods to allow riders some easier going during the long lap.

It’s a fact that Tong and Billy Bolt are a formidable combination to say the least. Not only did he win the final round of 2021 and the opening round in 2020, he had been on the podium for the three years prior too!

The start was different for both races, with AM and PM riders heading off the start different ways.

To say the Youth riders hit the course hard is an understatement. As always, they provided a huge amount of determined riders who were putting in very competitive times!

Off the back of a successful season last year, Ashton Brightmore was looking to keep up his streak. However, it was Henry Life who beat him to the finish line to take first place and the overall race win with a 2 minute 30 second lead. Toby Shaw was a further minute behind, filling the last podium spot in the Youth class and also finishing an impressive fourth overall.

The Over 50’s also put in an excellent performance, with winner Gary McCoy placing third overall, proving to the youth riders that experience pays! Second place went to Darren Heyes, 12 minutes behind McCoy, followed by Neil Dawson in third. The Vets B class performed extremely well given the tough track, with class winner Ricky Tropman also achieving sixth overall amongst the ruthless Youth riders. Second place went to Grant Gillender who also rode excellently, followed by Darren Skillen just under 3 minutes behind him.

With over 60 Sportsman riders it was anyone’s guess who would win but Joseph Howsam eventually took charge. He had a great ride, placing in the top 15 overall and taking the class win over Frank Skillin and Matty Napper in second and third, but it had been a real battle as the Sportsman entry was huge.

With track alterations made for the PM race, notably the start direction, and the track worn in from the morning riders, it was set up to be an exciting afternoon. As usual, most of the easy routes from the AM race were taken out completely, leaving riders no option but to face the challenging lines and obstacles head on, much to the spectators’ delight.

The PM race began at with a highly charged surge of riders battling their way into the tight start corner then making their way into the rest of the course to start their 2.5 hour race. With crowds at every point of interest- the waterfall, the rock garden, the numerous hillclimbs- there was no room for error from the race and class leaders.

Heading down the waterfall rather than up this year, everyone made their way down slowly, narrowly avoiding dropping off the wrong ledge and going back end over front. As for the hillclimbs, choosing the right line was key to getting up in one go, and many people were forced to retry several times.

It wouldn’t be an extreme race without at least one flying bike, so it was no shock to see a bike at the bottom of a hill and its rider at the top, reluctantly heading back down to give it another go.

Billy Bolt stormed his way to victory, leading from lap one and continuously building his lead on Jack Price and the rest of the Championship class. In the end, Billy and the top nine riders completed 7 laps, with everyone else behind on 6 or less. There’s no doubt that having a trials background helps at extreme enduro events and Billy Bolt is the perfect example of that. So, it was no surprise when Jack Price took second place after an excellent ride.

It’s clear that Billy has his eye on the overall 2022 ACU British Extreme Enduro Championship win, and this is certainly a great start. No doubt he is looking at repeating his success at Cowm in six weeks’ time.

A significant group of Expert riders followed the Championship class home. Lee Sampson put on a terrific show to take sixth overall and top spot in the Expert class, 10 minutes ahead of his nearest competitor in his class. He was up against some fierce competition but still managed to get well inside the top ten with second in class Richard Moorhouse finishing 9th overall. Ashton Brightmore was a lap down in third.

In 27th spot overall was Rhys Davies, top Clubman rider on the day with four laps under his belt. Jed Balmer made second spot behind Davies, as Charlie Goddard took third in class. There were only two Elite Vets, Lee Hattersley and Gavin Johnson, who took first and second in class respectively and both put in great rides.

A massive well-done to Fast Eddy and his dedicated team as always, who spent the week at Tong preparing an excellent track which made for a great day of extreme enduro racing! It’s all guns blazing for the start of the season as we make the most of being back to racing, with the next round of the British Extreme Championship at Cowm on the 27th March, as well as the first rounds of the British Sprint Enduro Championship coming up too! Head over to the Fast Eddy Racing Facebook group for more information about both and to keep up to date with new announcements.

Results

PM Race –  Overall

PM Results by Class

Championship

Expert

Clubman

Elite Vets

AM Race – Overall

AM Results by Class

Youth

Over 50’s

Vets B

Sportsman