Walton Sprints to the title! 2022 British Sprint Enduro Championship Rounds 9 & 10 – Race Report, Highlights & Results

With a revised new look ahead of the 2023 season, the 2022 ACU British Sprint Enduro Championship finished in style at Greenhall Farm, Llanfyllin.

Race Report by Josh Snowden – Images and Highlights edit by FourZeroMedia

The track build team, headed up by multi-time British Enduro Champion Tom Sagar, put on two fantastic traditional enduro tests, one for each day respectively which were circa 8 minutes in length for the top championship riders. Wales never fails as the saying goes and a mixture of sunshine & rain kept the riders on their toes!

Saturday saw Fast Eddy Racing’s Jamie McCanney bolt out the gate early winning 7 out of the 8 tests to pull a 57 second margin over current points leader MRS/ET James Serco’s Alex Walton who finished just 15 seconds ahead of Gas Gas UK’s Alex Snow. Harry Edmondson on the little 125 Jet Racing Fantic finished fourth a further 47 seconds back and ex trials rider Ricky Wiggins finished in fifth on his new Gas Gas machine.

The Expert class hosted a tight battle between overall winner Mitchell Brightmore aboard his Reiju UK machine and JSM Gas Gas rider Tom Minta who finished just 14 seconds apart over 7 special test runs. Beta UK’s Jack Spencer finished third, Ben Clark fourth and Ross Danby in fifth. For those of you more au fait with trials competition, this years’ Expert class has seen nearly 1/3 of the entries made up by some of the country’s most talented trials riders! Great to see!

Blitzing half the Expert field, clear Clubman winners Joe Chambers and young PAR Homes – Hughes Academy rider Sion Evans finished an incredible 0.303 seconds apart. RAW Academy’s Callum Hughes aboard his Beta finished third, PAR Homes – Hughes Academy rider Rhydian Rees fourth and Ashley Jones fifth.

Newcomer Chris Bryant was a clear Vets class winner with a margin of over 1 minute 20 to Paul Herbert in second place, Jamie Powell, Duncan Morris and Robert Cooke rounded out the top five. With the title already sown up by Adam “Biff” Smith, second place standing rider Gareth Lodge finished round 9 in seventh place.

The Ladies class saw undefeated Leonni Tighe take her ninth victory of the season with Megan Wilson finishing in second, with 39 championship points adrift, this gave Leonni her second ACU British Sprint Enduro Championship title! Whilst this side of the world ahead of the ISDE next week, Australia’s Ebony Nielsen finished the day in a very respectable third place after running into bike problems mid-day.

Like a fine wine, the over 50’s class does seem to better with age, and these boys still shift! Current points leaders Arron Crowder and fan favourite Andrew Reeves battled it out, but it would be Arron Crowder who would win the day and take home the 2022 Championship Title with him. David Orrit, Julian Cook and Patrick Delaney rounded out the top five.

On to the little rippers, Fast Eddy Racing Fantic’s Jack Sandland took the honours ahead of Carbon Comps supported Roan Delaney. Unfortunately for Jack, it wasn’t quite enough for the championship and Roan Delaney was able to celebrate being the 2022 Youth Champion on Saturday night. Charlie Crossland finished closely in third with Toby Shaw and Endaf Hughes closing the top five.

Whilst the sportsman class isn’t quite hitting the test times of the country’s fastest racers, this hotly contested group saw current points leader Kai Tinker take round 9 victory ahead of Jake Trawford and Kit Szabo. Billy Austin, who sits second in the championship, finished fourth with Matthew Smith closely following in fifth.

Following heavy overnight showers, Sunday’s fresh special test of fast-flowing grass fields and woodland trails kept riders on their toes. Whilst the new test for round 10 was slightly less technical than the previous day; there was still an abundance of trickier sections that would ultimately cost riders time throughout the day.

With the ISDE around the corner, Fast Eddy Racing’s Jamie McCanney opted not to ride on Sunday having had a successful shakedown for his ISDE bike. Keeping consistent and with the fastest time of the day, Gas Gas mounted Alex Snow was victorious by 28 seconds over Fantic Jet’s Harry Edmondson. Points leader MRS/ET James Sherco’s Alex Walton had a costly mistake on his third test of the day which meant he would finish the day in third, 12 seconds down on Harry Edmondson. Thankfully for Alex, this was still enough to secure his first-ever ACU British Sprint Enduro Championship overall title! Alex, Harry and many others had no time to rest and were on a 04:00AM flight Monday morning to the ISDE.

The Expert class saw Reiju UK’s Mitchell Brightmore take a very convincing win where he finished fifth in the overall standings, 47 seconds up on Beta UK’s Jack Spencer. Sam Hughes aboard his little KTM 125 excelled on the grass-based special test and took home third overall just 2 seconds down on Jack. Trials ace Gas Gas UK’s Tom Minta finished a close fourth a further two seconds back and Ross Danby fifth.

Again in the Clubman class, Joe Chambers and Par Homes – Hughes Youth Academy’s Sion Evans put in a considerable margin to the rest of the Clubman field with Par Homes – Hughes Youth Academy’s Rhydian Reece in third. Thomas White and Jacob James closed up the top 5 in the overall standings.

Chris Bryant in the Vets category picked up where he left off and had a staggering 11 minute 30 lead over second place Graham Maunder with Lee Szabo just 17 seconds back in third.

Leonni Tighe, not content with winning all previous 9 rounds, ensured she had a clean sweep of 10/10 victories for the 2022 season. Australian Ebony Nielsen on a borrowed bike courtesy of Alex Snow had a better ride to finish second ahead of her ISDE campaign and Megan Wilson remained consistent all day to finish third.

Stepping down from his JSM managerial roll, John Shirt took a blistering victory in the over 50s for Sunday. Keeping each other in check again all day, Arron Crowder and Andrew Reeves each took special test wins throughout the 7 stages but it would be Arron Crowder that would again be victorious within the pair in Second 28 seconds up on Reevesy in third. Karl Greenhall took a strong fourth place with Julian Cook following on behind.

2022 BSEC Youth Champion Carbon Comp’s Roan Delaney put in a solid ride to finish the year with a convincing victory which would have been 13th in the Expert class. Day 1 winner Jack Sandland finished in second place, 1 minute 45 back with Charlie Crossland a further 45 seconds back in third. Endaf Hughes and Toby Shaw were fourth and fifth, respectively. The top five youth riders all finished within the top 50% of the overall timings for the event, surely a sign of great things from this next generation of rippers!

Back in the fierce Sportsman class, Kai Tinker would again be victorious with Jake Trawford second, Oliver Cooke third, Jacob Potts fourth and Matthew Smith in fifth. Hopefully we see these riders continue to progress up the ranks into next season. Great racing boys!