Sunday 17 November saw Diss MCC run the Muntjac Enduro, the final round of the 2024 ACU Eastern Enduro Championship. Sunday’s weather was perfect with the forest tracks drier than for many years. The event is always popular, with a full 200 entries again this year.
The first championship riders were away at 9:00am riding a short loop through the forest to the first special test of the day. With 28 championship riders, including top British as well as centre championship riders all eyes were on the timing screens to see who would lead the pack. As the dust settled it was Alex Snow, Alex Snow Off Road GasGas, who was the only rider under 4 minutes, by a mere 2/100 second. He was closely followed by Sam Hughes, 250 FIR KTM, 9/100 second back, with multiple world enduro champion Steve Holcombe in third, just a quarter of a second behind Hughes. Ben Cole, 450 GH Mcs Husqvarna made a strong start slotting in fourth, just half a second behind Holcombe followed by Charlie Chater, 250 Yamaha Off Road Experience Yam rounding out the top five, with less than 3 seconds separating the top five. Cole’s ACUE Championship rival, Luke Parker, 450 RWT/Matt Pope Kawasaki made a small but costly mistake and was ninth on the leaderboard, some 9 seconds down on Snow.
An hour later the championship riders were back to find a well run-in test and Holcombe topped the times with a 3 minute 46 time, some 14 seconds quicker than test one. However, Snow was not going to let Holcombe out of his sights and he clocked 3 minutes 49 to remain in contention. Parker showed his true speed clocking in third, four seconds behind Snow. Eastern Centre MX champion, Sam Nunn, 450 John Banks Honda, having walked the test multiple times before the start, showed great form slotting in fourth followed by Sam Hughes with six seconds covering the top five. Cole made a small mistake right near the end of this test slotting in seventh, but still almost 3 seconds ahead of Parker over the two tests.
Lap three saw the top three order repeated. Holcombe 1.4 seconds ahead of Snow with Parker 4 seconds behind Snow. Sam Hughes was three-quarters of a second behind Parker, with Cole a second and a half behind Hughes. Parker was now half a second behind Cole and the battle for the centre championship was intensifying.
For their fourth lap championship riders would face 2 back-to-back tests and the support crews were out in force to catch the action. This time Snow got the best run just a quarter of a second ahead of Holcombe. Parker maintained his form slotting in third, six seconds behind Holcombe with Sam Hughes a second back and Nunn two seconds behind Hughes. Cole again slotted in seventh. Parker was now five seconds ahead of Cole. The final test would be critical for both riders.
Test five saw Holcombe blitz the opposition, posting a 3-minute 44, over 11 seconds up on Sam Nunn, with Snow nearly 2.5 seconds behind. Former British MX star Jake Nicholls, 400 Honda showed his speed, 0.7 seconds behind Snow. Ben Clark, 300 Beta UK, was the best of the local championship runners in fifth, 1.5 seconds behind Nicholls.
After the five tests Holcombe was nearly 18 seconds ahead of Snow, and Sam Hughes was third, twenty seconds behind Snow with Nunn in fourth, 3 seconds down on Hughes.
So where were the Eastern Centre Championship contenders? On this final test, Cole slotted in seventh, but Parker again had an issue, stalling on the test, dropping him to ninth. Crucially this meant Cole was nearly 3 seconds ahead, Cole in fifth and Parker sixth overall.
The championship riders still had two laps of the course to complete, with a last-lap allowance of 33 minutes. The event was riding faster than clerk of the course, Andy Waters anticipated, and four riders clocked in 2 minutes early, Snow, Sam Hughes, Ben Clark and Sam Boyd with a further 10 riders a minute early. However, Holcombe had a brake issue and had to retire on his last lap meaning Alex Snow took the victory from Sam Hughes and Sam Nunn with Cole in fourth and Parker fifth.
Ben Cole, 450 GH Mcs Husqvarna had secured his first ACU Eastern Enduro Championship victory and with support crews gathered around, he celebrated with a beer!!! Multiple ACUE Enduro Champion Luke Parker slotted in second and third went to Ben Clark followed by rising stars, Jake Roper in fourth and Joe Phillips in fifth.
In the Expert class Luke Meredith, 300 DK/JSM Beta riding for Manchester 17 MCC dominated proceedings winning all 3 tests. David Rushton, 450 AR Motors Husqvarna was second overall, some 22 seconds behind Meredith with Roan Delaney, 250 Carbon Comps KTM a further three seconds back.
With a strong national field of experts Barnaby Knight, 450 UMR/Elson Honda, was the best of the East Anglian contingent, finishing in fifth with Jack Edwards 300 Edwards Husqvarna in fourteenth, followed by Expert Championship leader Joe Henthorn, 350 Huqvarna in fifteenth. Unofficially, this puts Henthorn as the ACUE Expert Champion, followed by Knight.
In the Expert Vets again the tests decided the overall results with James Jackman, 450 Motoward RFX Yamaha taking victory by just under 4 seconds from Andrew Lawton with Tim Warnes, 250 RWT/Matt Pope Kawasaki, finishing third and best East Anglian some six seconds back from Lawton. Phil Roper 350 ID Decals/Indigo Ross KTM finished fifth giving him the unofficial ACUE Expert Vets Championship win.
In the Clubman class, Kit Szabo 250 Carbon Coms KTM riding for Croydon MC was the overall winner and was fastest on both tests. He was followed by young East Anglian Stanly Delany 250 Blackwell GasGas with Alex Christopher, 450 SDG KTM in third. Despite not being old enough to ride the long course Santon and Muntjac forest events, unofficially, Ed Belton is the ACUE Clubman Champion with three wins at the previous championship rounds
In the Clubman Veteran class, Raymond Otoka 200 Bikeshed Beta, riding for Diss MCC, took the win by a second and a half from Spencer Newland 350 HMS KTM, with Scott Chaplin 350 JC CRT GasGas in third, securing the centre Clubman Vet Championship.
Finally, in the ever-popular Clubman Super Vets with an entry of 43 riders, John Hilton, 300 Fab Weld KTM again dominated the class winning by over 17 seconds and again winning the Centre Championship for the Super Vets. Darren Osborne, 249 Crescent/GYTR Yamaha, was second, some 17 seconds back, with Gareth Lodge, 250 KTM, in third.
Thanks to the ever-enthusiastic Diss MCC organising team led by Andy Waters, the Muntjac was again a very successful event and made a fitting end to the ACU Eastern Championship for 2024. As ever we need to thank GH Motorcycles and G+B Finch for supporting the event and GH Motorcycles/Husqvarna for sponsoring the centre championship. Also, thanks to iD Decals for providing the riding numbers for the Championship series. Finally, thanks to Forestry England for our continued use of the forest, and of course to everyone that helped and supported the event. I’m sure Gavin Hockey and the GH team will have been pleased to see Ben Cole, their GH man, win the centre championship this year. Congratulations must go to all the winners.
Last but not least, don’t forget Diss MCC’s Santon Enduro set for 23 February 2025. As ever this event is rideable in any condition and is likely to fill up fast – so don’t miss out. The 2025 season will soon be upon us.
Report by Richard Snowden – Feature Image by Michael Bennett
