Sun Shone on the Powys Enduro – and brought a smile to the faces of four of the fair sex!
With a change of route and better weather than has been the norm for the past few years, the 2006 Powys Enduro was a brilliant start for the ACU British Sidecar Enduro Championship. Only Graham Jones and Simon Brown out of the experts failed to finish the day after a crash on the first test caused Graham a cracked rib. Three of the clubmen class had problems, but the women drivers Anne Giles and Karen Clarke (both passengered by their husbands) finished in 4th and 5th place. Also a husband and wife team, Alistair and Sharon Neville, will be pleased with their third place in the clubmen class, especially as they rode some distance to the finish with only second gear. The other woman passenger Liz Millett and her driver Richard Chandler struggled a bit in the expert class, finishing in 8th place.
The Barnett brothers, Steve and Ian, were on top form and romped home with time to spare at every check, and special test times ahead of runner-ups A Seward and S Rogers (is that Alan and Simon – can’t remember!) Jeff and Roger James put in a good second test to gain third, ahead of the Rowlands twins Neil and Marc, who have just moved up to the expert class this season.
Organised by MWTRA, the Powys is the only long distance one day single lap event in the enduro calendar, with the competitors covering about 110 miles with a time allowance around 6 ˝ hours. The start is at Carno, near Newtown, and the course included a new test this year which the riders tackled after only a couple of miles of tarmac going to warm themselves up. Then they went across country to the Dyfi Forest which always has a few testing hills both up and down (at least for the clubmen!) After that there was a stretch along the main road before branching off again across country towards the second special test, held on a hillside near Talerddig.
It was a long day, and the exhaustion was clear to see in some of the competitors on the last test. The finish was immediately afterwards, and many gathered along the road edge to watch the riders still to come. Especially as there is an entertaining little section near the road where they can choose to “jump” or “bump”. Nearly all the sidecars err on the side of caution and choose the longer “bump” route which involves crossing a ditch, but one brave crew jumped in fine style but then couldn’t stop to make the turn, so caution won the day!
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