The Bulk Nutrients Wildwood Rock Extreme enduro lived up to all expectations of the off-road motorcycle riders and spectators in November of 2014.
With the return of the Factory Husquvarna rider Graham Jarvis who holds his place at the top of the World‰Ûªs Extreme enduro‰Ûªs it was clear he was ready to hold his own to win the Wildwood Race and give him his 3rd win with his 3rd visit to Australia.
With the event prologue underway first fellow English-men Ben Hemingway of the Factory Beta Team took the honours of fastest rider by 0.288 of a second moving into the main 3 hour extreme.
The top 5 riders that then moved to the front line from the prologue time where Ben Hemingway, Graham Jarvis +0.288sec, Robert Nowak +5.646sec, Daniel Sanders +8.735sec and Chris Perry +8.999seconds off ben.
73 riders lined up for the 3 hour extreme enduro with 50 able to finish on was the hottest tracks raced on in Wildwood from the past 4 years before. The track had seen many new additions added for 2014, with a new rock stair case up hill, more logs, more rocks, 32ft Bedford Bus and keeping the riders even deeper in the Beta rock Garden the fastest lap from Graham Jarvis would only be 22 minutes and 3 seconds on the 12 km course.
Ben Hemingway yet again showed everyone he was going to push hard finishing in second place, but the Young gun Australian rider Daniel ‰Û÷chucky‰Ûª Sanders managed to hold 3rd place for the overall length of the 3 hours. With lap times as close as 2 minutes from Jarvis it is clear that Sanders will return with the number 3 plate even stronger after a year being a part of the Australian KTM off-road team for 2015.
Held as part of last year‰Ûªs 2 day event line up on the Saturday the extreme hill climb opened the eyes of all in an unseen format of hill climb made up of Enduro and Trials bikes.
With a race from the bottom to the top and no clean straight lines to take the fastest time went to Graham Jarvis with his last run of the day being 29 seconds. Ben Heming way and Australian Rider Chris Perry coming in with the next best times of 30 seconds each.
With the Golden Tyre Enduro bikes finished we then seen the Kenny Racing Trials bikes hit the hill. The trials riders also had some rules in which would mean that mistakes should be avoided at all costs. They would see 10 seconds added to their overall time to the top for each time a foot would hit the ground or if a marker was touched when passing them.
As well if the handle bar end hit the ground there go is over and return to the start line. So with rules laid down and a sprint lap on the extreme prologue track in would get spectators seeing the race from a different angle. The Pro Class was won by Adrian Harry with the overall time of 1 minute 57 Seconds. This event has since opened the eyes of the trials world and and is set for a bigger line up of riders for 2015.
The Wild Wood Rock Extreme Enduro is set to return in 2015 with organisers in the process of finding a naming rights sponsor for Australia's biggest Extreme Enduro event.
A New for 2015 Extreme Event with more details to be out-lined soon and will include:
- Pro, Expert, Expert over 35, Clubman, Clubman over 35, Open Trials and the Women‰Ûªs Classes
- Best aqua plane prizes for the newly named Kenny Racing Dam.
- A third line added to the Beta Rock Garden that puts the $10,000 outright prize on the line. A rider can take the 2014 Rooster line but will lose $500 off the outright prize for each lap they do not take the new third line. So will it be all the cash and glory or glory and a few dollars off the 3 hour prize that is un-seen in enduro around the World.
- New sponsor joining some of the already strong supporters of the event.
Image Credit: Gavin Leys
