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After four gruelling days of rain, mud and cold the three Kiwis came up with a gold medal apiece,and won the Club Team Award in the Australian 4-day Enduro at Welshpool, Victoria Australia.
With 280 kms per day and 189 entries the competeion included Australia\'s own World 125cc Enduro champion, Shane Watts, riding a 125cc KTM. Shane, not unexpectedly, won the event overall from 18 year old fellow countryman Ben Grabham on a Husqvarna 125c.
Sean Clarke from Cambridge, riding a Castrol Honda XR400, finished 3rd in the 400cc 4-stroke class and, remarkably, finished just 2 seconds ahead of Manawatu\'s Steven Bird (Mitas Tyres Suzuki RMX250), which is about the same time gap seperating them one way or another in New Zealand enduros. Bird was placed 6th in the 250cc two-stroke class.
The third member of the New Zealand team was Grenville Button from Christchurch who rode a TM300, a bike unfamiliar to him as he rented it in Australia. Despite this Grenville still finished 11th in the 250cc 2-stroke class & won a gold medal also.
The whole team effort was incredible as the 3 riders had very little time to prepare their Australian supplied bikes and, with only 2 support crew to help and man all the time checks, everybody worked like an octopus with eight arms!
Day 3 of the event was the coldest day in Welshpool for 20 years. With a late sunrise and an early sunset, the weather on the day meant that the organisers had to shorten the days riding due to many riders suffering near hypothermic cold conditions.
A political Trans Tasman wrangle rose again - despite New Zealand having competed in this event for more than 20 years, the governing body Motorcycling Australia (MA) has tried not to recognise the presence & efforts of kiwi riders at this major event, possibly to avoid too many trophies crossing the Tasman!
However, at long last, MA is going to discuss (amongst themselves) whether New Zealand can enter a more prestigious six man Trophy Team\" and be able to compete on the same terms as the Australians. Trans Tasman sports teams from many codes may have heard this one before...
More information from Tim Gibbes, 06 353 0750.
