By Donna Collins
THE two-day Red Bull Braveman Enduro race held in Windhoek last week, raised the bar for motorsport to a whole new level. Top Moto-X riders from South Africa and Namibia head butted in a battle for a N$30 000 cash win, which saw 22 entries start out, and only six bikes make it to the end.
The super fit 18-year-old SA Enduro-X talent Wade Young, landed the first place after putting on an exceptional performance over the two days, proving just why this young lad has become an international sporting success and super hero after taming the tortuous ‘Roof of Africa’ in Lesotho.
The Namibian Motorsport Federation (NMSF) sanctioned event kicked off with a prologue obstacle course laid out by the Namibia Enduro Club, at Doc Jubber Stadium on the Friday.
The course took guys to task, as they manoeuvred their machines over logs, tyres, mud, steep ramps, rocks and jumps. Technical riding ability, physical fitness and precise handling of their bikes were the key ingredients to a spectacular show of extreme riding which offered the spectators a fantastic Motor-X experience.
Sorting the men from the boys in the qualifying round, winner Wade Young stepped onto the podium that night, followed by Alfie Cox, South African Motorsport legend and Henner Rusch, Namibian favourite secured the third place for the starting order of the main race the next day.
But the real test was held on the Saturday, with an 11 kilometre track comprising of five laps of extreme off-road conditions. Fatigue from previous day’s challenge together with technical problems took its toll on the riders, who once they had vanished into the mountains were at the mercy of the elements.
One by one they fell by the way side, with most of the riders retiring after the first lap with ten riders tackling lap two, but only six riders managing to complete the full five laps.
Finishing in a record time of 2:50:53 was Wade Young, who is also currently leading the national SA Enduro champs, and adding to his list of achievements he scooped the first ever Red Bull Strongman Enduro event held in Namibia. He performed almost the impossible and finished nearly three hours ahead of the last rider in.
Second place went to SA crack rider Riaan van Niekerk who scored an excellent time of 3.17.07. Third spot and the first Namibian home, was Jorn Greiter – a ‘dark horse’ in the competition who belted through to the finish post in a time of 4:11:40. Namibian lad Henner Rusch took fourth place, with Pascal Henle in fifth and Chris Morris completing the sixth entry past the finish line.
Both races were commentated by Darryl Curtis, another South African Enduro favourite, who was super impressed by the concept and execution of the RedBull Strongman Enduro event. “I am sure this event will attract more international riders next year, because Namibia offers remarkable terrain for Enduro.”
Interpack’s CEO Jacques Coetzer stated: “This event holds a lot of potential to become more popular every year and we are proud to host it in Namibia. We want to bring this sport closer to Namibian spectators for pure entertainment and the love of the sport.”