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Home / Enduro round 2 national championship produces fireworks
Enduro round 2 national championship produces fireworks
2018-05-17Staff Report 2 Staff Reporter Farm Lichtenstein – The second round of the Namibian Enduro season was recently held on farm Lichtenstein south of Windhoek. The event was again well attended with 81 racers making the starting line. With racing getting underway in bright sunshine, the clouds soon closed in and the competitors were treated to cool and rainy conditions by the start of the second lap of the 3-lap race. The conditions added to what was overall a very tight affair in most of the classes. The open class was once again won by Henner Rusch, starting behind eventual 2nd placed finisher Marcel Henle. Rusch quickly caught up with the younger Henle and started to stretch out a 3-minute lead by the end of lap 2. Rusch however again ran into rear brake troubles and this allowed Henle to close the gap on lap 3. It was nevertheless too little too late as Rusch managed to secure the win by a mere 15 seconds ahead of the youngster, leaving Gunther Gladis a distant 45 minutes adrift the leading pair to pick up the pieces for 3rd spot. The gap the leaders were able to pull over the rest of the field again shows the staggering pace of both Rusch and Henle. Heiko Stranghoehner and Sigi Pack finished in 4th and 5th respectively. The master class division was won by Werner Wiese, tailed by Joern Greiter finishing a mere 12 seconds behind in 2nd place with Ronald Geiger in 3rd whilst Martin Kruger and Frank Ahlreib rounded out the top 5. Veteran rider Ingo Waldschmidt had to retire in lap 1 after a heavy crash ended his hopes of victory. Wiese now leads the championship standings by 5 points ahead of Greiter. The Support Class was comparatively not as tight with Jaco Husselman beating Quiton van Rooyen by just over 2 minutes. The latter’s performance was impressive however, as this was only his 2nd race. Oliver Rohrmuller claimed 3rd place after a penalty, which cost him the win on the day with Kai Kessler and Jean Venter claiming 4th and 5th places respectively, while JL Opperman once again took top honours in the rookie class. The former quad rider again impressed with his speed as he beat Jakkie van Zyl by just over 3 minutes. Rounding out the podium was Rhys Cragg, with Chris Snyman and Axel Foerster in 4th and 5th spots respectively. Zoe Waldschmidt won the development class hands down, as the little girl beat all the boys to register her first win in local Enduro with Levin Quinger and Dylan Hilfiker completing the podium. Sadly, only the top 3 managed to finish the race on this occasion. Accolades in the Quad Class went to Shannan Rowland, with Gary Rowland and Darren Barnard tailing in 2nd and 3rd places respectively. The next race will be held on the 16th of next month at the old tin mine just outside Uis, a hugely popular event on the calendar that will once again feature a Dune Climbing competition after the main race. All forms of bikes and quads are invited to this fun event. For more info, full results and championship standing please visit www.namibianenduro.com or Facebook. 2018-05-17Staff Report 2
