2018-07-23Staff Report 2 Staff Reporter Farm Abbabis – The 4th round of the National Enduro Championship series was staged at at Farm Abbabis near Karirib recently with cool and slightly overcast weather greeting riders in what turned out to be the toughest race so far this term. The fairly long track was littered with rocks and hidden dangers testing all of the 46 entrants to the limit. The Open Class saw Henner Rusch crusing unchallenged to record his 2nd vicotry of the season in the absnece of early pac-setter Marcel Henle, who did not compete due to a torn ACL suffered at a race in South Africa earlier this month. The latter is is likely to miss the rest of the season. Gunther Gladis ended in 2nd spot after a well measured and consistent ride, strengthening his grip on the overall 3rd place in the championship. Nickle Visser put up an outstanding performance on his way to 3rd place in the race and by so doing, earned his first podium finish in the Open Class. A visibly exhausted Visser dragged himself and his bike up the final hill after close to four hours of hard and technical riding. Wrapping up the top 5 were Rainer Sentefol and Kai Hennes in 4th and 5th places respectively. The Master Bike Class was won by Swakopmund rider Martin Kruger and worth noting is that Kruger usually excels in faster type tracks and has not really enjoyed the rocky terrain in Karibib. He defetaed championship leader Werner Wiese by just over 5 minutes while Wayne Schablinski put in a heroic effort to finish in 3rd spot. Local rider Jurgen Gladis won the Support Bike Class as his vast knowledge of the terrain helped him to a winning margin of 3 minutes over 2nd placed Oliver Rohrmuller. Riaan Kritzinger claimed 3rd place to register his second podium in a row – just one minute behind Rohrmuller – leaving Jaco Husselmann and Quinton van Rooyen to pick up the pieces for 4th and 5th palces respectively. The Rookie Bike Class was once again won by JL Opperman, who completely dominated the rest of the field to finish over 14 minutes ahead of 2nd placed Paul Oosthuizen with Andre Marais a minute adrift in 3rd place while Cornel van den Berg and Adam Johnston rounded out the top 5 in that order. The Development Class was once again won by Dylan Hilfiker with Keanan Simpson and Andre Barnard tailing in 2nd and 3rd places respectively. The next Enduro Race takes place at Otjihase race track on the outskirts of Windhoek on the 18th of next month. For more info please visit our facebook page or go to www.namibianenduro.com. 2018-07-23Staff Report 2
