Event Reports

Masham hare and hounds 18th April 2010

 The wife persuaded me to take the trip up to Masham

as she used to stay there with friends when she was younger, and as there was a motorcycle jumble fair on at Harrogate on the Saturday, we decided to make a weekend of it, i found a campsite online and pre-booked into the station caravan site (who were happy to accept sprinter vans) in masham for the Saturday night. 

We had a fair bit to do on Saturday morning and did not leave till 11.00 am, I also had a load of paper towel to drop off at a customer in Bradford, so it was not until 2pm when we got to the motorcycle jumble in Harrogate. unfortunately it had finished early due to it being successful and so popular, a great start to the weekend!!. As we had nothing else planned we drove on up via Ripon and called into Eurotek KTM, who unfortunately for us closed early on Saturdays, So after driving around Yorkshire aimlessly for the day we decided to drive on up to Masham, on the way the wife was telling me tales of how wonderful the area is and the great time she had there. We arrived at the station camp site and too my wife’s surprise it was the old farm where she had stayed as a girl. Although small the campsite was clean with good facilities, plenty of room for the kids to run around, a café/restaurant and free showers, we booked in and chatted to the friendly owner, who’s son just happened to be one of the organisers of the event, it also turned out that the friend Glynis stayed with still lived in the area. So after another drive around Yorkshire we found the friend and his family, and they made us very welcome, finally something good in the day.

 We decided to go and look where the course was as it was a gloriously sunny day and only about 4pm. The course was a 10 min drive from the campsite and was set in a large wood, to get to the paddock you had to drive all around to the back of the wood. The club had set a one way system to the paddock which was all on one fire road, you arrived at the top end and drove out the bottom end!! Excellent. The course looked absolutely fantastic as it was virtually all in the wood, most of it looked single file through the trees, technical in places, although there was small tree stumps all over the course, just the right size to catch a boot on, the course was also littered with lots of small gangly roots. You could clearly see where the course had previously been run.We headed back to the campsite via the village and found a nice pub, where several pints were consumed for hydration purposes.

  We woke early on Sunday morning and treated ourselves to cooked breakfast in the campsites café, very nice, but at £6.95 a little pricey. The kids being used to premier inn could not understand why they could not have copious amounts of whatever they wanted, as well as filling mummy’s bag full with breakfast muffins!, even so they enjoyed there bacon butty’s. The Old Station campsite ,highly recommended. It was a glorious morning and everyone seemed in good spirits at the course, the only other Man 17 member there was Craig Renolds, who was eyeing up the championship entrants, most notably Wayne Braybrook!Signing on and scrutineering was all good, I even had a go on a raffle for the air ambulance to win a rear tyre, I set up my pit and we then just relaxed waiting for the start.

 This is the second NEEC hare and hounds I have done (Tong Hall) and I must comment on their starts, you are set off in blocks in number order and it is a dead engine start with no warm up, I really do not like this. Starting a enduro with a cold engine is ok as you get time to warm your engine at a slow pace in the first minute of riding, this is not so at a hare and hounds, when the starter says go you’re off, at 100% of your ability, not good for a engine surely? Marshals were also struggling getting riders to kill the engines.

 The start was a bit of earth fire road 100 meters long then into the trees single file, I got a decent start and was about 10^th into the trees, I could see the rider in front was riding above his ability and I was struggling to find a spot past him, I tried to pass on a couple of corners, but just could not find the room. I spotted a line around the outside of him and went for it, unfortunately there was a tree stump that was hidden by leaves that I hit square on, this promptly jettisoned me off the bike in front off the rider behind me, who had nowhere to go other than over me, I thought he just ran into my back and fell off, knocking other riders off in the process, only later was I told that the bike actually went over me and the bit that hit my back was the back wheel. Unfortunately this was right in front of the wife and kids and my little girl was really upset at what she had seen, Glynis was also shocked as she thought “my neck had been hurt as the front wheel went right over it”. I would just like to say sorry to them for putting them through that.

 I had only lost a few places as I had caused a bit of a pile up, I did a quick check that all my limbs worked and I promptly got back on the bike and chased after the faster clubmen, I quickly caught the slower rider and passed him safely this time, the course was as first thought, fantastic, ideal for a warm sunny day, nice and cool in the single track wood, some small logs, a few open sections to open up the bike, and a couple of nice big hills, the hills did have longer easy routes around them, we were told at the riders briefing that no help would be given on the hills unless it was a safety issue, you ride the hills at your own choice, you will save time by taking the hill and being given help could possibly be a unfair advantage as well as tie up marshals time, “excellent, true enduro”!!. The only problem was the small tree stumps and the gangly roots that would catch you out when not paying attention and spit the bike off into a different direction to the one wanted, these did help to keep the speeds down though, as if you pushed too hard, you would get caught out by them. Expert lap times were about 16-17 minutes, Clubman lap times were about 18-22 minutes, Wayne Braybrook floated past me on my third lap, deceptively, he did not look fast, just very, very smooth, I am sure he was riding some tarmac path that I could not see.

 As the race developed the course just got better and better as the soil loamed out, as the field thinned out overtaking was not a issue and only in certain sections did you need to wait to pass another rider, my pace picked up and by the hour mark I had worked my way to about 5th or 6^th in clubman, I was however getting a pain in my lower back where the bike had hit me, especially in rough sections and several times I thought about taking a breather in the pits and pinching a couple of the wife’s super strength pain killers, but unfortunately my bike lost all power just before my scheduled fuel stop and I had to retire from the race.

 I packed away and watched the rest of the race, we walked to one of the big hills, strange how the hill looked bigger on foot, watched Craig scream up the hill on the little 125, although he did comment later about the crap line I was showing him, confused, I said “I wasn’t showing him a line just motioning to him to get a move on!!!!!!!!!!Craig did well and finished in 6^th place (championship class).

 Thanks to North Riding enduro club for putting on a excellent event, at a cracking venue, this is a venue I will look forward to returning back too, but please, please, please change that start procedure. To cap my weekend off we called in at my local pub on the way home, (for a few painkillers) only to be told my favourite “budwieser draft” had ran out. AAAARRRRRRRHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

 Not the best of weekends for me, however the wife and kids had said what a great weekend they had had. I suppose that makes for a nice change for them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Rob Mcleod