Sherco’s David Knight has been crowned the 2014 British Extreme Enduro Championship by claiming victory at Eddy’s Extreme in Cowm Leisure. The win marks Knight’s 16th British title.
Report & Images: Josh Snowden / True North Design
Cowm Leisure in Rochdale, UK was the venue for one of the grittiest and hardest extreme enduro that the UK has ever seen. The course, based in an old sandstone quarry, gave riders no chance to catch their breaths and relentlessly challenged competitors with big rocks, big hills and a blast of some cold wintery weather.
At the head of the field the race was controlled by the duo of David Knight and Jonny Walker (KTM) who continuously switched positions throughout the two and a half hour long race.
Early on Knight had a huge high-speed crash on the fastest part of the course, whilst leading, that left Knighter winded and gasping for air. David’s crash gave Walker some breathing room but after Knight stopped for fresh gloves and goggles, he put the hammer down and closed Walker back in.
The two were close for the last hour – Walker out front – but the Manxman managed to get past just before disaster struck for the KTM rider, who ran out of fuel in the closing stages of the race. With Walker dropping out of contention, Knight rode on to secure the race win and with it the championship honours.
Luckily with both riders over one lap clear of the rest of the field Walker was still able to push his bike back to the pits to refuel and maintain his second position over Paul Bolton (KTM) in third.
“It’s very disappointing to run out of fuel when our racing has been so close today” explained Walker.
“We tested here at Cowm Leisure a few weeks ago and the bike ran flawlessly for the race duration on one tank of fuel – I guess we didn’t account for losing fuel when crashing.”
The top five was rounded out with Ben Hemingway in fourth and German Marcus Kehr in fifth.
The final round of the British Extreme Enduro Championship also marked the start of an exciting new four round European Extreme Enduro Championship – the FIM Extreme Enduro Cup.
Results – Eddy’s Xtreme, Rnd2
1: David Knight (Sherco) 2: Jonny Walker (KTM) 3: Paul Bolton (KTM) 4: Ben Hemingway (Beta) 5: Marcus Kehr (Sherco) 6: Gary Daniels (Sherco)
2014 FIM Extreme Enduro Cup calendar:
Round 1: March 2 – Eddy’s Xtreme, Back Cowm Quarry Witworth, Lancashire, Great Britain
Round 2: June 20-22 – HEPN Hard Enduro Pietra Neamt, Pietra Neamt, Romania, FRM
Round 3: July 25-26 – Battle of Vikings, Storstenhöjden, Sweden
Round 4: October 25 – GetzenRodeo, Drebach/Griessbach, Germany