Henle king of the hills
Marcel Henle on Saturday won the Pro class of the first leg of the Ark Trading national enduro championships, clocking in with a total time of three hours, 11 minutes and 12 seconds after seven gruelling laps.He took the second lap (28 minutes, 30 seconds) over Quinton van Rooyen (28:42) and the fifth in 27:02 while Van Rooyen finished in 27:39. He also scooped the sixth (27:08) and the seventh (26:36) while Van Rooyen ended second in 27:36 and 27:49 respectively.
Van Rooyen won the first (25:02) and third (27:47) laps and equalled Henle’s time in the fourth with 27:49 to end second overall with a total time of 3:12:24 for the day. Both were beaten by one second in the fourth lap by Henner Rusch. Björn Bierbrauer (3:18:08) finished third overall.
Rusch, the 2021 defending champion, struggled to 11th place after experiencing mechanical problems, and did not finish the last lap.
Mechanical issues abound
In the Senior Class, Heiko Stranghoner finished six laps in 2:56:08, with Jörn Greiter second in 2:58:59. Kai Hennes came third overall in 3:06:51.
Handré Myburgh, Mark Roesener and Jaco Husselman also could not finish the last few laps in the Senior Class due to mechanical and other problems.
Myburgh said: “I am still too unfit for this sport at the moment. I’ll have to start cycling again and do some strength and conditioning before the next race.”
Meanwhile, the Intermediate Class (six laps) was won by Charles Koster (2:19:43) with a huge margin of 21 minutes over Albertus Basson (2:45:56), with Frederick van Greunen five minutes behind Basson (2:50:56) in third place.
Vigo Swiegers (1:54:14), Zoe Waldschmidt (2:00:39) and Kent Cragg (2:00:41) were the top three in the five-lap Rookie Class.
Audrey Koster, Ingo Waldschmidt and Chris Snyman could not finish the race.
Missed the finish
Harry Kibble and Patrick Geiger were the only participants in the Junior Class, consisting of two laps. Kibble ended first in 1:13:13 while Geiger failed to clock his final time after missing the finish after the last lap.
Kibble and Geiger finished the first lap in 39:27 and 39:23 respectively. Kibble blasted home in 33:46 in lap two.
The organisers of the day’s event thanked Ark Trading for its generous sponsorship, making the day possible and a huge success.