Eddy's Xtreme Enduro

Dougie Lampkin - Gas Gas made the short trip across the hills from his Yorkshire home to the wooded venue just outside Bradford to take part in his first enduro event since joining the Gas Gas factory team at the turn of the year. Up against friend and multi enduro World champion David Knight and a quality field of regular enduro riders, Lampkin always knew that the chances of a debut win were remote. However this did not deter the thirty-four year old Yorkshireman putting in two sterling performances to claim second overall behind the dominant Knight after a pair of tough hour long races.



In the lead up to the event, Lampkin had spent the week in Spain testing with the Gas Gas factory team as Dougie readies himself for the second round of the FIM Indoor Enduro Championship in Barcelona early next month. Whilst the ex multi FIM World Trial World champion used essentially a stock EC300E for today's extreme event, Dougie will have his full factory specification enduro machine available for his next outing in two weeks time. However Lampkin was quick to point out during his post race interview, that in no way had his performance today been limited by the standard bike.

Lampkin signalled his intent to feature amongst the front runners come the end of the day, as he placed third during the morning qualifying session to take his spot on the front row of the start for the two main races. With the riders grouped in lines of four, race one promptly got underway at 11.30hrs, as the eager pack made the short dash from the open paddock area before swinging sharp left into the trees. Dougie did not make the best of starts in the muddy conditions and droped outside the top five momentarily as he was forced in to the pits at the end of lap one to attend to a problem with hs clutch lever assembly.
Typically Lampkin fought back brilliantly to move into second place with just a few laps remaining and was one of just a select few riders who attempted the extreme rock section towards the end of the course each time around. The alternative to attacking this short and steep rock slab infested climb was to folllow a longer, but less severe route that potentially would take thirty seconds extra per lap and that carrried far less risk for both rider and bike. Although unable to challenge Knight's supremacy on the sticky going, Dougie was pleased with his first race recovery after his initial problems.



Although Dougie had no mechanical problems in race two, it was a similar tale for the veteran campaigner as he worked his way up the order following a slow start to the second of the hour long encounters. With Knight long gone, Lampkin focussed on holding his top three placing and remained in contention should second placed Graham Jarvis make any kind of costly mistake. Dougie's 2-3 showing on the day was sufficient to earn him the runners' up spot overall behind Knight, and to give him a near perfect debut on board the production Gas Gas enduro machine.

Speaking after the event Lampkin stated. "It's been a very productiive and positive week overall. The work we have done in Spain this week has been good, and I am looking forward to riding the new bike in Barcelona soon. We have done a lot of work both on the suspension and with the engine to give me a set up that I am more used to. That said the standard bike I have ridden today has been fantastic considering it is pretty much what anyone can go and buy from a dealer tomorrow morning."



"Having never raced a two stroke enduro bike before I was not quite sure what to expect today, as testing and training is one thing, but riding an actual event is another thing entirely." Dougie continued. "Apart from the clutch lever coming loose in the first race, the bike has run spot on all day. I simply had no answer to David in either race, so I just tried to stick to my own pace and to get two solid results, which worked out well for me in the end."

Lampkin concluded by saying. "It has been a good event and a good shakedown ahead of Barcelona, as second place overall is the best result I could have realistically hoped for."

Results

Overall

1: David Knight - KTM
2: Dougie Lampkin - Gas Gas
3: Greg Evans - KTM

Race One

1: David Knight - KTM
2: Dougie Lampkin - Gas Gas
3:Tom Sagar - KTM

Race Two

1: David Knight - KTM
2: Graham Jarvis - Husaberg
3:Dougie Lampkin - Gas Gas

 

Imageset 696