Huge Turnout for Maritz Transport/CRP Uis Enduro

WINDHOEK, 21 JUN – A record 96 entries were received for the Uis Enduro held on 16 June 2018, and competitors had to deal with hot weather, dust and rocks for round three of the Namibian Enduro Championship.

The venue was the abandoned Tin mine just outside Uis, and the race track was a mixture of fast riverbeds, rocky single tracks and a huge boulder fields that required conquering in order to reach the finish line. The varying track conditions evened the field out and close racing was the result.

The Open Class fight is heating up nicely: Marcel Henle won the class and finished close to 8 minutes ahead of second placed Henner Rusch. Rusch was probably on a quest for damage control courtesy of a crash four weeks ago that left him riding with three broken ribs. Pascal Henle finished in third position just over a minute behind the struggling Rusch. Ruan Gous and Rainer Sentefol rounded out the top five.

Henle now leads the championship by three points over Rusch in second. Four riders are seperated by three points in the race for third position in the championship. Judging by the results in the first three rounds, this will go down to the wire for the top five positions.

In the Master Class, Ingo Waldschmidt proved he was back to winning ways. Returning from injury Waldschmidt beat second placed Joern Greiter by almost 4 minutes with Martin Kruger finishing in third after he missed a checkpoint. Championship leader Werner Wiese only managed a sixth position after he also picked up a penalty for missing a checkpoint. Fourth and fifth poistions in the race were occupied by Ronald Geiger and Frank Ahlreib respectively.
Jurgen

Gladis won in the Support Bikes class. Gladis showed his experience with a composed and measured approach to the race beating second placed Oliver Rohrmuller by about 3m30s. Big Riaan Kritzinger finished in third for his first podium of the season. Early leaders in the race Quinton van Rooyen and Jaco Husselman were both disqualified from the race as they had, in the heat of battle, missed to many checkpoints and had to be excluded. Oliver Rohrmuller is now the clear leader in the Championship.

JL Opperman continued his unbeaten run in the Rookie Bike class. Opperman was unstoppable as he beat Swakopmund rider Eugene Koen into second. Third placed was Andre Marais with Rhys Cragg and Axel Foerster rounding out the top 5.

Class 11 winner was Dylan Hilfiker with Jossie Maritz Jnr and Zoe Waldschmidt in second and third respectively.
The next race will take place on Farm Abbabis in the Karibib region. This will again be a huge challenge for the top classes as the riders will do battle on arguably the toughest track of the season. – NDN Staffer