NCES GOES DOWN TO THE WIRE

The National Club Enduro Series is going down to the wire after a thrilling third round of four near Atiamuri on May 16. There is little to separate the leading riders at the top of several distinct rider categories after heated battles at Atiamuri, and so everything will be on the line at the final round when it wraps up in unforgiving forestland on exactly the same rugged patch of land on June 20.“ It will be roughly the same terrain, but the course will be entirely different for the final round and this will certainly keep the riders on their toes,” said event organiser Sean Clarke. The crucial third round of this Husqvarnasponsored National Club Enduro Series( NCES) saw Rotorua’ s Callum Dudson win the event in the premier Expert Grade, cementing his spot on top of the standings for this category, but it could so easily have been a different result with his winning margin just four seconds over runner-up rider Sam Parker, from New Plymouth. Third in this premier grade at Atiamuri was fellow Taranaki man Blake Lusk, finishing only another nine seconds behind Parker in the race that took just over four hours to complete, and Clarke explained that“ it would only have taken a missed gear change or a slight wobble somewhere to easily have changed that finishing order”. Parker and Lusk have therefore set themselves up as the chief threats to Dudson in the Expert Grade this season, Parker just six points adrift to the Bay of Plenty man after three rounds, while Lusk is just another 13 points further back in third and, if the racing is as tight again at the fourth and final round, it’ s almost impossible to predict an eventual outright winner. Meanwhile, Gisborne’ s Angus Thomas again asserted himself as the man to beat in the