Wild Willy’s, Round two of the Plews Tyres ACU British Extreme Championship took place at Tong with yet another wet and muddy race for riders and spectators. It’s awesome to see how this series and championship are growing with almost 300 riders entered. Having international riders like Mario and Francesc is fantastic to see and there are hopes to have more of the worlds best riders in the future. Tong had a new course layout and was looking super slippery but a good challenge, just enough to test riders without breaking them. The terrible weather leading up to the race provided typical conditions for the UK.

Mario Roman

Heading into the race he was super excited to be back in England as this series is perfect training for the World Championship. Reflecting on his race Mario shared that he loved the mud and had perfect traction. He was super happy with the improvements that were made which allowed his to do any line in the wet rocks. If you’ve seen some social media clips you probably witness Mario’s road jump. He expressed he didn’t want to lose time so he tried to jump it but the concrete takeoff was broken and his bike went sideways which caused him to case the jump. Marion has been racing everywhere in the world and notes that this is one of the best series of hard enduro. Good crowd, good spectators, good features and obstacles. Mario finished 1^st overall completing 10 laps.

Richard Moorhouse

Rich said that the race and riding were unreal and he had proper good fun. For him, this was a proper British Extreme. Reflecting on his race he said “you almost forget how hard it is”. He did experience a bit of arm pump at the start but with his tyre setup had unreal grip on the big flat slabs and felt brilliant with the mousse. He finished 3^rd overall completing 10 laps.

Radford Chugg

Radford didn’t seem all too happy with his race, for his it was “alright - the standard Tong”. He feels he needs to practice his hill climbs as he not feeling so confident on them, especially in this race. At the beginning it was slow for him to wake up and needed time to get into the race. Like many other riders he cased a couple road gaps but walked away injury free. Talking about his Rieju bike he said it’s got a lot of power for the hill climbs but he doesn't quite have the talent and just needs to increase his technique. Although he only had 8 hours on the bike, it’s feeling phenomenal. He finished 6^th overall completing 9 laps.

Jason Balmer

Jason did some serious riding but also had some serious crashes during this race and was very lucky to walk away with no injuries. A burnt out clutch due to a cracked engine casing and a bike that looked like it had been dragged backwards through the track. The way he looked by the end of the race full of mud, you almost wouldn’t recognize him without the dog eared helmet after losing the front mudguard. He was running in 5^th for most of the race but finished 7^th overall completing 9 laps.

Francesc Moret

Francesc said he enjoyed the race a lot. He had a bit of an electrical problem so lost quite a bit of time but feels he is improving with every race and riding well. The bike keeps getting better and he is putting in a lot of work. He finished 8^th in the championship class with 8 laps.

Matt Stuttard

Matt was running around 7^th or 8^th in the for a while until he encountered some mechanical problems with his throttle and needed to pull off the track to release the cable a few times. He also had some tough crashes but managed to finish 10^th in the championship class with 7 laps.

Peter Collins

Peter had some brilliant riding and shared that it was a great race with a great track layout. Arguably one of the best flowing Tong races he’s ever ridden. He didn’t experience much queuing due to loads of multi line choices. He aims to continue to work on his fitness in order to push for a little longer in future race. Peter won the Experts class and places 8th overall with 8 laps.

Talking about tyre choices Peter had some great feedback to share about his setup where he used the extreme front and had “unbelievable grip in all parts of the track including the rocks and mud”. It was by far the best tyre he’s used. Looking at the rear he used the Spec B with the 50% mousses for the first time and had more grip than he could have imagined. This will be his go to setup for the future.

Jed Blamer

Jed’s race was going well sitting in around 2^nd place in the experts class until around the midway point when he started to have issues with his brakes. After wearing both brakes down to the metal and having no brakes, moral of the story is that it’s best not to buy “Temu special” brake pads. As fatigue started to kick in there were a few more mistakes and unfortunately he lost 3^rd position on the final hill to the finish line. Overall he came 4^th in the experts class with 8 laps.

Connor Watson

Connor had some exceptional riding during the race and explained how the race was actually going quite well for him sitting in P4 until he stood up and tweaked his back which took his breath away and left him with some pain for the remainder of the race. He was definitely keeping up with the top guys in the exerts class but decided to pull out after 4 laps to prevent further injury.

Round 3 will take place at Helmsley, North Yorkshire on March 15^th. The best 6 rounds for each rider counts towards the championship overall points.