Ingo Waldschmidt wins in Swakopmund
On Sunday, 8 April 2007, the Windhoek Moto-Cross Club held the First Round of the Namibian National Enduro Championship at the Swakopmund Moto-Cross Park. Thirty two riders entered for the event, thirteen with bikes and nineteen with quads. Racing started at 11:00 with Tamo Piehl on his Yamaha 450 YFZ Quad. The riders left the starting grid in one minute intervals to do five 30,5 km laps through the rugged Namib desert. The starting order were determined by a draw.
 Start / Photo by: Lene Human It was a tough circuit and the rugged desert terrain left Liezl Davies with her Yamaha 450 YFZ Quad stranded with a flat tyre in the first lap. Some of the riders soon discovered that Enduro racing requires stamina and concentration. The course gradually separated the men from the boys and some of the riders started to lose pace on the track. Top Namibian rider Ingo Waldschmidt finished first overall and first in his class with a time of 2 hours 26 min 56 seconds. Uwe Trumper on his KTM 450cc achieved the second fastest time of the day, but was disqualified by the officials. The reason for this is that the rules clearly state that an Enduro rider must carry his clicker card with him at all times and the cards are handed in after each lap, but unfortunately, Uwe lost his card somewhere in the desert along the route. Five of the riders did not finish the race.
Usually, on a course like this one, the two wheeled bikes are a lot faster that the quad bikes, but Dirk Baard and Phillipie Baard finished with their quad bikes amongst the top five best times of the day. The huge time gap between them and the third quad of Gavin Murgatroyed just proves their skill. Well done guys. I think we will see a lot more action and top quality racing from these two young riders. One of Namibia’s top quad riders, Fanie Steenkamp, is out of action for a while after some serious injuries. Hopefully we will have him back on the circuit in due time.
The event was a big success with no serious injuries to the riders. A combined prize giving was held for the MX and Enduro events at the Voortrekker hall on Sunday evening. The Enduro Organizing committee is already busy with the AMU International BAJA event taking place in Windhoek at Galina and Bon Okapuka on 11 and 12 May 2007.
Results for the day:
Class 1: (2 stroke up to 200cc, 4 stroke up to 250cc motorcycles)- Andreas Brendel (KTM 200cc - 2 stroke), 02:57:03
- Luke Pennefather (KTM 250cc - 4 stroke), 03:14:05
Class 2: (2 stroke 201cc to 250cc, 4 stroke from 251cc up motorcycles)- Ingo Waldschmidt (KTM 450 - 4 stroke), 02:26:56
- Gino Rossi (Yamaha 450 – 4 stroke), 02:36:34
- Heiko Hennes (Yamaha 450 YZF – 4 stroke), 02:37:10
Class 3: (Quad bikes, open class)- Dirk Baard (Honda 450 TR – Quad), 02:36:22
- Phillipie Baard (Honda 450 TR – Quad), 02:36:55
- Gavin Murgatroyed (Suzuki 450 LTR – Quad), 03:03:58
Class 4: (Support Class – Bikes)- Robert Liebchen (Honda CRF 250)
- Bergh van Wyk (KTM 520)
- Sven Wiedenroth (Honda CR 250)
Class 5: (Support Class – Quads)- Tamo Piehl (Yamaha 450 YFZ Quad)
- Eugene Slippers (Honda 450 LTR Quad)
Class 6: (Ladies Quads)- Maike Bochert (Suzuki 450 LTR Quad)
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