Uckfield Endurance Scooter team at national championships again

And so, it begins, the start of the 2022 British scooter endurance club season kicks off at Whilton Mill in Northamptonshire the Easter weekend with a six-hour endurance race and what beautiful weather for it!

Once again, IDK endurance racing #347 from Sussex are entering, along with another team from Sussex. Greater Ridgewood Racing. #27. taking place for the very first time.

The BSEC events are usually a six-hour endurance race, with classic, full bodied geared scooters, with four classes of riders from novices on road legal scooters to full race license holders or specifically built racing scooters. Both IDK and GRR were competing in Club Class, as novices on road legal scooters.

The start of this season also saw two teams entering from Ireland and a team coming all the way from Germany.

The IDK team remained the same for this event , with riders David “Henry” Smith from Framfield, Mungo from Uckfield, Joe Lamp Oil Greening from Brighton and Russell Browne from Hastings , with Alison Bowen as team manager , and Debbie Greening, Mandy Browne and Lorraine Munn as pit crew.

The GRR team had Neil Williams and Rob Moore from Uckfield Simon Sewell from Burgess Hill and Stefan Keily from Tonbridge as the riders and Lisa Williams ,Helen Sewell and Ian “Flee ”Fuller and Tracey Tilford as pit crew.

Both teams were also lucky enough to have Joanne Hedger as their on site photographer and our special guest , Jackie “the Mayoress” Love on site for morale support.

Setting up and having their first practice on the Friday afternoon, all goes well, with the 1982 Lambretta and 1996 Vespa P200  performing well and all the riders and team getting into the swing of things with ease.

A final timed practice , after a repair to a puncture in the front wheel of the IDK bike on the Saturday morning  determines the positioning in the line up for the Le Mans style start, placed IDK in 24^th out of a 32-team line up with GRR just 2 places behind in 26^th.

11am saw Keith Terry, the main organiser, waving the Ukrainian flag to start the race, and what a flying start it was, with Henry, the first rider for IDK gaining about 8 places before the first bend whilst popping a slightly unexpected wheelie.

The following six hours saw all the thrills and spills that come with any kind of motor sport, a few breakdowns, a few unfortunate accidents, but fortunately nothing too serious. And IDK were able to stay on two wheels and the scooter never missed a beat as it performed amazingly for the full six hours.

Sadly our local team mates GRR were not quite as fortunate , with a couple of spills , and sadly one rider coming off and injuring himself just ten minutes before the end of the event , not leaving enough time for them to get back on track and complete the event.

As the chequered flag came down at 5pm all teams returned to the pits and then onto the presentation ceremony.

IDK are exceedingly proud to announce that they came first in class , having completed 279 laps of the course , which also placed them seventh overall.

GRR , finished 25^th out of the 32 teams ,having completed 220 laps , which for a first time out is a remarkable achievement.

This years event also saw the return of spectators which makes a huge difference to the general buzz around the track, but was also live streamed thanks to the event sponsors and the crowdfunding page created by Alison of IDK And the live stream is available to view on you tube.. We are hoping the other events this year will also be streamed but this will come down to arranging funding, so if you would like to sponsor or donate please get in touch.

IDK are also hoping to compete in two more events at Teesside this year, one of which is to be an eight-hour race, and we are hoping too see more of GRR trackside as well.

We would like to thank our team sponsor, Amplicon Liveline of Brighton for their continued support this season, and we hope we have made them proud.

If you would like to find out more check out the British scooter endurance club , IDK endurance racing  and GRR endurance racing on Facebook..