After winning all six qualifying sprint races on Saturday, Spain’s Josep Garcia stormed to his first WESS win in Sunday’s two and a half hour points-paying main event in the World Enduro Super Series at Hawkstone Park. But with a strong third place, England’s Billy Bolt takes over the championship lead for the very first time from Manuel Lettenbichler, who could only manage seventh, with just two rounds to go. And former series leader Jonny Walker was absent after getting hurt at a recent race. Second overall at Hawkstone was the ever-smiling Nathan Watson who pushed his team mate Garcia all the way, writes MotoHead’s Dick Law.

With 120 riders making Sundays race a good starting position was very important as some of the rocky sections would become a bottle neck in the opening laps. The pro rides set off first and Garcia made it clear that, like on Saturday, he was the man to beat as he reached the first of the very tricky rocks clear of Watson with the rest of the pro’s in close company but seaming to find grip on the wet rocks where others couldn’t.

Five seconds after the pros came the experts and five after that the came the rest and that’s where the rocks became very interesting with riders hitting, trees, fallen trees, rocks official and even some of the spectators who had seemingly no regard for their own safety, but it was all very entertaining.

Garcia was never out of the lead and set his fastest lap time on his second lap as he tried to open up a gap between himself and Watson, but Bolt was buried in traffic and having to work very hard but was being pushed along by Taddy Blazusiak, the most experienced pro rider on the track.

When the race came to a close Garcia had completed 15 laps of the very testing course with Watson, who waited till lap ten to set his fastest time, finishing 1m 30s behind. Bolt was 1m17s behind Watson with Blazusiak fourth.

Alex Snow had a great weekend and was very fast as he finished sixth, just over seven minutes behind the winner. Series leader before the event, Lettenbichler was seventh and was the last rider on the lead lap. Other notable rides came from Graham Jarvis ninth, Jed Etchells in 13th, Hanry Yardley, Ricky Wiggins and Suff Sella who were all riding the expert class but beat some of the pro riders as the finished seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth, but two laps down on the leaders. Top two-stroke class rider was Cole Cookland in twenty-fourth.

“It’s been a perfect weekend for me” said a happy Garcia, “After winning yesterday I took the holeshot and stayed all the race at the front. I had two crashes but didn’t hurt myself, so I am very happy to win my first WESS event and I am looking forward to the last two rounds. It was difficult with lapping the other riders as there were some narrow parts of the track, but they were good as most moved over to let you through when they hear a faster bike coming, so thank you to all the other drivers.”

Watson was happy with his second place and said, “It was a decent race for me, and it was a lot easier than last year when we raced here. I guess with all the riders out on the track it slowed it down a bit and they have added some more difficult bits, and with it being half an hour shorter, so physically it was a bit easier. I had a goggle problem first lap when a rock broke them, so I had to stop and change them, but Garcia was to fast today I had nothing for him.”

Third place and new series leader Bolt said: “I very happy with my third place considering the kind of race it is and the standard of the riders today, it almost feels like a win for me. My pace was good, and I am happy with the way I rode, and it’s been a solid weekend for the championship. I was expecting the number of riders on the tack today to be worse that it actually was as the track flowed really well. Hats off to all the Fast Eddy crew for putting on a great event and bringing this championship to the British crowd.”

Results

1 Jesep Garcia Montana (Pro)
2 Nathan Watson (Pro)
3 Billy Bolt (Pro)
4 Taddy Blazusiak (Pro)
5 Jaume Betriu Armengol (Pro)
6 Alex Snow (Pro)
7 Mani Lettenbichler (Pro)
8 Paul Bolton (Pro)
9 Graham Jarvis (Pro)
10 Alfredo Gomez Cantero (Pro)
11 Lars Enochl (Pro)
12 Dominik Olszowy (Pro)
13 Jed Etchells (Pro)
14 Daryl Bolter (Pro)
15 Will Hoare (Pro)
16 Rannar Uusna (Pro)
17 Henry Yardley (Expert)
18 Ricky Wiggins (Expert)
19 Suff Sella (Expert)
20 Leon Hentiels (Pro)
21 Jane Daniels (Expert)
22 Ben Wibberley (Expert)
23 Mitchell Covolth (Pro)
24 Cole Cookland (Clubman 2T)
25 Harry Edmondson (Expert)
26 Derek Bawn (Elite Vets)
27 Jack Cadwallader (Expert)
28 Harry Houghton (Clubman 2T)
29 William Stansbie (Clubman 2T)
30 Luke Owen (Expert)
31 Tom Widd (Expert)
32 Jack Nixey (Clubman 2T)
33 Andrew Edwards (Elite Vets)
34 Harvey Dark (Expert)
35 Andy Frost (Elite Vets)
36 Jack Lee (Expert)
37 Dan Bewlay (Expert)
38 Grant Thomson (Expert)
39 Jacob James (Clubman 2T)
40 Ross Davies (Expert)
41 James Palmer (Clubman 2T)
42 Grant Churchwood (Elite Vets)
43 Jack Spencer (Expert)
44 Anthony Miller (Clubman 2T)
45 Rick Du Feu (Elite Vets)
46 Luke Smith (Expert)
47 John Shirt (Elite Vets)
48 Ashley Kelly (Clubman 2T)
49 Ryan Crayston (Clubman 2T)
50 Ryan Phillips (Clubman 2T)

World Enduro Super Series Standings (After round 6 of 8)

1. Billy Bolt (Husqvarna) 4060pts; 2. Manuel Lettenbichler (KTM) 3935pts; 3. Josep Garcia (KTM) 3320pts; 4. Wade Young (Sherco) 3220pts; 5. Taddy Blazusiak (KTM) 2985pts; 6. Jonny Walker (KTM) 2900pts; 7. Nathan Watson (KTM) 2778pts; 8. Graham Jarvis (Husqvarna) 2768pts; 9. Paul Bolton (KTM) 2752pts; 10. Lars Enockl (Gas Gas) 2076pts