Off the back of their Jurassic Rally & Borderlands Classic Enduro, the club are starting to really lean into Track n Trails’ new era of racing with the news that they will be running a Sprint enduro at their legendary Tenko Venue near Dorchester on the 28th June.
With founder Mike Grounds holding down the ever-so-popular Freerides, it has given his son Ben the capacity to create some fantastic races once again. The first two were such a success, and the feedback they received has left them with no choice but to organise another.
Ben said of their latest event, “We will be hosting ‘The Jungle Sprint’, a sprint enduro format round our infamous Tenko venue, a true jungle track. The sprint format is a great one, you set off one at a time on a single lap to record the best time possible. When you come in, you get roughly 20 minutes to recover before heading out on another individual timed lap. Rinse and repeat throughout the day, you’ll get between 5 and 7 laps in on the day, depending on your class and the speed of the track on the day. It’s a great way to mix the social aspect of our Freeride days with the thrill of racing against the clock. The results will be determined by combining all your times from the day, and the quickest combined time wins. Once you’ve gotten your head around it, it’s a very simple format.”
READ MORE: BRITISH ENDURO NEWS
“The Tenko track completely lends itself to the sprint format. In the past, we have run Hare & Hound races there, which were absolutely fantastic, but the nature of the venue makes it hard to overtake, not a problem you’ll have in a sprint. At first, the track might seem tight and twisty, but as soon as you learn the racing line, it’s actually an incredibly flowing track, and you can really carry speed through the trees. Not to mention, due to the soft loamy sand-based soil, the track really develops into a brilliant race track and makes you really think as a rider to find the smoother lines.”
The venue itself has some very interesting heritage. Owned by a descendant of Lawrence of Arabia, a British Intelligence officer in World War I, whose life was immortalised in the 1962 film ‘Lawrence of Arabia’. Lawrence was a keen motorcyclist and subsequently passed away in a motorcycle crash that consequently began a long study of the loss of life by motorcycle dispatch riders through head injuries. This research led to the use of crash Helmets. His body was laid to rest on the very estate that they race on today. If that wasn’t enough, the venue is named after Tenko, the 1985 BBC TV series filmed in the woodland where the track rides are. The series on the brutal experiences of British, Dutch, and Australians imprisoned by the Japanese in Sumatra after the 1942 Fall of Singapore. The series (named for the Japanese word for “roll-call”) followed the prisoners’ struggle to survive. A formidable name for an utterly brilliant venue dripping with motorcycling history.
This is very exciting to be incorporating more racing back into the Track n Trail calendar!
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Images courtesy of Track N Trail
