David Knight showed excellent pace to beat a returning from injury Daniel McCanney in round two of the Isle of Man Centre ACU Centre Enduro Championship on Sunday.

Organised by Ramsey MCC, the event was split between Ohio and Brookdale plantations, with general going through Sky Hill and Glen Auldyn, making for a single-lap time of around one hour for the leading riders.

Having injured the ligaments in his right knee in a collision at the same club’s motocross practice day in early March, McCanney set off quite gingerly in the opening test at Ohio where Knight topped the times with a 4min 51sec.

The only other rider to go sub-five minutes was biker-turned-electric mountain biker Mark Turner, returning to fossil-fuelled machines.

He produced another superb time at Brookdale on his 350cc four-stroke KTM to put even more time into WEC regular McCanney, 19s down on Knight.

Back at Ohio, Knight sliced three seconds off his opening lap time to go round the mix of gnarly, tight turns and fast fire roads in 4m 48s. McCanney upped his pace to better Turner for the first time, doing the same back at Brookdale (below Guthrie’s Memorial) where Craig Norrey was third quickest on the 250 Yamaha two-stroke.

Test number five also went to Knight on the 300cc KTM by seven seconds from McCanney, with Norrey again faster than Turner in third spot.

As Knight chalked up test win number six, Ashley Kelly put in a superb test of 4.35 at Brookdale (assuming the time was correct) to go faster than all of the others.

The final run through Ohio saw Knight still 10s up on McCanney, who was clearly not taking any chances with his knee, with Norrey third at another seven seconds.

Back-to-back tests at Brookdale to finish off saw Knighter complete his full-house of nine test wins for a winning margin of 1m 58s over Sherco factory rider McCanney.

Turner completed what could be regarded as the ride of the day in third spot,51s down on McCanney and seven seconds ahead of Norrey.

Russ Millward won the clubman class by 1m 48s from Peter Beaumont, with Al Heginbotham a mere second behind that in third spot and Leo McVicar another 15s down in fourth.

Gary Flowers topped the veteran class over the same seven tests as the clubman. Mike Turner, Mark’s father, also had a very good ride to finish only six seconds down on Flowers.

Such was the latter men’s pace they would have pushed McVicar down to sixth in a combined class with the clubbies.

The sportsman class resulted in a comfortable 4m 33s victory for Billy Cubbon over former Rob Alton.

l Thanks to all of the timekeepers, helpers and marshals.

RESULTS

Expert: 1, David Knight, total time 41min 07sec; 2, Daniel McCanney 43.05; 3, Mark Turner 43.56; 4, Craig Norrey 44.03; 5, Grant Thomson 45.29; 6, Chris Madigan 45.58; 7, Ashley Kelly 47.29; 8, Bobby Moyer 47.36.

Clubman: 1, Russell Millward 39.19; 2, Peter Beaumont 41.07; 3, Al Heginbotham 41.08; 4, Leo McVicar 41.23; 5, Tim Dedman 42.04; 6, Ben Hardy 42.06; 7, Matty Asbridge 42.10; 8, Peter Kermeen 42.11; 9, Alex Bottomley 44.19; 10, David Gurney 45.51; 11, Kyle Collister 46.22; 12, Mike Swift 51.36.

Veteran: 1, Gary Flowers 41.16; 2, Mike Turner 41.22; 3, Robert Quayle 44.25; 4, Eric Herdman 44.50.

Sportsman: 1, Billy Cubbon 36.50; 2, Rob Alton 41.23; 3, Kieran Ackers 42.41; 4, Gwilym Hoosen-Owen 45.08; 5, Richard Smith 45.50; 6, Ryan Davis 47.09; 7, Steve Franklin 48.05; 8, Lee Crorkan 48.29; 9, Steven Bannister 49.17; 10, Mark Hazlegrove 51.32.

l IoM Schoolboy MX Club hosts round two of the ACU Centre championship on Sunday at Ballagarraghyn, Jurby. Sign on 9am, practice from 10.30. No marshal required. See club Facebook page.