Fully recovered from nine broken ribs and a bout of Covid, iron man David Knight bounced back to win Ramsey MCC’s enduro on Sunday.

The event, featuring timed tests in Sky Hill and Brookdale plantations, formed the delayed opening round to the 2021 Isle of Man Enduro Centre Championship.

The defending champion was the only rider to go sub-four minutes on the Sky Hill test, achieving the feat on all four visits aboard his 500cc KTM.

The scenic untimed stretch over Narrowdale and Glen Auldyn, followed by an on-road stretch down the Mountain Mile to Guthrie’s, brought riders to the second test round Brookdale - land previously utilised as a scrambles venue in the 1950s.

Knight again had the half-litre four-stroke fired up - consistently setting sub-five minute times on a slightly longer test - tackled five times (the last two virtually back-to-back).

His nephew, Tom Knight, got to within 10 seconds of him on the first lap and 11 seconds on the next lap.

Indeed the 18-year-old had his best ride to date in a local sense, ultimately finishing 2m 47s behind his esteemed uncle astride one of the latest Gas Gas 250s.

Craig Norrey had a good day too. Initially he and Chris Madigan, on a new 350 Beta four-stroke, were inseparable, but Norrey edged clear to secure third with Grant Thomson demoting Madigan to fifth. Jordan Corkill rounded off the top-six.

The clubmen completed four laps of the same 13.5-mile course, with Will Cawte fairly dominant throughout to finish 3m 45s ahead of the consistent Peter Kermeen, with Alistair Heginbotham and Tim Dedman renewing old rivalries in third and fourth.

Cawte wishes to thank Juan Knight and Steer Commercials for their support.

Russ Millward was effectively only bettered by Cawte on the marginally shorter clubman course of eight tests.

He was the leading veteran over-50 ahead of a rejuvenated Gary Flowers on a new lightweight and nimble 125 Fantic.

Sulby’s Dale Brew limbered up for the road racing season at Jurby with a comfortable victory over former Senior MGP winner Si Fulton.

RESULTS

Expert: 1, David Knight total time 39min 04sec; 2, Tom Knight 41.51; 3, Craig Norrey 42.42; 4, Grant Thomson 43.24; 5, Chris Madigan 44.11; 6, Jordan Corkill 45.25; 7, Jack Collins 47.19; 8, Will Duggan 47.53; 9, Ryan Nield 49.00; 10, Aaron Watson 49.12; 11, Ashley Kelly 51.41; 12, Bobby Moyer 52.47.

Clubman: 1, Will Cawte 41m 21s; 2, Pete Kermeen 45.06; 3, Al Heginbotham 46.11; 4, Tim Dedman 47.15; 5, Peter Beaumont 47.33; 6, Leo McVicar 50.14; 7, Jason Keig 50.37; 8, John Duggan 51.58; 9, Orry Millward 52.19; 10, David Gurney 54.24; 11, Matt Thorpe 54.26; 12, Kyle Collister 55.41; 13, Mat Asbridge 57.42; 14, Mark Hazlegrove 1:16.56. Veteran: 1, Russell Millward 43m 30s; 2, Gary Flowers 44.59; 3, Mark Crellin 51.57; 4, Mike Duke 1:18.30.

Sportsman: 1, Dale Brew 45m 18s; 2, Si Fulton 49.52; 3, Stephen Franklin 47.35; 4, Keiran Ackers 52.26.