Double tops for Jed Etchells in home rounds of British Enduro Championship

Jed Etchells extended his lead in the ACU British Enduro Championship with a double victory on his home patch here in the Isle of Man last weekend.

The 25-year-old from St Mark’s showed his class with impressive performances on the 300cc Moto-Fit Sherco two-stroke to extend his overall lead in the series.

Returning from a knee injury that put him out of the previous round in late May, having won the opener at Rhayader in March, fellow Manxie Jamie McCanney was runner-up on Saturday and third on Sunday behind KTM’s Jack Edmondson.

It was a great weekend for the locals with former professional Daniel McCanney fifth on Saturday and a solid fourth on Sunday astride a 300cc Beta of 2015 vintage.

And 20-year-old Jack Keenan of St Jude’s showed his maturing form when claiming a brace of solid sixth place finishes on a 450 Triumph similar to the one ridden by Jamie McCanney.

Elsewhere, locals performed admirably in most of the support classes, notably Stan Cubbon who scored a first and a second in the clubman class, and southsider Al Heginbotham who dominated the Clubman over-50 category on his Sherco.

Playing host to the championship for the third time in seven years, Ramsey MCC put on a challenging event that attracted more than 100 riders, the majority visiting from the UK.

Technical inspections and signing on took place at the former Courthouse on the eastern end of Parliament Street, with an overnight parc ferme in Market Square, overlooked by St Paul’s Church.

The general going included Sky Hill, Ohio, Ballaugh and Gob-y-Vollee plantations, with timed tests at Ballagarraghyn near Jurby on the north-west coastline and Tholt-y-Will plantation.

Etchells, who swapped mounts from Fantic to Sherco at the beginning of the year, wasted no time getting into the groove on Saturday morning, setting an initial time of 6min 18.01sec for the opening 3.1-mile sandy test at Jurby, a fraction over one second quicker than Jamie McCanney, with 20-year-old Keenan an impressive third quickest in 6:22.28 for a Manx 1-2-3.

Jack Edmondson was 1.6s down on Etchells first time round Tholt-y-Will, with McCanney finding the more technical going a bit of a handful for the big four-stroke.

Getting into the swing of things, Etchells stretched his lead by another seven seconds back at Jurby, with McCanney and Edmondson more-or-less inseparable. Danny McCanney was also going well, his times very similar to young Keenan’s.

As the day progressed the times got progressively slower, particularly at Tholt-y-Will where the course became more rutted between the trees. The area was also hit by showers of rain late afternoon.

Etchells remained in control, ending the day almost half-a-minute clear of Jamie McCanney after seven tests - the final one at Ballagarraghyn doubled up. Next was Edmondson, 14s down on Jamie, then Alex Walton at another 34s and Danny McCanney +32 on him. Keenan was edged out of fifth by just 4.8s by Danny. All 17 starters finished the championship class.

Topping the second-tier expert class was Joshua Lawer by 2.4s from Alfie Heard and another similar margin to William Barnett in third.

Manxman Jordan Corkill was very impressive in the sand at Jurby, indeed his opening salvo on the beach of 6:56.67 was not bettered all weekend in the experts - Jordan actually quicker than several of the championship riders on day one. He finished that day seventh in class (second E2).

Next locals to him were Thomas Knight and Ashley Kelly in 11th and 15th respectively.

Jack Keenan’s older brother Will was runner-up to Michael Williams in the expert over-35 class on both days.

Stan Cubbon continued his great form from the earlier BEC rounds to win the Clubman class on his 200ccMS Racing/Albion Knitwear 200cc Beta, finishing 25s ahead of runner-up Ailbe O’Connell. On Sunday he was a smidgen (1.76s) behind the same rider in second place.

Orry Millward also had a couple of good rides in the same class to finish fourth and third on his KTM.

Lower down the order, all of the locals did well to stay within the time limit as the conditions worsened and they became more tired, notably those who normally ride at the lower end of the clubman class locally and two or three who stepped up from the sportsman like Si Fulton, Andrew Livesey and Ryan McDermott.

Ali Heginbotham won the clubman over-50 class both days from seasoned UK campaigner Karl Greenall, with the back-from-injury Mike Turner fourth both days.

Back at the top end, Edmondson set off strongly on day two and led by 4.9s over Etchells after the opening two tests - Tholty having become somewhat slippery and cut-up up after the overnight rain.

Etchells pulled 4s back on lap two at Jurby, then edged into the lead after the second tour of the plantation. Once back in front he stayed there, finishing the day with a winning margin of 24.76s over the Englishman with Jamie McCanney another 16s adrift, in turn 15s ahead of his 34-year-old brother Danny. Walton was fifth and Keenan again sixth after another solid ride on the big Triumph, well clear of the next man.

Henry Life moved up from fourth on day one to win Sunday from Saturday’s victor Joshua Lawer. But there was cruel luck for Jordan Corkill whose No.2 Honda hit rear chain issues on the third test from home and he was forced to retire.

This left Tom Knight and Ryan Cringle the best of the locals in eighth and ninth 11.6s apart, with championship regulars Ashley Kelly and Jack Collins 13th and 21st.

There were no locals in the women’s class, which was won by Nieve Holmes on the ET James Sherco on both days.

Ramsey MCC wishes to thank DEFA, Ramsey Town Commissioners, all helpers, marshals, sponsors, IoM TT scrutineers, SOS Medical, Ramsey Rugby Club, Nuss Clarke of Ballagarraghyn, the town folk of Ramsey and residents of the Northern Plains who may have been affected by the event.