Red Kite Rally 2007 - WTRA

Previous years: 2005

We had 5 club members entered in the Red Kite this year with some success. Vess and Steve Biddle excelled themselves, Ricky Lane dropped a few places with a mid-test stall and it looks like Tom Pugh-Jones spent the day pressurising his Dad David to ensure a finish. First in with some info is Steve with his report. More to come.

Steve Biddle's report

We started at the rugby club in Llandovery as usual, and the weather was great. Ric and I dropped off our fuel and things up on the ranges on the way down.

We started at 10.15 after final instructions. It was about 12 miles by road to the start up in the ranges, after about 7 miles of tracks we reached the first test, which wasn't timed, so I rode it looking for some good lines. Then onto some fire roads and green lanes. Next, onto test 2, which was a bit more technical, which went onto the edge of Halfway Forest, onto fire road then through the tank ruts which were very deep. You had to ride on the side of them to get by fast, then through a muddy bit to the end of test 2, then back onto more green lanes and onto the mountain track which was about 3 mile long with no real track to follow just the orange arrows.

Ricky had a bit of a scare on test 2 second lap, this slowed him down a bit, he told me in the refueling area. Some guy on a big BMW had a nasty off on one of the road sections and got sent off to hospital with minor injuries and concussion. The bike had a fair bit of damage too. When I was on lap 3 test 2, I caught up with a guy on a Husaberg 510 and on one of the bends on the fire roads he was going a bit too fast and went straight on, he must have gone about 30ft over into the stumps and things. I waited to see him get up and I told the army travelling marshal at the end of the test that he was there. I think they had to tow the bike out and he retired but he was ok.

I had 4 good tests with no problems. Ricky stalled it in one of the tank ruts on his last test so not so good for him. It all ran pretty good, no big queues on the tests, they let everybody through the checks in rider number rather than your time card so I finished quite early and waited for ricky at the end of lap 3. I had a quick chat with Ray Bartlett on his six wheel drive quad thing and there was some people still going out on their 3rd lap, then rode back to the club on the road for a free buffet.

I've just seen results on Enduro news and Vess came 8th in trail bike class, Ricky, on his 07 alloy frame WR450 came 38th and I came 4th with 'best 250 to 450' in sports bike. Results report and pics on www.enduronews.com

Big thank you to WTRA for a really good day. I was told by ray that this years Cambrian Rally is going to be good, Bob (Perring) has been given some more land and will use more of the Strata Florida as well.

Vess's Report

For the last 6 months I've been spending some time trying to sort the carburation on the old CCM, and the day before the Red Kite it looked like I'd cracked it. It certainly seemed to run well on the day! The weather was good, with just a slight breeze to clear the dust. The ground was nice and hard, except of course for the infamous tank tracks which were still full of water. The first lap was fairly uneventful except for going off the course following another rider who'd taken a wrong turn, Doh! Doing the tests on the second and third laps was a little scary as the CCM proved itself to be quite quick but very stable. I stopped to help out an Africa Twin rider at one point, just past the end of the second test. He'd gone a little wide into a boggy bit and beached it. Apart from that, a good enjoyable blast! Thanks to all the guys at WTRA.

Results were still at the provisional stage when going to press but should be found on WTRA Website soon.