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1st DAWN TO DUSK 12 HOUR IRONMAN ENDURO

Run by Adventure Racing and TBM Magazine

25th August 2002

This was the first running of a full 12 hour team or Ironman enduro. Based near Swansea in south Wales it was an awesome event over some superb tracks. Organised by TBM staff member ( and Dakar finisher) Simon Pavey and the rest of the TBM crew it proved an extremely popular event - helped by the dry weather and day long sun. Starting slightly late at 7:38 it ran for a full 12 hours non stop.

Several riders ran Ironman doing the whole event by themselves. A more popular format was 2 or 3 riders sharing the riding and going flat out. There were several world class riders there including Wyn Hughes, Richard Hay and Chris Hockey on 360 Husqvarnas - a very smooth and powerful machine. Richard Hay did Ironman and finished in second place to the  two man team of Gareth and Jonty Edmunds by only 9 minutes over 12 hours. A truely outstanding performance considering the length of the day and the constant high speeds.

As Simon Pavey said "Think Spain - not Wales". The tracks were very dry and dusty - very continental in nature and totally unlike the UK. This led to a few high speed crashes on the very hard ground - with a couple of riders ending up badly bruised. There was no easy section in the course and no place to rest. Team riders got a rest every couple of hours or so.

The machinery which turned up was wide ranging - from a full blown Dakar racer - complete with pannier tanks and a couple of Aussies on KTM's with massive tanks (they spent most of Saturday trying to sell fuel - and were know as the "in flight refuel crew". If you ran out of fuel just wait for them to come past and fill up. There were several trail bikes, Serows and Sherpas. A team of lady riders also entered with one of them having  past her CBT the week before. This was a bit harder than trail riding.

Team "Jocks Away" - Scotlands finest (Charlie and Greig) shared a Yam WR 250 f which never missed a beat the whole day - despite several trips down the road. The other Scottish Team of Grant Miller and Ian Macpherson on GAS GAS's circulated a bit faster and notched up a couple more laps.

The start was in classes with Experts off First. This was a Le Mans type race for your bike. The Experts raced ,the clubman ran and the Sportsman - well - got on their bikes.

Overall a fantastic event and may thanks to the TBM crew for all their efforts in getting this event off the ground. The facility is fantastic and hopefully will be back again next year. Well done for the first of many we hope.

Click on the photo to enlarge

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