Wayne goes to Hell and back!
By John Dickinson on 16th Feb 07
Having finished runner-up to David Knight too many times Wayne Braybrook takes centre stage.
LET'S hear it this week for Wayne Braybrook -- winner of one of the toughest races in the World, the Hells Gate Extreme Enduro, staged in northern Italy. The win is not only a tremendous boost for the plucky little Gas Gas factory - and for John Shirt in particular for backing Wayne's Hells Gate effort 100 per cent but for Wayne, who has, until now, been a serial runner-up to World number one David Knight in Extreme races.
For the record, Wayne has finished runner-up to Knighter in the Hells Gate for the last two years, not to mention second in the awesome Last Man Standing in the USA and the WOR Tough One. It certainly wasn't Wayne's fault that KTM ‘made' Knighter ride Le Touquet this year instead of Hells Gate and he is never overawed by the presence of the big Manxman. Wayne, a 100 per cent competitor if ever there was one, told me before he went Stateside for the Last Man Standing that he was really going to try and put some pressure on David as: ''He isn't comfortable with someone breathing down his neck and in the right event I know I can be there and put the pressure on.''
The fact that Knighter was absent at the weekend does not detract from Wayne's achievement in the slightest.
As for Gas Gas, it is no secret that the tiny Spanish concern is going through a difficult time but this victory, as well as being in the best David triumphing over Goliath style, proves that there is nothing whatsoever wrong with the Gas Gas two-strokes. If a bike can stand a full day of being hammered in the most extreme conditions, in competition, by a rider as quick as Wayne, then a season in the hands of lesser lights is a breeze. The 250/300 Gasser has been a popular choice by Enduro/ Hare and Hound riders but a big win like the Hell's Gate can do nothing but give the factory (and Gas Gas UK - John Shirt was with Wayne all the way in Italy) a tremendous lift.
Let's also not forget it was, as Extreme Enduros have a habit of being, a British 1-2 at Hells Gate with veteran Paul Edmondson chasing Braybrook home.
The two riders have one thing in common - and something they share with David Knight - all three were leading National standard trials riders before switching disciplines to Enduro. Many people today do not realise that Knighter was actually British Expert Trials champion before opting to move on to the quick stuff.
Sure, it stands to reason that riders with trials experience should do well in Extreme events but Britain is definitely leaving other countries standing in this area. Trials converts are also dominating the results in many Hare and Hound events up and down the length of the country. More recent successes have been clocked-up by the likes of Sam Connor, Rob Warner, Paul Bolton and even reigning British Trials Champ Graham Jarvis. Ironically, Graham sadly missed the recent Tough One and Hells Gate as a result of injuries sustained in a nasty (televised) crash in the Barcelona Extreme Indoor event.
So come on motocrossers, Ryan Voase has shown that the quick boys can adapt to riding-with-lights-on if they try - let's see some more MXers pushing the trials lads as the Brits steamroller to victory on the Extreme scene!
THERE'S an interesting letter in our Your Shout page this week (page 4) which is written in reply to questions posed by our welcome guest column last week, the ACU's Dave Luscombe, concerning noise.
Basically, our letter-writer proposes a new exhaust silencer ‘seal of approval' to be verified by and attributed to DEFRA. This will probably never come to fruition but I reckon in theory it is a cracking idea.
The rub is of course that ALL off-road bikes be fitted with a DEFRA approved silencer - and any machines that the police find being used off-road without such, be it at an official event, practise site, trail riding or whatever, would run the risk of being confiscated.
It stands to reason that all ACU, AMCA, ORPA etc., events would have to insist on DEFRA approved silencers but much more importantly, it would be inclusive for ALL bikes and it would take the pressure off the sport's organisers by giving the police a simple legal mandate to target ALL machines.
In short, it would be a simple legal weapon with which to beat the cowboys for once rather than inventing silly laws that simply target the law-abiding!