The putoline burnley bog race
The putoline Burnley Bog race Round 8 of the national putoline hare scramble championship High above Burnley on a steep hillside the Dirtbike traxs team had taken up residence after having spent the last 10 days at there Gisburn track waiting for the venue to dry out in order to complete round 8 of the National Putoline hare scramble championship, but with no major let up in the rain a decision was taken on Wednesday to switch to the all weather Burnley venue. The hard working dirtbike-traxs crew then worked tirelessly to construct the track and start area at short notice in extremely wet and arduous conditions completing there task on Saturday. With the track sitting on a steep hillside even the preceding 24 hours of heavy rain through Saturday and into the early hours of Sunday couldn’t stop the Burnley bog race. As most of the rain runs straight off the hill side, with only the tops and the few flat parts retaining water, the bog race was all set for another memorable muddy encounter with the Burnley terrain. The track is 5 miles of open moorland going with a long climb up to the top of Hapton moor from the start, before the course swings around and heads across the boggy tops back towards Burnley taking in some big ravines off cambers before returning to the start. Although called the Burnley bog race the track is very rideable while providing something totally different to test the riders. The large entry of youth riders assembled on the line ready for the 9am start , bang on 9am official time keeper Martyn Field gave the start signal and the first wave of youth riders were off on there way around the Burnley course , the youths were treated to a shorter course, in the senior B class Robert Johnson maintained his winning ways with a comfortable win 1 lap clear of second placed Davey Todd who lost a lot of time to Johnson when his bike failed to restart early on in the race, Scott Altass finished in third despite sizing his bike close to the finish and having to push , in the juniors Michael Tatham took a narrow win from Michael Gilby with Ben Clark in third. The girl power class was won by Jade Gordon with Jade’s mum Anita a close second and Bekky Hobbs in third. This drew a close to the first half of the Putoline Burnley bog race. The dirtbike-traxs crew switched the track into the full adult version ready for the 11.30 am start , as the start time drew close crowds started to gather around the first of the bogs , just after 11.30am the first wave, of riders approached the bogs, during the early stages young Gary Daniels lead the expert class, quite an achievement as this was his first outing in the expert class in the National Putoline hare scramble championship, it was during the time he was leading that he set the overall fastest lap of the day, but the Biffster Sandiford Husqvarna was closing in and by lap 4 took up the lead, riding the Husqvarna TE250 the Biffster cruised around the remaing laps to take another victory in the National Putoline hare scramble championship, with Gary Daniels taking a fine second place, Adam Smith took third place . The clubman E1 top spot was claimed by dbt rider Josh Bendell on his NTB supported Husqvarna wr 125, while David Wilson secured the clubman open win. Local rider John Lofthouse not only won the RAS sport hole shot award, but then blasted on around the burley track for 8 laps to take the top veterans award with Brett Haley second. Some of the sportsmen found the track slow going but not John Calvert who won the sportsman E1 class or Richard Spencer who took first place in the sportsman open class. As the riders filtered back to the car back it was clear that despite the hellish weather conditions over the last weeks in the Lancashire area the Burnley venue had provided a great day out on the bikes, with the riders revelling in the muddy conditions, the dirtbike-traxs crew had pulled of another mega event despite the appalling weather conditions, hopefully the weather will be back on track by the time the championship visits Bolton by Bowland on the 24th august.
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