2011 Round 1 FIM Asian Enduro for Chiang Mai

Mark Rossi

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2011
There will be a 3 round Fim Asian off-road endurance championship held in North Thailand
The first round being in Chiang Dao 12&13 of February 2011
The 2nd and 3rd round have not had their dates set yet. But I believe they will be held in Doi Maesalong and Mae hong son later in the year.
I have been told there is a local enduro being held in Chiang Dao this weekend the 29th of January
and the tracks will be similar to those used for the Asian event if you are after a sneak preview of the terrain.
 
2011 Asia Off-road Enduro Championships scedule
Round 1- February 12th Chiang Dao
Round 2- February 13th Chiang Dao
Round 3- May 28th Doi Maesalong
Round 4- May 29th Doi Maesalong
Round 5- July 23rd Mae Hongson
Round6- July 24th Mae Hongson
 
Some photo's of Saturday 12th February's racing

Some photo's of Saturday 12th February's racing

Mark Rossi has a 6 second lead at the end of Saturdays riding.

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Mark Rossi showing how it should be done (look how clean he still is compared to the others!)
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Different lap, but same control (now people standing behind)!
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The muddy hole got deeper & deeper
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Some got stuck, here Mark Rossi squeezing by
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Some were totally submerged
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The bikes
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Thanks for the post Phil. Now we need to get you to move beyond the mud hole. I reckon it was either a beer keg or some PG gal that kept you riveted to the same two feet of turf eh Phil???

Great to see Rossi behind the bars again in competition. I also see a glimpse of Lek getting through the mudhole also on one lap. Is that his WR drowned out in the mud also? It looks like him spectating by the side of the hole later in the race. What was their opinion of the race?

Did you hear how the trails were for the race? How was the turnout? How many special tests did they have and how long were they?



Thanks for posting.
 
Justin - Everywhere else was too dusty too photograph! So I stayed there and watched the mayhem.


Lek wasn't there, he went to an event in Samoeng
 
It was a great event guys, some technical sections, lots of race time (+1hr 45min of special stage racing per day) and mostly single track.
The Asia Open Enduro Race is now been altered to 4, 2 day events with the possibility of a 5th event as a grand finale event in Pattaya..
The 4th event will be on the weekend of October 29/30. The destination to be advised, but it will be in North Thailand.
I spent the weekend discussing the future of the new Asia championships with "Mackey" the president of FIM Asia. FIM decided to run all rounds of the championships in Thailand. Thailand is the best and easiest country to access and run these events. We have plenty of off-road riding areas, good hospitals, and local government are more than willing to open their towns and cities to the event.
What FIM are trying to do is setup a supply of motorcycles and a service crew for international competitors to use. They are discussing the possibilities of a motorcycle manufacturer coming on-board and helping supply the bikes.
This was the first round of the new look event and I feel the local promoters did a good job.
If thing go to plan the event will grow to be a major event for international enduro riders.
On a personal note. It was a fun and strenuous event to compete in. I really enjoyed the racing and the competition was fair. Sadly i finished second overall, I had around a 50 second lead going into the final MX test. But lost the event because of a 1 minute penalty, given for a suspected jump start in the Lemans style start.
After the MX event I was notified of my penalty, which left me 13 seconds behind the winner. It was disappointing to loose in such a manner after working so hard to build the lead. The start was set by a count down beeper which activated a single gate to drop set to the side, this was our signal to start
I watched the previous 3 class races and thought i had the timing correct, I was using the 6th beep as the timer hit zero as my indicator. Either my judgement was out, or the marshal watching over the start, was using the noise from the slap of the gate after it fell as his indicator.
I am hoping the person videoing the event will have taped this so I can clarify if it was a bad call or personal error.
 
Here are the results, however they are a little hard to read.
Day1
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Day2
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The boys from Japan, Nopparratt on the left and his mechanic Bubba on the right. Nop was a very good rider, a SX racer who had ridden AMA SX in Anaheim. Riding a rented KLX 250 in the trail bike class he ran second.
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The start platform with the zero bikes onboard
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Jada's dinner table (just thought I would throw this pic in)
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This is the start gate that started the final MX test?
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During the final MX test
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CC test 1 day1
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Sorry for the lack of photos, and them being of me. My camera battery became faulty, so I only had these photos that my nephew took with his camera.
 
Excellent report Mark. Congrats on the good ride. Very nice to see Nopporrat lining up for these events. Is he running primarilly in japan or Thailand now?

Good to see the FIM attempting to put on a well run event system for the enduro riders in the country. It will be most interesting to see how things pan out with their intentions. I know in the past they had grand starting ceremonies at Thapae gate in the middle of Chiang Mai, complete with a decent amount of international riders showing up. Lets hope they can get the backing and attendance they need to run the professional events.

Ballpark how many riders showed up for this event?

Was there a reason they chose to start you to the side of the MX gate instead of using the gate as it was designed?

105 minutes at race pace is a lot, I'm sure it was a challenging event. Other Enduros I've done over here only had 60 minutes per day. What was the feedback you heard from other riders of the event? Would an average trail rider be able to get through the event or did they have any obstacles that would be considered impossible for the average Joe?

So all the times we've ridden together I've only ever seen you wear jerseys, what was rationale for wearing a jersey one day and body armour another? A new trend perhaps?
 
Excellent report Mark. Congrats on the good ride. Very nice to see Nopporrat lining up for these events. Is he running primarilly in japan or Thailand now?

Good to see the FIM attempting to put on a well run event system for the enduro riders in the country. It will be most interesting to see how things pan out with their intentions. I know in the past they had grand starting ceremonies at Thapae gate in the middle of Chiang Mai, complete with a decent amount of international riders showing up. Lets hope they can get the backing and attendance they need to run the professional events.

Ballpark how many riders showed up for this event?
Nop is riding in Japan, He usually rides team green on a KXF 250.
At this event only 30 riders, as the entry was 2,000bht. This is a issue for FIM Asia, the entry is expensive for locals. Mostly the only riders showing are people who feel they have a chance of prize money to recoup their overheads. In the future races, they plan to hold the Asia championships and North Thai championships together in the same event. This will increase the overall turnout.
Was there a reason they chose to start you to the side of the MX gate instead of using the gate as it was designed?
I guess they didnt want to scratch the paint on the new fantango toy.

105 minutes at race pace is a lot, I'm sure it was a challenging event. Other Enduros I've done over here only had 60 minutes per day. What was the feedback you heard from other riders of the event? Would an average trail rider be able to get through the event or did they have any obstacles that would be considered impossible for the average Joe?
It was 3hrs of Special stage/sprint time over the 2 days each day being 1-1/2 hours. The way they are running the event now, is you are given your freelance time, however you can check in early. Then from here you usually started 1 minute after your freelance check in time. As it was a advantage to be in-front of the pack the freelance was important to get through as quickly as possible so as not to loose your start position to the people behind you.
So basically to give you a idea, we started the first SS on Saturday at 11am. We where finished racing the SS sections by 2pm. So it was go-go-go.
To answer your question about difficulty, They ran a lot of water sections, the most difficult ran about 400m along the banks on the Ping river. Sometimes you where riding on loose rocks the size of footballs and then through water that at time became about 50cm deep. I thought the stage was good, however I did mention to the orginiser's it may have been to much for the veterans and the super cup riders, It was well suited riding for a fanny clutch.

So all the times we've ridden together I've only ever seen you wear jerseys, what was rationale for wearing a jersey one day and body armour another? A new trend perhaps?
In the forest racing I usually where body armor, If anybody has every clipped your shoulder on a tree racing through single track you would understand why. My simpler, cooler mx set broke, So Saturday starting at 11am I took the cooler option and rode a little more reserved with no armor. After Saturdays racing there was only 12 second between myself and 3rd so I wanted to up the ante a little. Safety first.

As always in Asia it still was not without its unforeseen dangers, We had 1 section of fast dirt road gravely special section of about 7km linking up a loop in the single track. This section had the bike pinned trying to get all the speed it had (probably about 120km) Over the weekend I came head on with 3 pickups on the restricted race track?
The S.S. section in a FIM enduro are not supposed to exceed 80km top speed for safety reasons, and obviously the track is supposed to be clear. I guess the farmers coming down the road are aware we are racing on the road, but most have know idea at the speeds our race bikes can travel. It is sketchy and daunting when you are starting position is numero uno.
 
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