The European Classic Motocross Des Nations is an annual event that brings together riders from all over Europe. In 2005, our England were out for glory...

On Saturday 3rd September, twelve of England's best classic scrambles riders took part in the Classic Motocross Des Nations held at Dieskau, near Halle, Germany.

In all, ten European countries took part in the annual event, and England's team put on a formidable display to come away with a plethora of silverware, making the 1450 mile round trip more than worth while.

Each country entered four riders for each of the three race classes. The first class is for riders aged over 40 years, the next for over 50's and the third for over 60's.

Riders in the over 40's class are limited to riding motorcycles produced before 1972, and riders in the over 50's and over 60's classes may ride only pre 1970 and pre 1965 machinery, respectively.

Three of England's team members were from our region. Pat Aldridge, 62, a semi-retired motor engineer from Halesworth, Jim Aim, 68, owner of Jim Aim Motorcycles in Sible Hedingham, and Dave Roper, 53, who is chairman of the Sudbury Motorcycle Club have all ridden competitively since the 60's, their wealth of experience was sure to boost England's chances of victory.

Each class had two races, the over 40's riders were first to tackle this tight and twisty circuit. The 2005 British Scrambles Champion, Kevin Reed, was quick to haul his 1964 650cc Triumph off the start-line and got the holshot ahead of the other 39 riders. Fellow countrymen Carl Pope (650 Triumph) and Steve Adams (500 BSA) were quick to pursue but disaster struck when the pair collided and fell on the second jump of the first lap. Pope managed to continue the race, albeit with a badly cut right-arm which later resulted in a hospital visit and twenty-two stitches to repair the wound. Adams suffered a broken foot and, understandably, failed to finish the race.

While Pope and Adams were out of the running, Reed was battling for the lead with Finnish riders Alpo Viitanen (380 CZ) and Sami Backman (400 Husqvarna). At the chequered flag, Reed was in fourth with our lone 250cc over 40's England rider, Keith Best (250 Bultaco), finishing 13th.

In Race 2, Swedish rider Jörgen Göransson (380 CZ) was out to challenge Reed for first place. Reed had other ideas and kept a healthy lead to produce England's first win of the day. Pope and Adams' collision in race 1 dealt an unpleasant blow to England's over 40's points score and even with Best finishing in 14th place, ninth place overall was all the four-man team could produce.

Things looked more promising for our over 50's team, with all four riders producing very consistent riders to bring home a 2nd place overall. Dave Roper (650 Triumph Metisse) managed 14th and 13th places with Guy Winsor (500 Cheney ESO) producing the best result for the England side, netting 7th and 5th places.

Things were looking up for the England team, and the expectations for our four over 60's riders was high, particularly since team manager, Dave Gittins, had assembled one of the best over 60's teams England had ever seen.

Race 1 got underway with Terry Challinor (650 Triumph Metisse) getting the holshot and Jim Aim (650 Triumph Metisse) shortly behind him in fourth place. Pat Aldridge (650 Triumph Metisse) had managed 7th place but Vic Vaughan (650 Matchless) wasn't quite so lucky and fell, jamming the throttle wide open on his machine. Not willing to induce any penalty points on the England side for a DNF, Vaughan pushed the machine back, unhurt, to the pit area and had performed a temporary repair within seconds, allowing him to rejoin the race, in last place.

Further up the pack, Challinor was just about hanging on to the lead with the over 60's 2005 European Classic Scrambles Champion, Dutch rider Jan Keizer (500 Triumph), waiting for him to make a mistake. Aldridge was then involved in a six-bike pile-up, and although he rejoined the race, he was too far down the running to make any impression on the leaders.

Challinor was relentless in his riding ability and kept Keizer at bay to score the second 1st place of the day for the England side. Aim finished in fourth and Aldridge a credible 18th.

Race 2 started with each of the English foursome needing only to finish higher than 18th place if they were to be crowned champions. The start couldn't have gone more in England's favour, with all four riders filling the top seven positions by turn two. With Keizer making a bad start, Challinor could capitalize but Sweden's Roland Gummesson (500 Lito) had other ideas and overtook Challinor on lap three to take the chequered flag.

The England side, of four riders, came home in 2nd, 6th, 8th and 10th positions, meaning they had won the over 60's Motocross Des Nations class.

Classic Motocross Des Nations - Results

Over 40's Results

Race 1: 1 Alpo Vitamen (FIN), 2 Sami Backman (FIN), 3 Jörgen Göransson (SWE), 4 Kevin Reed (ENG), 5 Ueli Utzinger (SUI), 6 Tommy Karlsson (SWE), 7 Kari Laaksonen (FIN), 8 Joe Büsser (SUI), 9 Janda Pavel (CZ), 10 Anders Larsson (SWE)
Race 2: 1 Kevin Reed (ENG), 2 Jörgen Göransson (SWE), 3 Kari Laaksonen (FIN), 4 Alpo Vitamen (FIN), 5 Sami Backman (FIN), 6 Tommy Karlsson (SWE), 7 Ueli Utzinger (SUI), 8 Joe Büsser (SUI), 9 Janda Pavel (CZ), 10 Poul Kornum (DEN)
Overall Result: 1 FIN 22, 2 SWE 39, 3 SUI 59, 4 NED 109, 5 CZ 112, 6 ITA 126, 7 DEN 132, 8 GER 158, 9 ENG 171, 10 SCO 178

Over 50's Results

Race 1: 1 Hanácek Miroslav (CZ), 2 Göran Josefsson (SWE), 3 Thomas Öhlund (SWE), 4 Vilem Toman (GER), 5 Max Möckli (SUI), 6 John Bowier (NED), 7 Guy Winsor (ENG), 8 Martin Coleman (ENG), 9 Rolf Bauman (SUI), 10 Franko Pozzi (ITA)
Race 2: 1 Hanácek Miroslav (CZ), 2 Göran Josefsson (SWE), 3 Thomas Öhlund (SWE), 4 Peer Skytte (DEN), 5 Guy Winsor (ENG), 6 Franko Pozzi (ITA), 7 John Bowier (NED), 8 Jörgen Ahlström (SWE), 9 Martin Coleman (ENG), 10 Robbie van de Straat (NED)
Overall Result: 1 SWE 36, 2 ENG 56, 3 NED 69, 4 SUI 79, 5 CZ 85, 6 DEN 99, 7 BEL 116, 8 GER 134, 9 FRA 214, 10 SCO 214

Over 60's Results

Race 1: 1 Terry Challinor (ENG), 2 Jan Keizer (NED), 3 Roland Gummesson (SUI), 4 Jim Aim (ENG), 5 Tony Sullivan (SCO), 6 Jo Roelofs (NED), 7 Wolfgand Eissner (GER), 8 Wolfgand Büttner (GER), 9 Johan Roosink (NED), 10 Piet van Dijk (NED)
Race 2: 1 Roland Gummesson (SUI), 2 Terry Challinor (ENG), 3 Tony Sullivan (SCO), 4 Jo Roelofs (NED), 5 Jan Keizer (NED), 6 Jim Aim (ENG), 7 Jen Bakmand-Skovsen (DEN), 8 Vic Vaughan (ENG), 9 Wolfgand Büttner (GER), 10 Pat Aldridge (ENG)
Overall Result: 1 ENG 31, 2 NED 36, 3 GER 78, 4 SUI 80, 5 DEN 95, 6 SCO 105, 7 FRA 141, 8 CZ 143, 9 SUI 210, 10 FIN 259

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