Wade Young takes back-to-back wins at Wildwood Rock Extreme Enduro, his second at the Australian hard enduro race.
In dry and dusty conditions, Sherco Factory Racing rider, Wade Young successfully defended his Wildwood Rock Extreme crown on November 4. Now in its ninth year running, the 2018 Wildwood course delivered what many said was the most brutal track so far for the 162 riders starting the main event.
A tight and gruelling track made it very difficult to pass riders and forced riders to choose carefully about when to try and on what object or area. Some of the new area’s that were the most demanding were the Force Accessories Staircase, Cambodia Motorbiketours Fender Bender Hill, Honda Rock Wall Climb, Liqui Moly Oil Rock Garden and the Peter Stevens Log Climb each chewing riders up and drawing the energy out that was to keep them moving forward.
The shortened prologue track was a tough start to the event with little space between obstacles and main event start order determined by positions. New Zealand Sherco super star, Hamish Macdonald took the win in 1min 41s ahead of Australian Ruben Chadwick who completed a time of 1min 43s, with Young in third.
Prologue top five (determined front row starting group):
- Hamish Macdonald (NZ) 1min:41.16
- Ruben Chadwick (AUS) 1min:43.83
- Wade Young (NSA) 1min:44.94
- Tim Coleman (AUS) 1min:45.98
- Wade Ibrahim (AUS) 1min:48.26
When the main event gate dropped it was Ruben Chadwick who got the jump over Wade Young on the 12km track. Ruben held the 2018 Red Bull Romaniacs winner for just over half of the first lap before Wade took the lead and pushed forward with the pressure of many Gold Class riders eager to pounce on any mistake he might make.
“I new it was a four hour race and I made sure I rode as smooth as possible, the track was much tougher than last year and I really enjoyed it.” Said Yong afterwards.
Applying the pressure in second place was Australian Wade Ibrahim who finished 10m behind Young and was unaware of his position until he finished. Due to an injured rider the event was cut short overall by 30 minutes which meant the Gold class riders finished with the Silver and Bronze classes.
