The 36th Winterberg Enduro, run at the weekend in the Loerie area of the Eastern Cape, presented the 230-odd competitors with an almost completely new route, including a quarry, rocky mountains and river crossings.
It included two special timed sections of which one was a spectator-friendly motocross-style loop and the other a testing 13km racing section. The E1 (Open) and E2 (200cc) Class competitors had to complete each racing section twice.
Lots of rain in the weeks leading up to the race made the route dust-free - and then the gods smiled race day with crisp winter sunshine, setting the stage for an epic duel between Kiwi Chris Birch (KTM), who has been carrying all before him this season, and defending SA champion Jade Gutzeit (Yamaha).
Gutzeit, Winterberg winner in 2003, 2005 and 2010, was aiming at a fourth win on South Africa's most prestigious enduro, but had to settle for third in the end, behind Birch - whose name will appear on the trophy alongside that of his major sponsor, the legendary Alfie Cox, 10 times winner in the Winterberg back in the day - and teenager Marc Torlage (Yamaha), who took second and won the E2 Class.
Birch, Torlage and Gutzeit have all competed in international events and agreed that the Winterberg was the closest in feel on the South African calendar to a European event, although Birch commented that average speeds were high by international standards. He was thrilled to be back on top, however, after losing the previous enduro race to Gutzeit through having to stop to remove wire from the rear wheel of his KTM.
Birch, who has now won four of this season's five enduros, posted the fastest times on four of the five timed stages, having lost time in the first short stage when he wrong-slotted on the motocross track. Torlage won that stage; he later hit a tree with his head on the final short stage and was dizzy for a while, but finished second overall, only 21 seconds behind Birch, to claim his fourth E2 victory - and his best overall result - of the season.
Gutzeit came home 45 seconds behind Torlage and 66 ahead of another former winner, Altus de Wet (KTM) who was fourth overall and second in E2, to continue the tight battle for that title with Torlage. The final results were unexpectedly close, with only six seconds between De Wet and Brian Capper (KTM) in fifth.
Louwrens Mahoney (Yamaha) finished sixth overall, 66 seconds behind Capper and just ahead of Riaan van Niekerk and his KTM team mate, Darryl Curtis. There was no sighting lap and Curtis, who hadn't been out of the top five so far this season, lost a lot of time on the first long special stage and had to settle for eighth.
Local rider Timothy Young (Honda), however, made the most of home turf advantage to take his best result of the year with ninth overall and third in the E2 Class.
Before the Winterberg only three points separated Scott Bouverie (Yamaha) and Scott Scheepers (KTM) and that'll go down to the wire after the two riders dead-heated in the Winterberg (we said it was close!), sharing 10th overall.
Bradley van Aswegen (Yamaha) was 12th just ahead of Gray Dick (KTM) who had an enjoyable race with Nicholas Pienaar (Beta, 14th) and Dominic Mantle (KTM, 15th). 2006 winner, Juan "Bollie" van Rooyen (Kawasaki), out for the first time in 2011, finished 16th.
Senior Class defending champion, William "Wild Bill" Gillitt (KTM) bagged his fourth victory of the season, beating Stephen Landman (Gas Gas), Bruce Gargan (Yamaha) and Mike Morris (KTM), who retained his second position in the class championship.
Defending Master Class champion, Denzil Torlage (Marc's father, also on a Yamaha) remained unbeatable this season claiming his fifth consecutive win from Mark du Plessis (KTM), local rider, Stephen Stofberg (KTM) finished third and Barries Barnard (Honda).
The final round of the season, the the WFO Enduro, will be run on September 10 at Four Rivers Rafting in Champagne Valley, KwaZulu-Natal.