Last weekend (the 24th-25th August Bank Holiday weekend) saw the return of the annual off road racing event ‘The Dawn to Dusk’ located at Walters Arena, South Wales.

Hundreds of riders flocked to the area to take part in the Youth (2 Hour), 6 Hour, 12 Hour, 24 Hour racing plus a brand new 10 Hour night race, the event attracted huge numbers of Marathon/Solo riders, two man and three man teams, plus a new record was set for Funduro Enduro competitors (a pre-race, single lap short motorcross stage held in elimination heats until the final three shoot it out to take glory).

The Saturday afternoon Youth (2 Hour) race held for youngsters between the ages of 10 and 16 years old kicked off with the Senior class rider Daniel Davies coming first -  the track was designed to provide enough of a challenge without any real extreme sections. With Dean Ewards coming second, followed by Liam Barlett in third place - the youngsters each completed 7 laps of the track.

Following a briefing for the 24 Hour race teams from Nick Plumb (Touratech UK’s MD) the riders raced away at 7:00pm undertaking the ultimate off-road challenge the UK racing scene has to offer. Individual riders and teams leaving in classes dug deep to push themselves through the whole day and night of racing.  At 7:15pm the brand new 10 Hour night race started (made up of bikes of 575cc or less of a single or twin cylinder format beginning with a Lemans start) with groups leaving in waves depending on their allocated classes.

With the sun rising on the Sunday morning the riders  turned off their beams to continue with the remainder of the day course. With a 7:00am start the 12 Hour race competitors rolled up to the start line to warm up their engines eager to tackle the terrain ahead, amongst the fresh 12 Hour riders the 24 hour hard core entrants rode on. The 10 Hour race ended at 5:15am – Single Cylinder format winner John Hustwaite crossed the line in first place after completing 24 laps, closely followed by Steve Rose and William Bowman claiming second (22 laps) and third place (17 laps) respectively. Twin Cylinder winner Chris Prickett put in a respectable 8 laps.

After a punishing ride the chequered flag waved an end to the  24 Hour race  - 4 rider Sportman team winners RJS SUPERBIKE completed 48 laps, 3 rider Sportman team MPM Racing came first completing 42 laps, 3 Rider Clubman team SUNDAY SIDE completed a 52 lap win, 2 Rider Clubman team ROEGHOUWERS achieved a win with 50 laps. Other class winners included Marathon Clubman MARATHON BRIERLEY (42 laps), Marathon Veteran MARATHON GAUNT (37 laps), Marathon Expert MARATHON BILES (47 laps), and 2 Rider Expert winners PSV DIRECT achieved 54 laps.

The 6 Hour Race (the perfect introduction to endurance off-road riding, and a favourite with first time Dawn to Dusk competitors) began at 1pm on Sunday afternoon. With a short run to their bikes with a LeMans style start the riders were keen to swing their legs over their machines and experience the event.

The entire event finished at 7pm once the overall (and well deserved) 24 Hour race winner with 54 laps PSV DIRECT crossed the line, and the mass event chequered flag finish looked absolutely spectacular.

Over £2000 in prize money was handed out at the event, comments we have received from the competitors have been the most positive we have ever had – the aim this year was to reduce the level of extremes to make them ‘slightly’ easier in order to encourage everyone to have a go, a strategy which achieved the desired result of ensuring that all riders/classes fully enjoyed the racing.

Dawn to Dusk 2013 was a great success - not only due to the weather and track conditions (which really gave the riders a boost allowing them to put their off road riding skills to the test) but also because of the excellent support staff/marshals all of whom put in the extra effort.

The next Dawn to Dusk event will  take place during the August 2014 Bank Holiday weekend, our goal is to improve the event year on year and for 2014 it will be bigger and better than ever!

For a complete list of race results