By Russell Colvin
THREE Bridges motocross star Daniel ‘Chucky’ Sanders went into the Husqvarna Australia Wildwood Rock Extreme Enduro last Sunday as one of the race favourites after winning last year.
This iconic event at Wildwood, now in its seventh year, is nothing like the Australian Off-Road Championship (AORC) that Sanders has been racing in, which saw him take out this year’s overall and E3 category championship with the KTM Australia Off-Road Team.
The 12km enduro is made up of massive rocks and hill climbs.
Sanders managed to post fifth fastest in the prologue heat with a time of 2:41.006, which saw him starting off on the second row.
After nailing a good start for the main event, Sanders led the group that he was in for the first half of the lap.
However, on one the first technical hill climbs, he just missed a ‘sneaky’ little line-up on the grass which forced him to take to the real hard rocky stuff.
“I just misplaced the wheels, so I just rolled it down the hill a bit and in the process just hurt the body a little bit,” Sanders said.
Drama was to strike again, this time on the sixth and final lap when he looped out on one of the hill climbs, which resulted in a broken throttle housing.
Sanders showed his determination and finished the race by pulling on the throttle cable.
Overall, Sanders came home in 13th place, and in eighth place in the Pro class, with a total time of 3.52:57.051.
“It was just one of those days,” Sanders said, who admitted this year’s event was tougher than 2015.
Sanders will now turn his attention to the Australian Four Day Enduro (A4DE), which kicks off on 16 November in Mansfield.
