Neil Chatham takes Gold at the ISDE in Finland
Neil Chatham
At his first attempt Neil Chatham has won a gold medal at motorcycling’s equivalent to the Olympics in Kotka, Hamina, Finland. The International Six Day Enduro covered over 1000 miles over the roughest terrain imaginable. The weather did not help with thunder and lightning drowning the course and causing flooding in sections of the special tests. 360 of the world’s best riders took part with Neil participating in the SACU Scottish team with Ricky Mair and Frazer Norrie. Each rider had to complete the full course with no outside assistance including all aspects of maintaining the bike, changing tyres, brake pads and any other problems that occurred while riding from 9 o’clock in the morning until 5pm in the evening at which point they had 15 minutes to work on the bike before it was locked away for the night. Specific parts of the bike are marked and checked at the end of each day and if a part has been replaced the rider would be excluded.
The biggest problem on the first day was keeping the speed down as there were speed limits on many of the dirt roads; several riders were caught for speeding and excluded from the event. All three Scottish riders finished the week with a motocross on Saturday which determined the final places.
During the week Neil had to keep to his time schedule despite the rain, negotiate his way over rocks and through the difficult special tests. The week did not go without a number of minor problems, a sticking throttle on day one, a lost rear wheel nut and he temporarily lost his front brake all fixed with the tools he carried. Neil’s KTM really lived up it’s reputation to be ‘Ready to Race as it only arrived a week before it was due to be taken to Finland by the Army support.
Once it was all over on Saturday the Scottish team had one of its most successful finishes, 9th place in the club team class. Neil Chatham earned a gold medal with Ricky Mair and Frazer Norrie finishing with silver medals. Neil finished second British Club team rider 15th Club rider overall and 9th in his class for his particular motorbike and the highlight was a 5th place finish in the final special test on the Friday. Neil earned a Gold medal as a rider who finished within 10% of the leading rider in his class overall.
The Scottish Team
Neil said afterwards ‘the SACU took me out as a spectator to Portugal in 2009 and I knew what I had to do, I was in a position to earn a gold medal from the first day and that was my goal, to do enough to earn a gold medal but not damage the bike or myself so I could change tyres and work on the bike every evening when I got back. My KTM was brilliant and caused very few problems over the five days. I would like to thank the SACU for this opportunity and thank all the support team who came out to Finland with us, especially the team manager Sam Davidson. I would also like to thank everyone who helped raise the money to give the team the chance to compete at the highest level.’
Neil Chatham is supported by KTM UK, Drysdale Motorcycles, Metzeler, Fox, Shell Lubricants, Jewelultra Diamondbrite and Hardcore Racing.
