Valleys Xtreme - January 29th-30th 2022 - 2 days of Extreme Enduro racing in the Welsh valleys. Saturday 29th was all about qualification and Sunday 30th was the main event day, consisting of a morning race and a separate afternoon race.

Saturday Qualifying:

In order to sort out the starting positions for Sunday's main events, qualifying took place on Saturday afternoon and into the early evening. First, there was a Speed Test, consisting of 1 practice run and then 2 timed runs, the fastest time of the 2 timed runs counting. Then a Super Enduro Test took place later in the day under floodlights, taking on the same format as the Speed Test to determine rider positions and row number for Sunday - row 1 would be the top 25 fastest rider times, row 2 the next fastest 25, and so on. Conditions were extremely wet!

AS3 Performance supported rider Harry Conner airing it out over the jumps in the Speed Test on Saturday (Photo by: Jason Jones).

Harry Conner did really well on his Husqvarna TE 300i in both qualifying tests, managing to get 3rd position overall to start on the front row and get a preferred gate pick for Sunday's morning race.

Another one of our supported enduro riders; Chris Brown, didn't have as good a qualifying session as planned on his Beta 300 RR, especially in the Super Enduro Test. He was held up in traffic on both of his timed runs, giving him a second row starting position for Sunday's afternoon race.

AS3 Performance supported rider Chris Brown attacking the wet conditions (Photo by: Vision Media).

Sunday Morning Race

Conditions were a bit better on Sunday's race day but still wet and slippery. The morning race track length was about 9.5 miles, with a race duration of 2 hours or 2 laps, depending what came first for each rider. The morning race was designed to be slightly "easier" than the afternoon race, although still challenging and STILL extreme!  

Our supported enduro rider, Harry Conner, took part in the morning race; his first time competing in the Valleys Xtreme event. He said, "I struggled to begin with on some slippery rocks but then found pace and rhythm and managed to relax on the bike".

He added, "I came into the event a bit blind, however after having done very well in both qualifying and race day, it's definitely an event I will be partaking in next season and will do the Afternoon Race next year. I really enjoyed this experience and time on the bike". Harry claimed 2nd place overall in the morning race, a fantastic result considering it was his first time there!

Harry Conner putting the Husqvarna TE 300i through it's paces and trying to navigate lines (Photo by: Jason Jones).

Sunday Afternoon Race 

The afternoon race track length was 10 miles, with a race duration of 3 hours or 3 laps, depending what came first for each rider. The extra 0.5 miles compared to the morning race was designed to be more difficult for the riders and in the words of Valley Xtreme's organiser's, "would not give riders much of a chance to catch their breath"!

Our supported enduro rider, Chris Brown, summed up his race: "pm race on Sunday was brilliant, an unreal extreme course. Not having a soft enough rear tyre set-up cost me a lot of time struggling with traction in the rocks, resulting in timing out at check point 2 on the 3rd and final lap. I am a bit disappointed how the weekend results went with injuries or mechanical issues too, but on to the next one".

It was a great effort for Chris to make it to CP2 on the final lap of the afternoon race, considering his problems. These things happen when racing Enduro and as he said, on to the next one! 

Chris Brown working his way through a difficult rock section on his Beta 300 RR (Photo by: Vision Media).

The overall winner of the afternoon race and whole event, plus the 1000 pounds prize money that went with it, was Jarvis Race Team's renowned Hard Enduro rider Jono Richardson on his Husqvarna TE 300i. Jono was a previous AS3 Performance sponsored rider from 2018-2020 when he rode the Beta 300 RR before being picked up by the Jarvis Race Team in 2021. 

Harry Conner with his 2nd place 2022 Valleys Xtreme morning race trophy.

The Valleys Extreme event was a great start to 2022 and we look forward to seeing the progress of our supported enduro riders throughout the season where we will feature many more race reports and updates. If you're a rider, event organiser or photographer that would like to be featured in our future blog posts please get in touch via our Contact page and we will be happy to discuss this.