Night X Biker’s Warehouse

On Friday night (23 January) the first Night X (Endurocross) took place at the Biker’s Warehouse playground held by Enduro World. The course was set among the urban houses just outside Biker’s Warehouse which sparked a lot of interest from spectators and resulted in a packed house of excited fans.

With practice out the way riders took to the course in various qualification heats in both the Expert and Pro classes. Some rainfall made for some interesting racing as the course became more slick. This event also revealed some of the new 2015 teams and riders, and was the first event they took part in to kick off the year.

Richard van der Westhuizen finished in a respectable 2nd at Night X — Richard van der Westhuizen

Kirsten Landman dominated through the heats going into the final with a bunch of wins under her belt in the Expert class. The standout riders in the Pro class were Brian Capper, Kyle Erasmus and Richard van der Westhuizen, the former 12 time SA motocross champion who has come out of retirement to try his hand at Enduro. Capper and Erasmus qualified straight through to the Pro main with ease. Van der Westhuizen had a few bad starts but made his way through the pack easily to the screaming of track-side fans and qualified for the main.

Brian Capper looking good on the Enduro course — Brian Capper

In the Expert main event Kirsten Landman took the early lead on her KTM and pulled away from there, absolutely destroying the competition to take the overall win. Rudolph Pretorius finished in 2nd with Natasha Rugani following in 3rd.

Kirsten Landman in the lead at Night X — Kirsten Landman

The Pro main was full of excitement as Brian Capper, Kyle Erasmus and Richard van der Westhuizen fell into 1st, 2nd and 3rd respectively. Capper pulled away and Van der Westuizen gave chase to Erasmus gaining ground with every lap. The masses where on the feet cheering the riders on. Toward the end of the race Capper got caught out in a section which saw Erasmus and Van der Westhuizen pass. Van der Westhuizen was close but not close enough to take the lead and put in an impressive performance at his first Endurocross race to finish in 2nd, on the Yamaha he had only ridden for the first time that day. Kyle Erasmus took the well deserved win with Brian Capper recovering to take 3rd. A Yamaha 1, 2 and 3 finish.

Kyle Erasmus wins the night X Enduro race — Kyle Erasmus

Night X was turned out to be a hugely successful event and a whole bunch of fun to watch. A big congrats goes out to all involved in putting the event together and we hope there are many more to follow.

Photos by Rich Sutherland Photography