Matthew Gauci wins ASMK Enduro Championship 2015/2016

The event was held at Quarry – ‘Il-Barriera tas-Sejba’ limits of Mqabba where 21 competitors participated while divided into two classes.

During the day the attention was on Matthew Gauci riding a Sherco motorcycle and Joseph Scicluna riding a KTM who won the highest championship points standings in the previous 5 events. Though Gauci topped the classification Scicluna stood a chance of winning the championship only if Gauci failed to win top placing in this last event. Yet Gauci was the rider with the highest chance to win this title for the first time.
 
During the Pole Position of the day we saw high competition between James Zahra on a Yamaha and Joseph Scicluna on a KTM motorcycle with Zahra ending registering the best time at the Pole Position of 2 minutes 37.06 seconds while Scicluna follow with 0:50 seconds lag. The fight for the lead started when the Matthew Gauci entered the scene on his Sherco motorcycle to finish registering his best time of 2 minutes 27.82 seconds leaving Zahra in 2nd place by a 0.53 seconds margin.
 
The Second Heat was very well expected to determine the real 2015/2016 Championship Winner and Runner-Up. During this Heat we saw the Bernard Sammut on a KTM motorcycle marking his will to do his best to enter the scene possibly between Gauci, Zahra and Scicluna. Gauci managed to continue improving on his first Lap time marking the best time of the day with by recording a 2 minutes 21.39 seconds Lap. Although nobody managed to beat Gauci’s time the fight continued for second place.  Despite Scicluna being the favourite to take 2nd place overall, young Sammut registered the 2nd Best Overall Time of 2 minutes 24.96 seconds while Scicluna registered his best Lap time with 2 minutes 26.62 seconds. This resulted in Sammut winning the 2nd in Class and ahead of Scicluna on the day but Scicluna still retained the Enduro Championship Runner-Up title for the first time.
 
The Situation in the category for smaller capacity motors we saw Andrea Scicluna on his KTM winning this class with a best time of 2 minutes and 40 seconds. Andrea was followed in second place by Trials biker Rowen Bonello on a Yamaha who closed the day with a time of 2 minutes 47.90 seconds. The third place finisher was Elvin Debono on a KTM motorcycle who registered his best time of 2 minutes 57.21 seconds. Elvin is also a competitor in Motocross but is also a very keen rider in Enduro racing.
 
An overview of the classification of the National Enduro Championship 2015/2016 which is now officially closed declares Champion is Matthew Gauci on a Sherco motorcycle who won this title for the first time. During this season Gauci won four competitions from six and in two of them Gauci finished one in 2nd place and another in 3rd place. In total Gauci won 112 points. Runner - Up is Joseph Scicluna on a KTM who had to encounter the pressure to the end of the season. Joseph won two events from the six events while in two of them he finished in second, in another he won third and in another he won tenth place thus Joseph closed the championship standings with 94 points. Third place finisher is Ian Scicluna on a  KTM with 65 points. Ian also competes in Trials.
 
Meanwhile the ASMK events continue on Sunday 17th April 2016 with a Trials Competition which will be the sixth event of the ASMK Pasta Poiatti 2015/2016 Championship of the Trials bikers. The event will be held in the Quarry of Targiet Ghomor, limits of t’Alla w’Ommu limits of Naxxar. The event begins at 9: 00am. New Trials bikers and photographers are welcome. More information can be found in the ASMK website named www.asmk.org.mt and on the Facebook pages named ‘A.S.M.K. Malta’ or ‘Assocjazzjoni Sport Muturi u Karozzi’. One can make contact by email at: - [email protected]