Publishing this to the blog as I go along. Input welcome, either as a comment here or by email to classictrials@googlemail.com
STARTED A VERY ROUGH TEXT
A tough but enjoyable trial despite some unhappiness about a couple of the sections.
There was snow for some on the journey to the Lands End start. A forerunner of the cold weather to come!
The first two sections were controversial for two reasons. At the Felons Oak restart the lines were very close together, perhaps as little as twelve inches. For saloons where the driver can’t actually see the wheels getting inside the box it could be a bit of a lottery. Also the second board was only visible behind the first one when you had actually arrived at the restart. Very tricky. The rules were clearly defined in the route-card, no straddling, despite the pre-event debate.
Next came Beggars Roost, with its usual re-start for some classes. The issue here is that the restart box was defined by four "R" boards, off the track on a bank to the left. Very different to the diagram in the route-card. It was possible to by-pass the box and some of the non-restarters did just that. My understanding is they were marked as failing the hill. It will be interesting to see how the organisers deal with this in the results.t
With the Beggars restart being on a soft surface this caught out quite a few competitors who couldn’t find the traction to pull away unless they stopped high in the box.
There was a Special Test at Crook Horn Hill before Beggars, in the same woods as the Stoney Street section which can no longer be used because of right-of-way issues. It’s well worth the diversion away from Porlock Hill just for the run down into and out of the valley that follows! What a glorious tarmac rally stage that would make.
With Riverton unusable at the moment Rodneys Revenge was next on the agenda. Situated in forestry this is well known to competitors on local one day trials who tackled it on the Chariman’s Trophy a few weeks before. It was a tough challenge, steep and slippery with a tough restart for class eight. There were a lot of failures in all the classes, Mike Pearson was one of many to roll backwards with spinning wheels when he tried to get away. Amongst the early numbers only Brian Partridge (Canon) and Nick Farmer (Canon-Alfa) could restart. With so many failures involving a long reverse in the dark delays soon built up.
Cutliffe Lane and Sutcombe were their usual selves. Not too problematic but always there to trap the unwary. Darracott was not to far away, with an artificial restart situated around the first corner. This time taped off to make the route totally clear.
Ted Holloway was manning the Widemouth Bay Holding Control on the beach. Fortunately he had his van with side doors and was able to shelter from the cold win blowing in from the sea. Ted was working the control with Mike Fisher who couldn’t take part on his Bultaco due to an ankle injury.
Later numbers who had holdups at Beggars and Rodneys Revenge were further delayed when a truck got stuck on the cliff road, blocking the route and necessitating a time consuming diversion to Crackington. Fortunately most were Cornish starters who knew the area well.Crackington hadn’t experienced the usual heavy localised rain shower and was easier than usual, despite the orange crud that had been dumped. There was an un-substantiated rumour that a fore-end loader dumped a bucket of water on the section to spice things up for later numbers!
Classical Gas 