by Hazel MacDonald and Stuart Cairney
We had three Falcon crews at the Finlake Holiday complex near Chudleigh on 1st March for the start of this years Torbay. With two runs up Simms on the agenda it had lot’s of promise, and what an event it tuned out to be! Starting with a special test a few yards from the start. This consisted of a short blast along a straight bumpy track, followed by about 200 yards on tarmac, which included a couple of sharp turns. It was here that Murray MacDonald put down his marker, recording fastest overall time. Beating some Escort drivers who were indulging in some exuberant sideways motoring (and were risking exclusion if they went on the grass)! It was an amazing special test, more of a special stage really.
The first observed section was Simms. At this point it was Simms 2 Murray 2 for the Mac’s, but afterwards it was Simms 2 Murray 3. The others weren’t so fortunate. Brain Alexander got a two, while Stuart Cairney took a bad line and ground to a halt below the three marker.
From here it was on to Lower Dean. The lower part of this hill looks a bit like a moonscape with lots of bumps, all out of phase. Then there are some horrendous gullies near the top, after the class 6-8 restart. Brian retired after this hill, which caught a few people out. Baddaford Lane followed, but was not too bad this year, only class 8 had a restart, but nearly half the 16 motorcycles scored a 6 here.
The next hill was scheduled to be Middle Rocombe, which is the hill that the ‘men’ tackle on the Exeter, whilst the girls in their tin tops fail the restart on Slippery Sam!! However, a last minute re-route denied competitors a look at what Fred Gregory calls ‘The hill from hell’ and they went straight to Higher Rocombe (Slippery Sam). In the daylight he restart, which was in the usual place, was starting to look well cut up. No Falcon fails today and Stuart even found the tight right hand slot afterwards! Higher Shells followed, just a mile down the road and was cleaned by most. From here it was back to Finlake for another special test and the lunch halt. Murray was clean and leading the class at this point with Stuart on three.
After lunch came Finlake sections 7, 8 and 9. You drove up the hill a few yards and pulled into a lay by affair. On the marshals’ instructions competitors tackled the first hill, quickly followed by the second and then a third, through heavily rutted clay. It was 6,000 all the way for the Mac’s and JAZ powered it’s way through. Not so for Stuart who was swallowed up by an enormous crater on “three” and had to be towed out, but with aces like Paul Bartlemann stuck as well he didn’t feel to bad! Hero of the Day award must go to the guy who had the job of getting down in the mud to attach the tow rope – he was absolutely covered in it!
There were some ambiguities in the route card now and the next road section saw groups of cars parked at road junctions, having a conference to decide the correct route, with a lengthy detour up the dual carriageway and back for those who got it wrong. Eventually everyone found Northwood, which was no problem with all the Falcons clear. However, section 10, Pitt Farm (Waterless Lane) was a problem for a lot of people. Stuart’s Imp didn’t have enough ground clearance and needed a push to clear the deep muddy ruts. Murray provided excellent entertainment as he went sideways, scuffed the wing and filled the bumper with mud.
Tipley was next and stopped all of class 4. Stopping astride a restart line, rather than in a box, does not allow much room for manoeuvre. When, by what ever means, competitors did finally get clear of the restart there was no time to gain momentum before arriving at the class 6,7 & 8 restart. Murray kept saying “I hate that Tipley” and after a great deal of effort, especially from Hazel, they got away from the line, only to get stuck on the re-start designed for the other classes. A lot of cars wrecked tyres here, Stuart amongst them.
Lenda Lane was the next section. It was supposed to be sub divided 12 – 0, but instead they had put a restart in a deep crater half way up, which defeated all class 3 and all but Nathan Mitchell and Giles Greenslade in class 4. Murray’s class lead going out the window at this point. If you were in an Imp the problems started before the section. Two drainage pipes had been laid across the entrance track with just enough gap in between for an Imp wheel to drop in. Stuart and Jim Scott had to throw their passenger’s out in order to increase the ground clearance!
Then it was back to Simms, now pretty slippery, with two restart lines on the steep bit, one for classes 6&7 and one for class 8. Only Nathan and Murray went clean in class 4, Stuart managing another three. All that remained now was an 8 mile run back to Finlake and the final section, a PCT like climb of a mound. It had a slippery camber on the right. You had to keep as straight as possible, maintain speed and try not to slide across to the right. Murray floored it (I think this is the correct expression) and it worked.
Murray came third in class behind Giles Greenslade and Nathan Mitchell who won the class. Giles got a two on each attempt at Simms and failed the Tipley re-start but managed to clean Lenda Lane. Leaving Murray with12 and those two with 10 each. First position in the class was decided on special test times and it went to Nathan Mitchell in his Skoda.
A challenging trial, tough on the cars but well organised. The overall win went to “Super Dud” who went round clean.
- Overall Winner – Dudley Sterry (MG J2) 0
- Class 1 & 2 – Peter Treliving (Austin Seven) 2
- 3 – Paul Bartleman (Escort) 9
- 4 – Nathan Mitchell (Skoda) 10
- 5 – Dennis Greenslade (Reliant) 15
- 6 – Gary Browning (VW) 6
- 7 – Adrian Marfell (VW-Alfa) 0
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