Testing Trial 2000

The sun didn’t shine kindly on the MCC’s summer jolly on 9th July. Never-less 70 odd boys and girls, of many ages, wound their way down their beloved A303 to Cucklington near Wincanton for their fun day. John Aley’s baby is a one-off, neither a trial nor an autotest, but a mixture of the two. Perhaps you could describe it as a series of short speed hill climbs on grass with a risk of not getting up the hill!

by Michael Leete with lots of help and pictures from John Salter, Chris Phillips and Stuart Cairney

Gary Booth got 3rd in Rhona Boswell’s Buckler Mk 6
Geoff Hilton picking a wide line to stay of the greasy stuff on his way to Ftd and the John Aley Trophy  on his 500 Honda.
Class B winners Geoff Westcott and Robert Vivlan.
Clive Kalber set the fatest four wheel time in his “new” Escort.

The class structure is pretty simple. A is for Solo Bikes, B chairs and three wheelers, C closed cars and D open cars. The solo’s are by far the quickest at this game so the overall winner is awarded The John Aley trophy on an index system related to the class performances from the previous year.

Competitors did four rounds of nine or ten sections which were both timed and observed. They became greasier as the day went on and Clerk of the Course Dick Peachey had to simplify things during the day as the conditions deteriorated and in the end had to leave a couple of sections out entirely for the final round.

Geoff Hilton dominated the proceedings on his 1976 Yamaha XT500, setting fastest time of the day overall, fastest time on three of the four rounds and winning on index, so he was definitely the winner which ever way you look at things! Geoff was chased home by Trevor Hughes on a Honda L185S and Neil Browne on a 37 year old 650 Triumph twin, a varied selection of machinery!

Geoff Westcott and Robert Vivlan led the three wheeled contingent home on their Triumph chair. It was interesting to see that the chairs were faster than the three wheelers by a considerable order of magnitude.

Clive Kalber was the fastest car by a country mile in his Mk1 Escort, resplendent in it’s new body shell. David Haizelden won the FWD in his Golf ahead of some interesting competition including a supercharged 2CV and Colin and Michael Weeks in their familiar PCT Mini.

John Ludford was fastest open car in his Marlin ahead of Tony Rothin in his Cannon which now sports an Alfa Romeo engine! It was great to see Rhona Boswell’s Buckler Mk 6 finish third in this class in the hands of it’s fettler Gary Booth.

The 3 wheelers didn’t fair very well in the slippery conditions, but Steve White coped well in his Riley and won the veterans award.
Solo’s
Geoff HiltonYamaha XT500539.2Index andJohn Aley 
Challenge Trophy
Trevor HughesHonda XL 185S581.2First
Neil BrowneTriumph Metisse595.5Second
Dave MasonYamaha Serrow630.8Third
Chairs and Three Wheelers
Geoff Westcott/Robert VivlanTriumph TR7616.2First and Jack Pouncy
Trophy
John Grimshaw/George CookTriumph 635.5Second
Michael Crocker/Trvor GriffithsYamaha XS637.1Third
Closed Cars
Clive and Tommy KalberFord Escort Mk1638.9First
Martin and Tom JonesVW Variation Special798.7Second
Steve and Les AustinVW Baja821.6Third
David and Aaron HaizeldenVW Golf846.4FWD Trophy
Open Cars
John and Sue LudfordMarlin809.5First
Tony and Anne RothinCannon Alfa Romeo823.5Second
Gary Booth/TBABuckler Mk 6879.5Third
Steve and Joanne WhiteRiley 2/4 ST Tourer985.3Veteran’s award

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