Pete Hart, Mark Tooth and their team had a full entry, and ideal trialling weather, for The Allen which maintained its well established format. All the sections, with perhaps the exception of Nanny Hurns, being run on real old roads, with no Mickey Mouse stuff marked out with tape.
Togg Hill was a nice easy starter before venturing back across the M4 to Birch Hill. This starts on a nice stony surface before venturing into deep, glutinous, mud as the track goes uphill alongside a field. The problem is that there is quite a camber, dragging the cars against the side of the bank where the ruts are deepest. The early numbers were at a definite disadvantage, as were class eight who had a restart. It was necessary to build up a fair head of steam to get through the mud and Duncan Welch was one who didn’t have the speed to get through.
Ground clearance was a big factor as well as speed, and none of the sports cars in class 5, or Stuart Cairneys Imp made it though to the summit. Stuart had the misfortune to get a puncture and got wedged against the bank, necessitating a Land Rover tow as did Andrew Brown later on. The most spectacular climbs came in class two. Adrian Dommett and Bill Bennett just stormed up, but climb of the day was Jeremy Flann, whose passenger bounced the little Austin Seven up at about half a snails pace!
Bitton Lane was all about the usual slippery restart, for all, accept classes one and two, on a corner surfaced with polished stones. Dave Nash and Neil Bray couldn’t get The MGeetle away but at least this time it was down to them rather than the bad advice they had received from Michael Leete on Birch Hill! Andrew Brown was another to fail here as was Morgan man Rob Wells having his first outing in a Troll.
The infamous Guys Hill was next, with separate restarts for yellows and reds, and a straight run through for the others. Only three re-starters got away and went on for a clean. Gary Browning managed it in class six, which saw Giles Greenslade debuting his Nigel Allen built 1835 Beetle and discovering how much harder it is than class four! Duncan Welch was the first class eight to attempt the hill and used a little too much right foot. Paul Bartleman saw this and successfully trickled his Troll off the line for a clean climb. The only other car to succeed was Ian Davis in his VW Buggy, with the aid of a lot of bouncing, a change to second gear and a fair amount of tyre smoke. Clive Booth did well to coax his 1300 cc Dellow Replica off the line for a five which would put him a point ahead of fellow Falcon Mike Pearson at the end of the day.
Travers was another hill all about the restart for the higher classes where positioning was everything. Clive managed to get it just right to put him ahead of Mike Pearson who failed, although that position was to be reversed on the following Burledge which was very tricky this year. The ruts were deeper and the mud more slippery!
Paul Bartleman was the first car and had to act as a snowplough for those following. He’d got the Troll away from the restart OK but the mound between the two ruts was too much and he stopped at the three.
Burledge was another hill that favoured the late numbers because of the snowplough factor, but frankly anyone coming out of the top was a real hero, so a special well done to David Haizelden in his Golf. Also Adrian Marfell who was the only Beetle to get to the summit.
Nanny Hurns was its usual tricky self and Dave Nash was delighted to clean the section in The MGeetle, as was PCT expert Colin Weeks in his more conventional MG. Little Uplands put paid to Ian Davis’ hopes of overall victory as the Class Eights had an impossible restart and none of them got away from the line. John Walker was drew the trial to its traditional conclusion, in the dark for later numbers. It didn’t have any effect on the overall results, although Colin Weeks had the misfortune to fail.
At the finish six competitors had clean sheets, all of them in classes one to four, including both the BMW’s of Colin Perryman and Nick Farmer. So it was down to special test times. David Haizelden was fastest and was declared overall victor. Well deserved for getting a FWD car to the summit of the fearsome Burledge.
We have been publishing stuff about Classic Trials on the Web since 1995 and always appreciate feedback. Comments, Corrections, Criticism & Concerns are all welcome. You can leave a comment to have your say here on this web site or our Social Media
Classical Gas 