I haven’t done the Allen for five or six years and was surprised at how much we enjoyed a trial with only 9 sections, where the first class 8 car finished 14th overall! We drove down from Oxford on the day but as things transpired this was not such a good idea.
I had never seen Birch Hill before, it was enjoyable at the time but how much clay is there stuck to the car now? Not as much as to Paul’s Troll by all accounts, but still plenty.
We were travelling with Brian Partridge, Adrian Marfell and Tony Young and watched Tony fail to trickle off the Guy’s restart. We wondered how we would get on, as I can’t remember ever getting off it. We already knew Paul Bartleman was the only one to get away, so the pressure was on for us to pull something out of the bag. We just managed it, with much bouncing, a quick change to second gear and lots of tyre smoke! In the end the two of us were the only Class 8’s to get off the restart and there was only one from classes 6 & 7, Gary Browning in the Type 4 engined Beetle.
On to the special tests which were well laid out. Long enough to be worth doing, but not just a question of most power wins. The second one, which went through a lake of smelly water, was great fun in an open car as you can imagine! We managed Travers OK and went on to the lunch stop where we watched Camel organiser Hans Viertal and Pete Barr effecting some running repairs to Pete’s 1300 Beetle which wasn’t going too well as its brand new twin carbs were out of synch.
Burledge was the first hill after the break. Brain Partridge had retired with a broken diff by now, it must have happened on Travers as the diff test was immediately before. No one had got up Burledge so a chance to pull ahead of Paul who had grounded out (running at the front). Tony Young was first car to get up followed by Adrian who stormed up in his 1300 and then us in the Buggy, again with the use of second gear after the restart. We watched a valiant effort from Dave Shaylor in the 1300 Beetle, but he stopped just yards from the top. As did one of the Trojans which apparently got pushed out the top, what a great effort!
Harvey Walters jammed the Escort’s gears trying to change up near the top of the section. The solution? Chisel through the floor of the car, take the top of the gearbox off, un-jam the gears and complete the event….obvious really when you think about it
A very slippery Nanny Hurns and on to Little Uplands. Conflicting reports from the start marshals as to whether anyone had got off the Class 8 restart. In the event no-one did although we tried long and hard before finally having to give best to a cunningly placed restart line. Dave Foreshaw unfortunately stopped on the Class 7 restart line which looked somewhat easier. At the top of Little Uplands we were pretty down, having failed the restart, as we knew Adrian Marfell in front of us was still clear and we were trying for a top 10 finish for the Wheelspin points. Bizarrely Adrian wanted to finish outside the top 10 but win his class as he wanted Crackington points not Wheelspin points.
We went up John Walker too fast, smashed the car on the ground (I don’t remember it being so rocky), punctured a tyre and experienced very strange steering on the road on the way back to the finish. Half a mile away the diff broke and we coasted down to the pub to sign off. The real trial for us then began, getting home courtesy of the RAC…but I’ll save that story for another day. I must remember to tow the car to events more often in the future!
Also seen on the day was the latest of the Jones family from Bristol in a lovely old Lotus. He hill climbs and sprints it but tells me he’s going to maybe start trialling a Cannon next year. His elder brother Matthew was a leading contender in the early 90’s in the Dingo now owned by Pete Fear. Dad has also competed – in a blown Dellow I think but more recently in a VW special.
That’s it, must stop now and finish replacing the gearbox in time for the Camel this Sunday.
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