Good weather, big delays at Riverton, Hoskin very tough for class 8
Start – Falcons Ed Nikel didn’t make the Plusha start as the dynamo on his VW Buggy failed on the way down. Ted Holloway wasn’t a great deal luckier. Ted made it to the start OK but didn’t get very far as he had a hub collapse on his Mini Special only 50 yards up the road.
Felons Oak – This short little “hill” is all about the restart, which is reckoned to be getting trickier as it gets dug out. Although it claimed quite a few casualties, all the Falcon’s got away successfully.
Stoney Street – The section, which bypasses Porlock, was reckoned to be very rough this year. Peter Mountain would certainly agree. Peter retired when the rear axle-locating pivot broke on his Dellow Mk1. This was not a Dellow friendly hill as Richard Shirley also retired here with back axle problems.
Beggars Roost – Strangely there was no restart for Class 8. Simon Groves lost his triple here when he failed to get away. Keith Oakes is down in the results as stopping but as you will see from Claire’s report he didn’t. Tony Smith didn’t get this far in his first Land End in his Austin Big 7. The engine went bang crossing Exmoor and he needed a tow from Roger Teagle in his Beetle to reach civilisation at The Culbourne Inn. We also lost Mike Telford in the night when he had to retire the “Tucker Nipper Special”, built by former clerk-of-the-course H. W. Tucker-Peake for his daughters who won a triple with this famous old car.
Riverton – There were big problems for the bikes again this year. A number of riders hit the deck and it took a lot of time for them to remount and get going. Things didn’t improve much when the cars came along and some had to wait very nearly three hours in the queue, which came close to blocking the road.
After the debacle with the bikes the field became split when Tony Divey got stuck and there were big problems in towing the Tiking three wheeler out of the section. The thinning Dellow ranks were further depleted when Mark Worsfeld broke a half shaft on the section. Then Neil Bray claimed a baulk when he was stuck behind a car with a puncture. It had to be fixed on the hill because the recovery vehicle was down stream of the incident. This took a lot of time as the car kept rolling off the jack.
While all this was going on the lady of the manor from nearby Riverton Mill decided to walk her dog up and down the section, dishing out a verbal assault on passing competitors as she did so, claiming they were hooligans damaging her back garden and that she know nothing about the trial. The delay at Riverton was good for one competitor. Ian Moss had been having problems with his Escort sliding all over the road ever since Stoney Street. The delay gave him time to get underneath, finding a broken U bolt, which he was able to replace with the help of some of his fellow competitors.
Cutliffe Lane – The hill was reasonably dry this year but it is pretty steep and defeated.Simon Robson’s Liege. Likewise most of the class one’s and five’s failed, including Peter Manning and Barrie Parker.
Sutcombe & Darracott – Neither of these wonderful old hills were to cause many problems this year.
Crackington – Not to difficult this year. It was pretty dry and there had been little or no doctoring. The field was really spread out by now and after the bikes came there were only four cars in an hour, presumably because of the Riverton problems. Dudley Sterry recorded a fail when he over-ran the restart line. This was to cost him The Field Trophy as he was faster than Paul Bartleman on the special tests.
Ross Nuten cleaned the restart here but suffered from fuel feed problems thereafter and finished up failing four hills. Earlier Ross was one of many to get fed up waiting in the queue for Riverton and skipped the section. Andrew Brown had been suffering from engine problems during the night and his Marlin stuttered to a brief halt before Andrew gathered everything together and did a special class 7 restart to “clean” the hill.
Warleggan – Passed without incident.
Hoskin – This fearsome Camel Vale Hill was true to form. The blues and whites had a clear run but only the best built up sufficient momentum to carry themselves up the slippery higher reaches. The problem is in the area of the class 8 re-start. The groove in the ruts is extremely slippery and polished and a lot of momentum is required to get through this area.
The poor old class 8’s really struggled and only the supermen succeeded. I witnessed both Paul Bartleman and Dudley Sterry clean the hill. They stopped way over to the left, one wheel between the ruts and the other up the bank. Some people tried the same technique the other side but the camber drew them back into the ruts and wheel spinning failure. Eric Wall got the technique right but even he slipped back into the groove and spun to a halt. The results also show that Robert Williams (Buggy) and Geoff May (Dellow) also succeeded. Falcons Neil Bray incurred his only fail of the day here and the results show Neil as winning class 8. However, this is a mistake as Dudley was faster on the special tests.
The yellows had a restart lower down. It was easier to get away, but even if you did get going it was necessary to build a lot of speed to get through the difficult area higher up. Few succeeded but some did and Roger Bricknell and Andrew Martin made it look positively easy! Mark Tooth (Beetle) and Mal Allen (Marlin) both trickled away beautifully from the yellow restart, building speed without any wheel spin. Unfortunately, both of them decided to boot it just when they reached the slippery bit, they didn’t have enough momentum to get away with it and spun to a halt.
The Front Wheel Drive Cars didn’t have a restart but this was nerveless a tough hill for them. The amazing David Haizelden just flew up, no wheel spin and the car just floating over the bumps. Paul Allaway made it as well, not so elegant and the poor little Astra was on the rev limiter but still a clean. Mike Collins tried the same but lost traction and failed just after the class 8 restart. Unluckiest crew were Alan and Ian Cundy who got almost, but not quite to the top in their Golf and failed just inches from the section ends board.
Bishops Wood
Again, this had the nasty restart where the section crosses the track. Good positioning was required. Neil Bray was delighted to get away in Primrose after his passenger, daughter Jade, shouted to him to stop high in the box. Following instructions Neil got as far forward as possible. His back wheels were almost on the line but most importantly the front ones were on the flat bit and he pulled away without any problems. Simon passenger son Matt shouted a similar instruction but Dad knew best, Simon stopped low and failed.
Blue Hills 1
There was a restart on the cobbles for all classes except 1, 2 and 5. This caused a lot of problems and even those who succeeded had a struggle. Frankly, the results are a bit doubtful here. Most people really struggled and there appears to be different interpretations of who was clean and who wasn’t. Both Neil Bray and Simon Groves were credited with success, even though its doubtful they maintained forward motion as they climbed over a huge rock! While Simon Robson had a fail when he appeared to be clean.
Blue Hills 2
The section is very short now and it’s all about the artificial bit through the cutting. Unfortunately, the bank on the outside proved to be a launching ramp and a couple of people turned over. These included Anne Whellock (Austin 7), Mark Hayward (Dellow Mk2) and a couple of chairs. Fortunately, there was no serious injury to the crews concerned but the motorcars may take a bit longer to repair. Although Anne’s Austin 7 was quite badly knocked about, she set out to drive it home on the Sunday but was defeated when it started to overheat quite badly and had to summon the recovery truck. Sadly, the preliminary results for the hill looked very strange and the MCC have gone back to the drawing board to re-look at them, which will affect the awards.
Wrap Up
On balance a good Lands End. Yes, there were the problems at Riverton and criticisms of “Mickey Mouse” restarts at Bishops Wood and Blue Hills 1. It was also a shame about the results. However, the Lands End is not an event for pot hunters, its about the experience, the emotional ups and downs as you ride or drive through the night. The children waving as you go through the villages. The satisfaction the next day when you realise what you accomplished. The organisers did a good job and we should all be grateful for their work.
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