On paper Dudley Sterry and Adrian Dommett were joint equal on special test times, Dudley winning the trial on Special Test times. The reality is this was very much Dudley’s trial, having to contend with much tougher sections and restarts than Adrian. Yes, I know Adrian is in Class 2, but his Wolsley Hornet is more than equal to most Class 8 machines.
Dudley and Adrian totally dominated the event, each only dropping nine, compared to the 21 of their nearest challengers David Foreshew and Ross Norman.
The Clee Hills retained its figure of eight format for 2007. Classes 0 to 5 doing the Western loop first while 6, 7 and 8 were out East to tackling Longville, Easthope The Jenny Wind etc. The weather was cold, and there was even a little snow, but it didn’t settle and the sky was clear enough for some marvellous views across the Shropshire countryside. Perhaps the biggest problem was the absence of breakfast at The Craven Arms start venue.
The challenge for the lower classes didn’t start until the cars arrived at the forestry complex for The Priors Holt sections, starting quite logically with Priors Holt Three and going on to Priors Holt Two and One!
Priors Holt 3 was a short, sharp chute, all about restarting just before the rock steps started. First car was Giles Greenslade, who wheezed his way to the top, the Beetle engine hovering on the point when it would cough to a stop. Terry Ball applied plenty of power and flew up, with little or no wheelspin, but all the other class 4 competitors came to a halt with spinning wheels, including Emma Robilliard who was to go on to redeem herself on Priors Holt One and win Class 4.
Class three had problems as well, only Andrew Martin, driving Stickers Escort as the Melos hasn’t been fixed after the Exeter, going clean. Nigel Green got away from the restart and came out of the top, but incurred a fail as he had straddled the box rather than having have two of his wheels between the markers.
Simon Groves destroyed his chances of a good result when he went up the bank just after the start of Priots Holt 1 dropping 12. Without any restarts it was all rather easy for Adrian Dommett who arrived back at The Craven Arms for the lunch break clean.
While all that was going on Dudley Sterry and Brian Osborne were having a successful Western loop, only dropping two on Easthope 2 and five on The Jenny Wind. They had a definite advantage running an early number on Flounders Folly, the first hill, as it was covered with pine needles under the trees and when these had gone it cut up into quite a morass, making it very difficult for following cars.
In the afternoon the Beetles in class four exploited their ground clearance, Emma Robilliard added another class win to her trophy shelf when she only dropped three on Easthope 2 when Giles dropped six. In Class 3 Andrew Martin maintained his lead for a decisive class win. Adrian Dommett dropped nine in the afternoon to win his class and equalling winner Dudley Sterry score on the hills.
Dudley Sterry maintained his advantage in the afternoon, only dropping two on Priors Holt 1, which was only cleaned by the flyweights of Dave Foreshew and Dean Partington.
Derek Tyler was clean in the afternoon in his class 7 Baja to take the class win (in the absence of Andrew Martin?) and classes 5 and 6 were won by Gill Hayward and Mark Tooth respectively.
| Best Overall | Dudley Sterry (MG J2) | 9 |
| Class Winners | ||
| 1 | David Haizelden (VW Golf GTi) | 29 |
| 2 | Adrian Dommett (Wolesley Hornet) | 9 |
| 3 | Andrew Martin (Ford Escort) | 23 |
| 4 | Emma Robilliard (VW Beetle) | 27 |
| 5 | Gillian Hayward (MGB GT) | 65 |
| 6 | Mike Hobbs (VW Beetle) | 17 |
| 7 | Derek Tyler (VW Baja) | 30 |
| 8 | David Foreshew (Dingo) | 21 |
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