A very wet night followed by a tough trial for Class 0.
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It was a very rainy night, a tough one for those in open cars and the bikers, who included Ted Holloway, riding in Class 0 on his MZ. John Parsons was nice and dry though, in his road car, as he couldn’t take the start after un-resolvable lighting problems with his VW Buggy.
The rain had cleared, for a while at least, as the cars tackled Meerhay, which although it wasn’t challenging is a very nice start to the competitive sections. Both here and at the next sections Gatcombe Lane the marshals had magnificent braziers going to fight off the chill of a cold night.
Into Bovey Woods and Normans Hump awaited, seemingly smoother on the upper reaches, at least for the early numbers. Things were spiced up a bit here for class three as they had to restart on the cross track, just like the yellows and reds. The section took its usual crop of scalps, including Brian Alexander, back behind the wheel after a couple of years marshalling Wooston Steep. Clinton was just up the track and wasn’t very Skoda friendly this year, costing both Aaron Homewood and Philip Mitchell their gold medals.
Waterloo was David Haizelden’s Waterloo this year, loosing his triple when he stopped on the old section, as did Nicola Wainwright. There were three more sections before the rest stop at Exeter services where Ted Holloway had retired, finding the road gearing of his MZ far to high for the off road sections.
Tillerton was as rough and rocky as ever, complete with its challenging restart for the higher classes. Mike Pearson was particularly pleased to get away as he had stopped in a difficult place.
There were delays at Fingle, some of the class 0 cars struggling with the ever deepening ruts on this previously smooth hill. Then came Wooston Steep, a fearsome obstacle for the early runners in the higher classes. The problem was the leaves and mud in the ruts and it wasn’t until Brian Colman came along in his Dutton Phaeton that the first car blasted up. Paul Bartleman was one of his unlucky ones, spinning his triple away in the leaves.
The lower classes turned off the track before the gradient steepened, this area really cut up and became a problem for the later runners with small wheels and Bill Rosten lost his gold here.
While this was going on Hitchcombe was proving a major problem for Class 0 and afterwards Mike Oakins emerged with the only Trio. Neither Fred Gregory or Verdun Webley were successful in their Rickman Rangers, Verdun having purchased his especially for the event and Fred loosing his Trio.
Simms had been resurfaced for the event, making it a little easier this year. Nerveless it was a wonderful achievement for Steve Potter to go clear here, his wonderful Trojan getting the biggest cheer of the day.
Only the rocky sections of Tipley and Slippery Sam had to be completed before the finish at Torquay to conclude a very good Exeter Trial.
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