Simon Woodall won Fellsides Northern Trial by the slimmest of margins, dropping a solitary mark to finish one point ahead of Dean Partington in his DP Wasp, Tris White, driving his Troll and Dudley Sterry in his familiar MG J2.
The start was at The Stocksman, Wigton, the site of a market with plenty of room for parking and no problems to accommodate trailers and tow vehicles. Plenty of food was available and there was a nice place to sit down. John Blakeley was at scruitineering, as a competitor as Chris Veevers had kindly made his Beetle available for John to drive.
There was a long run of 30 miles to the first section, down the A591 on the east side of Bassenthwaite Lake to the outskirts of Keswick and back up the other side of the lake on the A66. The Liege’s were delayed when Kevin Barnes had his alternator fail but was able to continue with some help from his team mates.
Section 1 – Black Hole (Restart for 7 and 8) – Like all but the last hill this section is in forestry. As with a lot of the hills clears had to reverse back down as there was no exit track, and it wasn’t possible to turn at the top. There was plenty of grip though, and most competitors got to the top or very close to it, apart from the three Marlins, all of who failed at the eight, just after their restart.
Setmurthy Special Test – Pat and Jonathan Toulmin were in charge of this nice simple affair on a smooth forest track. It was to be a deciding factor in class seven though as Julian Lack picked up a fail in his Leige and to make it a double went on to fail the second special test as well later in the trial. twelve points lost on the Special tests!
Out of the forest it was back on the A66 for a few miles to the Wythop Plantation Forest Complex where there were four sections.
Section 2 – Routen Romp (Restart for 7 and 8) – A nice smooth forest track which didn’t present any problems for the triallers who didn’t have to restart. The restart wasn’t class seven friendly though and Julian Lack was the only contender to get away.
Section 3 – Big Cockup – It was a good few miles on smooth forest roads to the next three sections which were all situated together. Big Cockup really should have been called Quagmire, such was the mud at the bottom. There was some confusion here. The start line marshall was allowing some competitors to start some way back from the line. Then they moved the start line back. It seems that when Clerk of the Course Dave Miller came along he cancelled the section but not before Dean Partington went airborne and scored an 11!
Section 4 – Little Cockup – Not so much mud here. Dave Cook was taking pictures and there was an exit track at the top. Most of the experienced triallers got to use this but there were exceptions, including the low slung Midgets of Colin Biles and Steve Kingstone who bottomed out, Steve right up at the one marker. Nicholas Cross had been put in this class in his big engined Beetle and with more ground clearance was able to get to the top. In Class Three Kelly Thomas (Escort) was the only driver not to clean the section, which would be significant later!
Section 5 – Lothwaite Side (Restart for 7 and 8) – The last section in this complex is a glorious long stony track, passing some fascinating rock formations before emerging through a gate onto a moorland full of grazing sheep. Julian Lack maintained his form and was the only re-starter in Class 7 to get away. The class eights faired better, but Alistair McVittie lost his clean sheet in his interesting Suzuki bike engined, ex Dean Partington, Cannon.
Section 6 – Lowry’s (Restart for everyone) – After a nine mile road run it was back into the forest at the Hobcarton Complex. Everyone had to restart and this was to really shake up Class 1. First Dave Haizelden didn’t get away and picked up a 6. Then James Shallcross went straight through without stopping, scoring 6 as well. This put Charles Knifton ahead of both in his Peugeot, a lead he held to the end of the trial, the first defeat for the mighty Dave for a fair while!
Section 7 – Long Crag – A stony track with plenty of grip, hence tyre pressure limits for all. It was another of those sections where cleans had to reverse back down and there was an unfortunate tree to catch the unwary if they came out of the ruts. There were a few failures here and Nigel Jones lost his clean sheet after fixing a water leak before Big Cockup.
Section 8 – The Grotto – A very muddy, rutted track with no restarts. It needed the tyre pressures pretty low to find the grip and this caught out a few people including Nigel Jones, Colin Biles and Nicholas Cross.
Section 9 – Ladyside – A grassy track that became very rutted on the upper reaches. It was possible to drive out the top, but all but a few of the Class 8 supermen got stuck at the two facing a tricky reverse under the supervision of a marshalling Thomas Aldrian.
It was back onto the road again, but for less than a mile before turning into The Whinlatter Visitor Centre. The sections in this complex were high above the lakes and the views of Lake Bassentwaite were truly magnificent.
Section 10 – Lords Seat (Restart for 7 and 8) – Mark Simpson was in charge here. There was a restart for 7 and 8 but lesser mortals could blast straight through and most managed this successfully. In class seven Steve Kenny picked up a six while the other Lieges went clean.
Section 11 – Ullister Hill – You have to back down if you fail this rough track which gets very rutty at the top. Phillip Middleton (Marlin) and Simon Woodall (VW Buggy) got to the one but most failed at the two or three. Dean partington (DP Wasp), Tris White (Troll)and Dudley Sterry (MG J2) all dropped two. For Simon, Dean, Tris and Dudley these were the only marks they were to drop all day and this is how they finished in the overall standings after Special Test times were taken into account.
In class four Nicola Butcher got her revamped Beetle to the two, one further than Michael Leete’s VW, securing her the class win. In class Seven Steve Kenny had the top front A arm bolts snap on his Liege. He was able to continue with the front wheel flopping about a bit and won the class.
Section 12 – ’24’ – This section wasn’t to bad once you got round the 90 right over a steep muddy bank at the bottom. This wasn’t friendly to low slung cars and Colin Biles and Steve Kingstone both grounded their Midgets under the watchful eye of Fellside’s Myke Pocock. Myke was probably glad he wasn’t driving his Skoda when he saw Nigel Jones do the same thing.
Section 13 – Sheepfold – Rough and rutted, there was plenty of grip but an awful lot of tree roots. Kevin Barnes saw the possibility of a class win slip away when he couldn’t get going and scored 12. Julian Lack did exactly the same thing, putting Steve Kenny into a class seven lead, despite failing Lords Seat.
Section 14 – Sandale (Restart 7 and 8) – It was a long road run of 20 miles to Sandale, a section with a very different character to all the others. A track through farmland it relies on ruts and mud rather than gradient to be competitive, but competitors really enjoy the challenge, or should I say the blast. John Blakeley certainly did, going clean in Chris Veevers Beetle to the delight of June and Alex. The family really enjoyed their trial and it was super to see them taking part. The low slung cars had problems on this one, as did some of the 7’s and 8’s who had to restart just where things got really sticky. Steve Kenny dropped three, but still went on to win class seven despite Kevin and Jules going clean. In class eight only Boyd Webster picked up points and it was a 12 for him.
Greenrigg Special Test – This was a nice blast across a muddy field. Kelly Thomas (Escort) and Colin Perryman (BMW) were equal on the hills at this stage. However, Kelly had a howler of a special test so it was Colin that took the spoils.
With no results on the day, and a long way to travel home, many competitors skipped the excellent meal available back at The Stocksman. However, consensus was that this was an excellent trial, spoilt a little by the number of hills with no exit track at the top. This meant a lot of time wasted in some long reverses so competitors were rather spread out at the end. Fred Mills took time to talk to as many competitors as possible as they went round, explaining that Fellside had lost quite a few sections due to logging and the weather had prevented them doing as much work as they would like prior to the trial. But all in all a good event in a very nice part of the country.
| Best Overall | Simon Woodall (VW Buggy) | 1 |
| Class Winners | ||
| 1 | Charles Knifton (Peugeot 205) | 6 |
| 2 | Bill Bennett (MG J2) | 4 |
| 3 | Colin Perryman (BMW 2002) | 5 |
| 4 | Nicola Butcher (VW Beetle) | 6 |
| 5 | Nicolas Cross (VW Beetle) | 15 |
| 7 | Steve Kenny (Liege) | 26 |
| 8 | Dean Partington (DP Wasp) | 2 |
| 0A | Alan Smith (Marlin) | 13 |
| 0C | John Kenny (Beta ALP) | 3 |
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