The dry weather took away the stopper status from sections like Rodney’s Revenge and Cutliffe Lane. Elsewhere a tough restart on Bishops Wood reduced the medal count and there was controversy about the condition of Darracott and Blue Hills Two.
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- Bob Blackman Lands End Blog
- John Baker (of Daily Mail Simms fame) Blue Hills Pictures
- Vintagemans BH pictures
- JuStmadd’s BH pictures
It was a dry when the routes converged at Bridgewater after the regularity test on the night run. The conditions meant that neither Felons Oak or Beggars Roost were too demanding this year. There was no restart on Beggars again but there was a chicane created with tape. Interestingly there was no mention of any penalties to be applied regarding this tape.
Busy at Barbrook
After battling with thick fog over the moors came a new innovation. There was a control at the village hall opposite the petrol station in Barbrook, just before Beggars. Competitors were supposed to wait a few miles up the road at an unmanned holding control so they didn’t arrive to early. Very few, if any, did and the area became congested with cars and people as the signing in desk struggled to cope with the rush. Fortunately next years Clerk of the Course was on hand and plans to organise things differently for next year.
Dry Sections
The fog had cleared by Simonsbath and Rodneys Revenge awaited, a stony track high in the forest complex. It was dry this year and was not the usual stopper for those who didn’t have to restart. Class 8 did have to stop though and this wasn’t so easy, catching out the experienced Tris Whit in his Troll amongst others. Neil Bray cleaned the section in his Rover V8 powered Skoda but retired on the exit track and narrowly escaped getting locked in the forest when the marshals didn’t notice he was still there when they went home.
Neither Cutliffe Lane or Sutcombe were problems for the more experienced triallers.
Darracott was Rough
Although there weren’t too many failures many thought Darracott was very rough this year. It appeared that water had washed the section away before the concrete slabs creating steps that proved a problem for some cars that weren’t really trials prepared.
The usual doctoring of Crackington took its toll, mainly for cars in the lower classes, and for Class Eight who had a restart in the goo. This proved a problem for one or two stalwarts including Eric Wall (Dellow Mk 1) and Brian Partridge (Ridge Cannon). Nick Farmer was another Class Eight to fail, when his draft shaft snapped. Fortunately he managed to obtain another one and continued to gain silver.
Tough Restart at Warleggan
While 1 -5 had a straight run through 6 – 8 had a very rocky restart to contend with and very few managed to get away. Dean Vowden was unfortunate to have the bolt securing the rear radius arm on his VW Notchback come adrift and had to retire with the resulting damage.
The restarts on Hoskin were to be problematical as well, destroying the medal aspirations of much of the field. There was some debate about the initial results from the Class 7&8 restart and there were some changes to the results that were first published.
Burning Rubber at Bishopswood
Drivers in the lower classes may have been feeling complacent without all the restarts but Bishopswood was to change that. Hardly a classic hill its all about the slopes up too and after the cross track. 7 & 8 had their usual attempt on the cobbles while the lower classes, including 1 & 2 had theirs on the un-surfaced lower slope. Only a handful of competitors got away from this and Ian Cundy (VW Golf) and Stuart Roach (HRG) were in this very select group.
Vandals at Blue Hills
Love it or hate it the MCC regards Blue Hills 2 as its showcase section. So the organisers were not pleased to find trenches dug across the section when they arrived on Saturday morning. The decision was made to allow the section to run but it was bad enough not to allow the chairs in Class D to have a go, which didn’t go down well at the time.
Class 0 had the option to attempt BH2 and many of them did, although some of the lower slung sports cars may have regretted their decision!
Despite the problems this years Lands End seemed to go down well with most of the competitors. It was the swansong for the team led by Roger Ugalde for the last decade and they can look back at some very successful events.
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