Chris Barham and his team worked hard to get this years Exmoor Trial on the road, rescheduling because of Covid and having to battle all the issues running an event at this difficult time involves. They were rewarded by an excellent entry of 60 to do battle with the dry sections in North Devon.
There were eleven clean sheets when the car entry arrived at section 14, the first section in the Holdridge complex.
Avoiding the deviation for Solo Motorcycles there were restarts for all cars except those with FWD. James Shallcross took advantage of a straight run to go clean, putting him in the lead of the event in his Peugeot 206.
Seven cars picked up two, five from class eight plus Nick Deacon from Class 90 (XC90) and Keith Sanders from Class Five in his Reliant Scimitar, both having a different restart to the yellows and reds.
The next section saw James loose his lead when he dropped five. Nick Deacon also dropped from contention when he was penalised four.
So coming to the last Holdridge section there were seven cars on two. This was whittled down to four when Duncan Stephens (UVA Fugitive), Ross Hancock (Buggy) and Aaron Haizelden (Reliant Scimitar) were penalised.
High Bray was the last section and Charlie Merson (Ford Special) just had to go clean as he had better Special Test times than Dean Vowden (Lonsee Special), Paul Merson (Shopland) and Keith Sanders.
Charlie was successful and was the car winner on this years Exmoor Trial in only his third event.
Five Solos had clean sheets, Colin Nicholls taking the Premier Solo Award. Leon Torres was best outfit.
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