Ben Tonkin won Launceston’s Tamar Classic Trial on Sunday, returning in his 1600 VW Beetle with 2 year old son George passengering for the first time. It was a very close scoring day that saw the lead change multiple times on the last hill.
Tonkin cleaned this final hill and was lucky to win despite missing a stop and restart on a section before lunch costing six points. Second saw a three way tie with Charlie Merson finally taking it with some very determined driving in his special, beating David Haizelden and Philip Thomas who both slipped up at the five on the final hill at Trevilla.
Duncan Stephens, who has won the last three ACTC rounds overall, slipped up on the last hill also to finish fifth beating Ian Facey’s supercharge BMW Z3 on times. Facey was leading going into the last hill but got caught out earlier than the aforementioned to drop a ten doubling his score for the day.
Aaron Haizelden succumbed to the five on the final section having had a poor day by his standards to finish in seventh just ahead of the Honda S2000 engined Smart car of Nick Aldridge. Ross Hancock and Josh Moss completed the top ten overall. James Shallcross returned to his first event in the autumn to win the front wheel drive class.
The battle of the day was seen in the Suzuki X90 class. With normal front runner Nick Deacon missing the top six in the same X90’s were covered by just six points with Mark White taking the win by a point from Richard Tappin. With Tonkin winning overall Jamie Harding won the Beetle class on just his second classic trial.
- Ben Tonkin, VW Beetle, 16
- Charlie Merson, Ford Special, 18
- Dave Haizelden, Reliant SS1, 18
- Philip Thomas, Dutton Melos, 18
- Duncan Stephens, UVA Fugitive, 19
- Ian Facey, BMW Z3, 19
- Aaron Haizelden, Reliant SS1, 21
- Nick Aldridge, Smart, 23
- Ross Hancock, VW Buggy, 24
- Josh Moss, Cannon, 26
Duncan Stephens
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