With no Clee last year because of Covid there was an eager bunch of trialers gathered at The Squirrel in Ludlow for the first one day trial of the year.
The organisers set out to simplify this years event and didn’t use the Clee’s well known two loop system this time.
There were also some familiar sections omitted because of forestry issues. This didn’t stop the trial being a first class event with a lot of praise on social media from the competitors.
Heywood’s Common wasn’t a problem for classes seven and eight but took many of the lower classes out of contention and saw the retirement of Class 5 favourite Ian Facey in his BMW Z3.
The Class 8 restart on Longville was to much for most of the specials and only Paul Merson, Charlie Merson and Stewart Green managed to get away.
Dean Partington was marshalling at the summit of The Jenny Wind. He was kept busy coming to the aid of several motorcyclists who struggled to maintain their balance once it came to the really steep bit.
None of the cars made it to the top. Matt Johnston (Troll) and Charlie Knifton (VW Scorpion) came closest scoring one. Fellow special drivers Russ Clarke, Ian Davis and Paul Merson got to the two as did last years Clee Winner Nick Deacon in his Suzuki X90.
After The Jenny Wind Paul Merson and Nick Deacon were tying for the lead, both on two.
Nicks dream of two consecutive Clee overall wins lasted until the penultimate section when he dropped a one on Abdon Liberty leaving Paul Merson to take his seventh overall ACTC win over last years Crackington Champion.
Links:-
- Clee Hills Trial on the Classic Trials FB Group
- All the Clee posts on the Classic Trials FB Group. This link works in a browser but you may struggle with it in the app
- Dave Cooks Clee Photos
- The Clee Hills Trial Website
- Simon Lewis Reports on his Clee Hills
- Video Playlist on YouTube
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