Organisers Dave Haizelden and Keith Sanders believe in tough trials, who will forget 2018 in the snow! This year they were thwarted by the dry conditions but still put on a challenging event.
Last year Covid constraints necessitated started and finishing in Ashcombe Woods, with a simple route, as car drivers were not allowed passengers and had to navigate themselves.
This year the start and finish in the woods was retained, together with the opening and closing sections.
After Ashcombe Woods the Kingswell sections for cars were bone dry, quite a contrast to usual, and there were only a handful of penalties.
Not so easy for solo bikes who tackled a section in Kingswell Wood that proved particularly challenging. Only three went penalty free and this was to cement Andrew Kearns Solo victory on his KTM Freeride.
Heading out towards Dartmoor came the familiar Tipley, Narracombe (Donkey Trot on the Exeter) and Simms. The later had a deviation and different restarts according to class, this caught out Nick Deacon who was penalised for stopping at the wrong one but still won class 90 in his X90.
James Shallcross was leading the cars in his Peugeot 205 after Simms and a Class 1 win looked on the cards.
Nicks Nip was to decide the trial for both cars and outfits. Rounding the barn competitors were confronted with a 90 left, followed by a 90 right and what should have been a straight blast up a grassy field.
Up until here the sections had been dry but after an extreme localised downpour grip was at a premium in the mud. Steve Urell and Julie Williams went clean, going on to become best outfit.
The only cars to clean the section were Gary Browning (Class 6 Beetle) and Paul Merson (Class 8 Special). However, Ian Facey was now in the lead of the trial, dropping three here for total of ten marks lost after James scored an eight for a total of 11. Gary was just behind on 12.
There were four sections left now. Ian Facey dropped three on Coombehead Creek and it was looking like a Class 1 win. However it was not to be when James dropped five marks on the last two sections dropping him to third overall with 16 marks.
Gary Browning cleaned the last for our sections to win the Car category with 12 marks, one better than Ian Facey in his Z3 on 13.
Links:-
- The Torbay Trial on the Classic Trials FB Group
- All the Torbay Trial posts on the Classic Trials FB Group This link works in a Browser but you may struggle with it in the app
- Birchanger Bank Videos by Norton Selwood
- Kingswell Lane Videos by Norton Selwood
- Dire Straits Videos by Norton Selwood
- So Far Away Videos by Norton Selwood
- InCar/On Bike Video Playlist
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