After heavy rain during the night this years Allen Trial was very muddy , perhaps a little too muddy for the woodland sections. However the rain stopped once the event started and competitors embarked on a tough Allen Trial with no clean sheets.
The event was oversubscribed as usual but there were a few non starters and all the reserves got a run. In addition to the regular event there was a Heritage class, who took on a shorter route, but this was not very well supported with only four starters.
After a straightforward Tog Hill the restart on polished stones at Bitton Lane caused problems for the White and Yellow cars that had to attempt it. Around half lost their clean sheets here.
The woods at Fairey Hill were new for last year when they weren’t too much of a problem. This time the heavy overnight rain made the observed test and section a very different proposition. Having tackled the Special Test early arrivals were confronted by an impassible track to the observed section. Rob Holden didn’t make it this far when a front wheel became detached from his BMW after wheel bearing failure.
Fortunately Clerk of the Course Pete Hart had the foresight to allocated a Stroud crew to the section and the rescourceful Mark Linforth appeared with a digger and regraded the access track in record time.
The section was very slippery and only Mal Allen (Marlin) and the MCC’s Dave Middleditch (Dutton Phaeton) went clean.
Competitors were greeted with the usual lake on the approach to Big Uplands. The section was a bit rough but there was plenty of grip on the yellow and red restart and there was only one failure.
The notorious Guys Hill was next on the agenda. Last year it stopped no-one but that wasn’t the case this time.
Classes one, two, three and 90 had a straight run at the hill but it was very slippery and stopped several competitors.
All the others had to restart and none of the Beetles in classes four and six could pull away, despite some spectacular tyre smoking attempts. Stuart Highwood achieved the only success in Class 5 before retiring his Scimitar SS1 at lunchtime.
Classes 7 and 8 achieved more success but even they had more than half fail the restart.
Only Class 8 had to restart on Travers under the eye of Kyrle founder, Richard Andrews. The restart area was perhaps the roughest part of this years trial but never the less there were only a couple of failures.
Hot chips were popular at the Chew Valley Lake lunch halt but competitors were urged to get back to the action as soon as possible as the delays at Fairey Hill meant the trial was running a bit behind schedule.
After the historic Burledge came the Fry’s Bottom complex with an observed test and three sections.
The second section in the woods was challenging. For Class Eight the big problem was getting round the right hander on their tricky deviation, under the eye of Norton Selwood who was Chief Official here. Mark Hobbs was the only one to succeed in his Troll, not just getting round the deviation but also driving off the restart and navigating round the following tight corner to achieve the only clean of the day.
Amongst the non deviators four cars managed a one, Philip Thomas (Escort), Hollie Facey (BMW Z3), Ed Wells (Melos) and Jonathan Elwood (Marlin).
Phil’s one here was to decide the trial in his favour.
Having been the only car to clean Fairey Hill Mal Allen was the sole clean sheet so far and was leading the trial by two points from Simon Oates in his Liege. Simon got round the corner OK to spin out at the two which was to secure him 2nd overall. But come Mals turn understeer set in and he failed to negotiate the right hander, dropping him to 3rd overall.
The final section in the complex wasn’t too difficult for the lower classes but Class Eight had a fearsome restart on muddy tree roots and only Paul Merson could get as far as the two.
The trial concluded with the wonderful John Walker. Although hardly troubling the scorer this is one of the more memorable sections on the trials calendar. It was also tackled by the four competitors in the Heritage Trial which was won by Dellow Register organisers Andrew Isherwood and Hilary Farbowski in their side valve Mk1.
Links:-
- The Allen Trial on the Classic Trials Facebook Group
- All the Allen Trial posts on the Classic Trials FB Group
- Calvin Samuels Allen Trial Photos
- Steve Shelleys Allen Trial Photos
- Allen Trial Video Playlist
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