Torbay organisers Dave Haizelden and Keith Sanders like a tough trial and everyone knows this is what the event is all about. This year more than lived up to expectations with the wet conditions ensuring that grip and ground clearance were at a premium.
This years trial was notable for a strong sidecar class.
Seven outfits took the start. Unfortunately Martin Keswick had to retire after an inversion on the second section. After this there was an event long three way battle between Richard Maddern, Steve Urell and Alan Keat.
At the finish Richard and Steve were equal on points and it went down to test times, the win going t0 Richard and Christopher Barnicoat.
Keeping up the family honours Tristan Barnicoat was best Solo on his Honda XR200r.
John Cox had the most interesting car entry, a Lotus Elan, albeit with Crossflow power. Sadly we were denied a glimpse of how good a trials machine Colin Chapmans creation would be, as John and Dee Champion had to retire with a broken diff after the first section.
There were only three clean sheets coming out of the first group of sections in Ashcombe Woods. Duncan Stephens, Tom Jones and Richard Kinver, all in Class Eight.
The Coombehead sections had really suffered from all the rain and the marshals had to work hard to extract some of the later runners.
Ilsington Parish saw a familiar group of sections and it was here that Matt Facey drew level with Duncan Stephens and Tom Jones as their specials fell foul of the fearsome Class Eight restarts.
The trial was drawing to a close now but there was still Kingswell Lane to come. The ruts here are always a challenge but this year they were very deep making life difficult for the diff draggers. Tom Jones stopped at the four but Matt Facey and Duncan Stephens sailed through.
There was only Palfreys left now. Duncan and Matt were level on the hills. Duncan had been faster on the Special Test but his Rail didn’t like the tight turn and he dropped three marks. Matt Facey had no problems and will have his name added to the Torbay Car Trophy 30 years after Dad Ian won it in 1994.
Links :-
Full results to follow
- The Torbay Trial on the Classic Trials FB Group
- More Torbay Trial on FB
- Torbay Photos from Vince Feeney
- Torbay Videos on YouTube
- Videos from Dire Straits
- Videos from Kingswell Lane
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