It was a nice dry night for the run in to eligibility scruitineering at North Petherton. 

Felons Oak – The restart box was very short, some of the competitors described it as almost a line but the boards were in fact about 6 feet apart, but there was limited scope for careful positioning in what is becoming an increasingly “competitive” restart.. This caught out around 50 competitors including the cars of Keith Oakes, Ted Holloway, Geoff Hodge, Peter Mountain, Brian Alexander and Bill Rosten for what was to be his only fail of the day. Simon Groves was judged to have failed to stop for the restart which was not a good start to his trial. 

Stoney Street – This long , rocky hill didn’t present to many problems although both Ross Nuten and Colin Sumner were delayed by other competitors and credited with baulks. 

Beggars Roost – The section had to be cancelled when Ian Bates in the course opening Land Rover found the track blocked by a vehicle. It soon became clear that this was put there deliberately by one of the local farmers. He became more than a little aggressive when Ian tried to reason with him and it was prudent to pull the hill rather than cause trouble in the middle of the night. 

Riverton – There was a lot of mud for the bikes and delays built up when a number of riders hit the deck. It’s a long section so the delays continued to build and by the final cars came along they were stacked up, not just on the approach track but well down the road as well. It wasn’t to challenging for the four wheeled brigade and PCT expert Nick Politt was one of the few to fail in his Nissan Micra. 

Cutliffe Lane – Another section with a lot of mud and clay that caused a lot of problems for the bikers to stay upright and stopped around half the cars, especially those running towards the end of the field. 

Sutcombe – The hill was used from a different direction this year. It wasn’t to difficult although it caught out both Brian Alexander in his Fiat and Giles Greenslade in his 1835 beetle which was starting to get a bit hot now the chill of the night had passed. 

Darracott – With the previous delays there wasn’t too long to wait at the Goosenham holding control. Just long enough for Simon Robson to adjust his clutch. Ed Nikel had been having problems with the front suspension on his buggy and on investigation found one of the shock absorber mountings had collapsed. Fortunately he wasn’t far from a friends place and diverted there for repairs that kept him in the trial, even though he slipped down the field. Ted Holloway had problems here as well and retired. 

Crackington

There was still evidence of the devastation caused by the flash flood last summer, although the bridge at the bottom of the hill had been rebuilt, saving some wet feet. The hill itself didn’t appear to have been doctored as much as usual, although there had been the usual localised rain shower in the restart area. There was a little aggravation here when one of the marshals in the restart area stood on the dry part of the track for a while, forcing competitors into the deepest part of the mire where some of them failed. There was some heated “discussion” with his fellow officials, in front of a sizable crowd, which didn’t do a lot of good to the image of the sport. 

Most of the bikes were able to cope quite well, although some of those who weren’t going fast enough lost momentum through the mire, lost “steerage way” and either had to foot or fell off. Those that were brave enough to go up at some speed had no problem. None faster than Chris Beare on his 350 Suzuki but goodness knows how much damage he would have done to himself if he had fallen off. 

Tony Young was the first car to arrive and had an unhurried climb. Then came another dozen bikes before the cars arrived in earnest. Mike Warnes was the first failure of the day in his very smart Triumph TR7. Former “Old Spot Piglet” driver Clive Cook was taking things very easily and stopped before the mire to become the second candidate for the very efficient recovery crews winch. Then came Richard Shirley in his Class Seven Dellow, who stopped and restarted, as did quite a few more class sevens who came a long later. It appears that some drivers were confused because although the route card said they didn’t have a restart the boards were yellow with a black R, indicating they should stop. Class eight only restarts being shown in the route card as red with a black R. 

In Class 1 Paul Allaway made a very impressive full throttle climb, neither slowing, nor deviating from his line through the tricky stuff. They were followed by David Symons who was equally impressive in his Citroen AX. Most of the cars in class 2 made clean climbs although neither Steve Potter nor John Wilton’s Trojans had enough power. It will be interesting to see if John Turner is shown as cleaning the hill. His Austin Seven stopped in the restart area before getting going again with a shove from the controversial marshal.

Giles Greenslade retired at the foot of Crackington with a very hot Beetle. It had been getting more and more overheated as the trial went on until Giles finally decided to retire rather than cause permanent damage.

After the hours break at The Wilsey Down at Hallworthy came Warleggan by which time Brian Alexander had to retire. 

Hoskin

Competitors with clean sheets approached Cardinham Woods with some trepidation as Hoskin was lying in wait. They weren’t to be disappointed. Hoskin is steep and under a layer of loose stuff there is a solid, polished stone surface. 

The lower classes weren’t to badly off as they were allowed a straight run through, but even so the hill couldn’t be taken for granted as its so steep. Lower powered engines can easily bog down unless they generate a bit of wheel-spin, but too much and you are in trouble on the slippery surface. In class four Dave Sargeant and Bill Rosten got it just right and flew up but Terry Ball had too much wheelspin, lost momentum and came to a stop in the class eight re-start area. Most of the powerful Escorts in class three and stormed to the summit, Simon Groves managing to wag his tail from side to side in the process.

In Class 2 Bill Bennett had no difficulty but the other members of his team didn’t do so well and Ian Williamson got well and truly stuck in his attempts to turn and go back down. 

Classes six and Seven had a restart on a more gentle part of the gradient but even if they got away it was difficult for them to build enough speed to get over the lumps and bumps in the class eight restart area. All credit to those that were successful, including Andrew Martin in his Dutton Melos and Roger Bricknell who had the audacity to change into second before the summit! In class six Mark Tooth did everything right and trickled away from the restart but was just unable to build enough speed and spun to a stop after a good attempt. 

If it was difficult for the lower classes it was really tough for class eight. Their restart was on the steepest part of the hill and there were lots of little steps and little rocks to trap the unwary. The main line was very slippery as the polished rock was exposed and no one, not even Dudley, could get away on this surface. The trick was to go either to the right or left and trickle away on the loose stuff, before putting the power down when it became a case of controlling the wheel spin as the track narrowed and the car forced onto the polished surface. Mike Chatwin got it right in his Troll and so did Ross Norman in his Deere Special who had no problems. David Bache managed to trickle off the line just right and although it was a struggle powered the Mk1 Dellow to the summit. Climb of the day though went to Tim Whellock. Wheelspin set in almost as soon as he left the line but he kept his foot down and he and Anne bounced and bounced and finally the Fugitive edged forward only to stop again as one of the front wheels came up against a rock. They repeated the process several times until finally the tyres gripped properly and the car flew to the summit. 

In the nearly, but not quite, category came Peter Mountain who went well to the right off the slippery stuff and pulled away nicely, but the camber dragged the Mk1 Dellow down onto the polished stone and that was that. Emma Flay went well to the left and trickled away from the line really nicely, keeping her wheels off those polished centre tramlines. It looked as if Emma would trickle her way to the summit but a front wheel came up against a rock, the Troll slowed, Emma blasted but didn’t have enough momentum and in the end had to give best to the hill. 

Bishopswood – There was a tricky restart for the Yellows and Reds, situated on the bump over the cross track as usual. It was far from straightforward and caught out Stuart Harrold who was running towards the front of the field. There was some unhappiness about the restart and many competitors thought that it was impossible for lower powered cars and a lottery for the others. 

Blue Hills 1 – Although this is a tricky section it hardly counts as a hill and this year the restart was a very narrow box right on the stone surface back on to the road. Unusually this was for Yellows Reds and Class Three! Car after car failed to get the necessary grip and failed. Ed Nikel had his throttle go over centre and shot out at an enormous speed, just avoiding the bank the other side. Fellow Falcon Colin Sumner had the reverse problem as his throttle became disconnected and he stopped without any power. This certainly wasn’t a Falcon friendly hill and only Keith Oakes and Ross Nuten were judged to be clean. 

Blue Hills 2

The hillside surrounding Bluehills 2 was thronged with spectators who had glorious weather for their afternoons entertainment. There was restart for yellows and reds in the middle of the artificial deviation. Most of the Sevens and Eights didn’t have a problem but the Beetles in class six struggled and neither John Sargeant nor Mark Tooth could pull away. Then along came Dave Sergeant who didn’t have to restart in his 1300 Beetle but failed anyway. He was followed by Terry ball who made up for his debacle on Hoskin and stormed up in his smart orange car. 

The outside bank on the artificial deviation claimed quite a few causalities as it acted as a magnet for Escorts and Midgets, many of which damaged their bodywork in the process. 

There was a new finish at The Crossroads Lodge at Scorrier where competitors reckoned it was an enjoyable and competitive Lands End.

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