Author: classictrials

Class One Win for Michael Collins on Claggy Clee

Golf Gti driver Michael Collins won a Clee Hills that was heavily handicapped against class eight. It was a sticky event, with everyone having to cope with deep ruts but the Class eights had some tough re-starts and alternative routes as well.

Peter Manning checking out his Midget in the queue for Round Oak which was later cancelled for his class.
Michael Leete’s Beetle stands all alone at the back of the field while it waits it turn at Hungerford
Dick Glossop pictured on his unsuccessful  attack on the left hander at Hungerford
Dick Glossop pictured on his unsuccessful  attack on the left hander at Hungerford

There had been a fair amount of rain the week before the trial, but the weather was warm enough to ensure there was no snow this year. Cars run in class order on The Clee and Stuart Harrold and Chris Phillips led the field away from The Boyne Arms in Burwarton near Bridgenorth in Shropshire. As the rest of the field followed the more privileged (or is it disadvantaged?) had Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason’s brother Tony thrust a microphone under their noses as he interviewed them for a Discovery Channel program that will be shown some time in the summer.

Farlow was first on the agenda. It had not been used for three years, as it wasn’t included the last time the event was run because of PR problems with the occupier of the house at the bottom. The section is a straight, muddy blind, cutting off a hairpin on the tarmac road. Grip was quite a problem for the early numbers and Stuart Harrold, Nigel Moss and Mike Chatwin all floundered on the lower reaches in their Trolls. At least they got further than David Thompson who didn’t make the start when he couldn’t get the ex-David Alderson machine fired up and had to stay at home in Kettering. The ruts became deeper with the passing of each car but later numbers with sufficient ground clearance found plenty of grip and most of the Class One’s cleaned the section.

There was a long road section of over 20 miles to the next hill, an even muddier section with yet more deep ruts. This had never been used for car trials before, although bikes had used it in the 50’s and 60’s. Most of the class eights came out the top of this one, but Stuart Harrold ground to a halt again and so did Tony Rothin in the Cannon Alfa. Crews in the other classes really struggled and Terry Ball was the only saloon to gain a clear. The Escorts all hated this hill, grounding out in the deep ruts by the left hander and causing a big queue to build up while they were dragged out.

The Class fours didn’t fare much better and most of them under-steered into the bushes immediately after the start line, including Giles Greenslade and Richard Peck. When Richard backed out his Beetle looked decidedly lopsided and he retired, limping home to Derbyshire with a suspected broken torsion bar. Clerk of the Course Simon Woodhall was in attendance and he decided to cancel the hill for the remaining classes, leaving class four to run last on the road. Michael Leete made the penultimate ascent and he trickled through the mud at the start, staying in the ruts and slowly building momentum, blasting through the deep stuff at great speed before the clinging mud sucked him to a stop just short of the section ends board.

Bill Rosten had problems on the following road section. A lot of mud had been sucked into the engine compartment as he backed out of Round Oak and the alternator had stopped charging. The descent to the start of Adstone was pretty rutty and there was no going back if you changed your mind! The section didn’t present too many problems and neither did Rattlinghope or Gatten’s Gamble. They were all nice long sections though, with some absolutely fabulous views on what was now a clear day.

The views continued on the run over The Long Mynd with another long section before Harton Wood, which had to be tackled on road pressures after Pete Hart and his crew had leapt out in the road to do a diff test. There was another delay at Hugerford, one of the highlights of The Clee. This presented Mike Jones and John Sargeant with a lot of problems as they tried to get competitors queued up off the main road. The section is quite hard to turn into and drivers were allowed to swing into the road if they wished. The class eights didn’t have any problems at the bottom but they had a tough re-start just before the hump at the top and very few could get away. As the field went through so the bottom became very badly cut-up and it became difficult to get round the corner at all. It caught out both Dave Sargeant and Dick Glossop in their Beetles. Dave got around the corner at the expense of quite a bit of body damage while Dick just couldn’t get round at all. The character of the section had changed a lot since it was last used as the trees edging the gully had been felled and the section itself had become very muddy and cut up by the work vehicles. There were a few rocks remaining though and both Ian Ramsey and Neil Bray punctured. Hungerford also saw the end of Bill Rosten’s day when he retired with a broken Hardy Spicer joint.

Longville was nice and easy if you didn’t have any restarts; although it was all too much for Emma Flay’s Escort and she retired. The class eight’s had to re-start of course and only a couple got away cleanly, including Adrian Marfel and Mike Pearson in his Dellow Replica. The class eight handicap was hammered home when they diverted to Majors Leap while the rest of the field tackled the hairpin at Ippkins Rock. None of the class eights got beyond the ten marker while over at Ippkins around half the entry emerged without penalty, the right-hand hairpin causing the demise of the remainder.

The Clee’s traditional stopper, The Jenny Wind came next, despite some PR problems with the householder at the bottom. The club had tried to minimise the disturbance by erecting a huge tarpaulin to provide a visual screen and contain the flying dirt from spinning wheels. Class eight had a re-start at the eight marker, which slowed them down and the leaders only got as far as the five. Adrian Marfel was in the lead in his rear engined rail, a couple of marks ahead of Tony Young. Carl Talbot had been going well in the Morris Trialsmaster and would have been level with Adrian but for a fail on the first special test. Terry Ball came to The Jenny Wind with a clean sheet in his class six Beetle, as did Paul Allaway in his Astra, Michael Collins in his Gti and Terry Coventry in the AX, albeit the class ones were aided by Round Oak being cancelled for their class. All these clean sheets were blown to the wind here but Paul Allaway went that bit further to take the lead of the trial.

Harley Bank was a few hundred yards up the road. A lovely long blind up through the woods for the lower classes, although things were spiced up for seven and eight with a sharp left hander that proved impossible and an eight was the best anyone could muster. Even without the diversion Harley was pretty tough unless you had a lot of ground clearance and a fair amount of power to blast through the mud and ruts.

Talking of mud and ruts Simon Woodhall made sure a class eight wouldn’t win overall by sending them up Meadowley which was very slippery after all the rain. He reckoned without Adrian Marfel though, who actually made it to the top but the eight lost on the hairpin at Harley Bank dropped him out of overall contention as the field made it’s way back to Burwarton for the final sections within the Boyne estate with Paul Allaway in the overall lead by one mark. They were running last car on the road by now, after stopping to help David Haizelden who had mechanical problems. They had a great run on the last section called Forsters Fright but lost the lead to Michael Collins after getting a fail on the final special test.

So a class one emerged victorious with Michael Collins dropping 15 in his Golf Gti. He was one mark ahead of Terry Coventry on 16, the same score as Michael Leete but the Beetle driver had a much slower special test time. Adrian Marfel was best class eight but with their extra sections, restarts, alternative routes and high tyre pressures he could only manage ninth overall. Clive Kalber won class three on special test times after finishing on equal points with Paul Eamer.

The 2002 Clee will probably be a talking point for some time. In particular Were the class seven and eights to heavily handicapped. Perhaps they were, perhaps they weren’t. At the end of the day organiser Simon Woodhall is a class eight driver so he knew what they could or couldn’t do. It was unusual for class one to do so well and there’s no doubt that cancelling the muddy Round Oak helped them. Me, I thought it was a great event, but perhaps I am just a shade biased! 

Class 0ARichard Andrews/Neil Forrest (Dellow)111st Class
0BAdam & Craig Jones (Austin 7)91st Class
1Michael Collins/Tony Chamberlain (VW Golf GTi)15Fray
1Terry Coventry/Tony Woolls (Citeron AX)161st Class
1Adrian & Anndrew Tucker-Peake (Peugeot 205 GTi)192nd Class
2Ian Williamson/Graham Arrondelle (MG PB)36Toulmin
2Winston & Isabel Teague (Austin 7)36Silverstone
2Bill & Liz Bennett (MG J2)371st Class
3Clive Kalber/Zoe Hunt (Ford Escort)191st Class
3Paul & Allison Eamer (Ford Escort)192nd Class
4Michael Leete/Mike Hayward (VW1302S)161st Class
5Peter & David Manning (MG Midget)281st Class
6Terry Ball/Ken Martin (VW Beetle)231st Class
7Roger & Julia Bricknell (Vincent)261st Class
8Adrian Marfel/Derek Tyler (VW Spl)231st Class
8Carl & Ralph Talbot (Morris Trialsmaster)332nd Class
8Tony Young/John Radford (VW Spl)383rd Class
2002_clee_hills_resultsDownload

We have been publishing stuff about Classic Trials on the Web since 1995 and always appreciate feedback. Comments, Corrections, Criticism & Concerns are all welcome. You can leave a comment to have your say here on this web site or our Social Media

Splendid Exeter

With Foot and Mouth out of the way the MCC started the New Year with a splendid Exeter Trial. The conditions were near perfect, the hills were in good condition and Simms was in fine form to shatter the hopes of many Triple aspirants!

It had been very cold during the week leading up to the trial, but come the Friday the temperature rose above freezing and fog rather than frost was the main enemy on the run town to Tintinhull. Gatcombe Lane was first the first section on the agenda, despite fears that it may fall victim to F&M. A gentle cruise for the old timers but important for some of the class 0 competitors as it was their first ever trials hill.

Then it was into Bovey Woods for Normans Hump and Clinton. Norman’s Hump is my sort of trials hill, round the corner, trotter down and point at the sky! The re-start was quite high up for the yellows this year, but there was plenty of grip, so it wasn’t too much trouble. The problem was lower down where it was pretty rough and the ruts got deeper with each car, even trapping David Thompson in his Troll. John Parsons was running near the front of the field in his ex Graham Marshall, ex David Thompson Buggy but disaster struck on Clinton when something broke in the front end and one of the wheels folded back, leaving John and Dot with the problem of getting a three wheeler out of the woods to seek a recovery truck. Richard Tompkins, who had engine problems before the event and was running a new motor, was having his troubles and failed both of the Bovey sections.

Keith Pettit and Peter Manning were running towards the back of the field in Sprite and Midget respectively, reporting both sections were pretty rough by the time they arrived. Keith had a puncture on Normans Hump and Peter followed suite on Clinton. Both had more problems later. Keith with both the electric’s and more punctures and Peter had a rear shocker-mounting break but apart from Simms cleared everything.

Waterloo can always catch the unwary and Neil Bray didn’t get the first corner right and spun to a stop. Fred Gregory was going well in his Rickman Ranger, finding the soft suspension really allowed the back end to dig in and find plenty of grip. They were clean so far but the worry was they didn’t think they had signed in at the start!

Everyone tackled Stretes. No problem for full trials prepared machinery but a challenge for some of the class 0’s. This was the end of the road for Tony and Stephanie Boyle’s 1200 Beetle when the clutch gave out. They left the VW in a car park at Otterley St Mary and went to the finish for an early bath. Stretes also saw the end of Kevin Barnes when his Singer Le Mans stopped running properly and they decided to retire. As so often happens it then cleared up all on it’s own but they were too far on the way home to continue. Falcon’s Dave Nash was going well in his Skeetle, which now has a Type Four engine. This had been for an expensive re-build and Dave was still running it, so had transferred to Class 0, finding it easier than battling with all those Marlin’s! 

It was into the woods again for Bulverton Steep and Passaford lane. Ed Nikel was having problems with his fuel pump and stopped to fix it, arriving quite late at Exeter. The corner at the top of Passaford Lane caused problems for many but it was the bend at the bottom that was the downfall of Richard Tompkins. Last year he didn’t go fast enough and stalled out on the slope. This year he had too much speed and understeered into the trees.

Photos from Tillerton

Keith Oakes demonstrates as slips and slides on the upper reaches.
Nice to get a pictute of a happy John Salter who has helped so much with pictures for Classical Gas over the years, even if he didn’t get of the re-start!
The re-start on Tillerton presented quite a challenge this year. Like most of the Trolls David Thompson didn’t get away.
Neither did Tim Wellock

The early numbers arrived at Exeter Services well ahead of time as there had been no delays and they were soon off to Windout, which is tarmac and didn’t present any problems. They came soon enough when the field arrived at Tillerton. It was smoother than usual. The restart moved had been moved lower down the hill. This should have allowed a good run at the big step but it was very slippery and caught out quite a few of the aces. These included Tim “Triple” Wellock and Dudley Sterry, neither of who stopped in the right place. It could be done though. Ian Davis got it exactly right, driving off the re-start in his Buggy without spinning the wheels at all. Most of the cleans weren’t so elegant. Mal Allen made it with a lot of smoke and so did Keith Oakes, after a really determined attempt. Tony Rothin’s face looked pretty grim when his Cannon didn’t move, but he kept his trotter to the floor, sawing at the steering wheel. The little car slid sideways back and forth, wheels spinning until the wheels dug down to something solid and it inched up the hill.

Ed Nikel stopped to fix some carb problems but his had luck just got worse and worse when someone side-swiped his car doing tremendous damage to all the panels on one side. Ed continued only to be forced to retire with a slipping clutch caused by problems with the release mechanism.

Fingle was the usual blast, which was a bit too much for Colin Perryman’s Skoda, blowing its engine in protest. Wooston Steep was a challenge for quite a few of the yellows as usual. There were cars going everywhere around here with an extra route for class 0 in addition to the two normal ones. Pepperdon was cancelled for class 0 so they just drove up the tarmac road.

The field regrouped at Islington Village and down the lane to the bottom of Simms. Class 0 branched off to the right here to tackle Penhale’s Plantation. The majority of the other classes were to traverse this track as well, as it is the Simms escape road! It was too much for Richard Hoskins Morgan F4, which lost bottom gear and needed a tow from a friendly Escort.

Photos from Simms

Simon Robson goes to the right to give  the admiring spectators a close up view of his Leige.
Peter and Carlie Hart didn’t have much time so just drove straight up the hill for a clean. 
I didn’t get the chance to ask Mal Allen why he decided to jump out of his Marlin just when it got to the interesting bit.
Andrew Brown taking is ACTC Rights of Way Officer role very seriously, sacrifcing a clean in the interst of exploring a new route to the left on Simms. 

Simms was on fine form this year and most car competitors floundered on the slippery step half way up. It was all about momentum. Unless you hit the step at a decent speed you just spun to a stop. There were some impressive ascents though. None more than Dave Turner whose BMW, blower whistling, stormed the summit at great speed. Pete and Carlie Hart were one of the few Marlins’ to succeed, much to the crew’s delight. Mal Allen got his Ford engined Marlin past the A boards but despite some very energetic bouncing couldn’t repeat his success on Tillerton. In class eight some of the famous names failed, including Ian Davis in his Buggy, Duncan Welch and most of the Dellow’s. Dudley stormed up in his MG and so did Simon Woodhall in his Buggy. Tim Wellock slowed and struggled in the ex John Parsons Fugative but kept his foot down and inched past the section ends board.

Bill Rosten and Terry Ball both got to the top OK but most cars in classes 4 and 6 didn’t. The Trolls didn’t have much success and the Leige’s didn’t fare any better. Simon Robson was faithful to the old John T-P doctrine of heading for the right hand side, over by where the spectators stand, but the gradient was too much for his fire pump engine. Interestingly Adrian T-P took the same line, one of the few cars to go that way. The Pop Asylum team, running in class seven, re-start and all, had a 100% record on Simms and went onto Gold, although Clive Kalber was driving Tommy’s Melos as his ex Tucker-Peake Pop was languishing at home with engine problems.

There were a lot of people spectating on Simms this year. They saw plenty of action with a chair turning end over end and a Dellow plunging down backwards with brake failure. One spectator got a bit more involved than he planned when Ken Payne lost control of his Golf and ploughed into the spectators on the right, running over someone’s foot, the poor unfortunate was helped away afterwards, presumably for medical attention.

Only Tipley was left now, a hill that had not been used on the Exeter for many years. It was just as rough as ever but competitors were spared the Torbay re-start. It ended Verdun Webley’s trial when his growling prop shaft finally broke and he had to be towed the final few miles to The Trecarn. The general talk at the bar was that the 2002 Exeter was a thoroughly enjoyable trial with a couple of very difficult sections in the form of Tillerton and Simms. In summary it was great to be back!

2002_exeter_resultsDownload

We have been publishing stuff about Classic Trials on the Web since 1995 and always appreciate feedback. Comments, Corrections, Criticism & Concerns are all welcome. You can leave a comment to have your say here on this web site or our Social Media

Stuart’s Exeter

by Stuart Cairney

Got car MOTd 3pm Friday and for the first time in a while actually managed 4hours kip before setting off for a 01.03 start from Popham  (ever mindfull of the recent discusions…) which made a heck of a difference I must admit.

Although I thought I’d read the route card properly, like many others I failed to spot the fact that only the route from Haynes onwards  was compulsory, not the route from Popham to Haynes museum. As it happened we didn’t miss any slots this time but with the fog as it was I would have probably opted for the 303 if I’d realised.

I have just swopped my emission type Dellortos for non-emission Dellortos allows much more adjustment of the bottom end which is usefull for PCTs). Although it seemed to be running OK I knew it was a bit rich down the bottom but had other preparation to worry about so thought it would be OK; which it was until we had dawdled our way for the last few miles to  Normans. By then the plugs had sooted up and we couldn’t get off the line due to the resultant missfire. Same thing on Clinton but we were invited to roll back and take a run up and consequently got to the top albeit having already failed – this blast seemed to clear things and from then on we went OK.

Tillerton seemed as rough as ever around the restart area which we fortunatley don’t have to stop at and on the road section soon after this we stopped briefly when we saw Ed Nickle parked up having had carb problems then somebody side swipeing his Imp and I gather he toubles were still not over as he eventually retired with a slipping clutch which apparently was caused by a problem with the thrust mechanism.

Comparing notes with Richard Tompkins later on we both agreed that Windout, with no restarts this year, was great fun in an Imp and a bit of a hooligan’s delight being all tarmac with slippery hairpins!

Colin Perryman blew his Skoda’s engine on Fingle.  On Wooston steep I was a little suprised to pass two ‘section ends’ boards till I realised that after our section had ended we joined the class 0 route at the fork just after the short steep downhill bit.

And so to Simms – I was determined to have a good shot at it and mindfull of the earlier problems changed the plugs before the attempt. We had a real good go at it but I probably went too far to the left, hit a rock with the rear wheel, punctured and stopped.

I attach a pic of the wheel which is the worst wheel damage I have incurred with the Imp. My tyres were nowhere near flat and well into double figoures at xx lbs(!) and the mind boggles at the force required to damage a rim like that with one hit.

Bill Roston was the only Imp to clean Simms, I believe, on his way to Gold. Tipley was quite rough and very slippery but without the restart which causes all the failures on the Torbay trial. Overall a really enjoyable event after the lay off which was still competitive without the restarts for us girlies!

We have been publishing stuff about Classic Trials on the Web since 1995 and always appreciate feedback. Comments, Corrections, Criticism & Concerns are all welcome. You can leave a comment to have your say here on this web site or our Social Media

Derek’s Greyhound

A relaxed chat at a Dinner table set me scrabbling amongst my books and many sessions trawling the Internet to find out more about Derek Fleming’s “Greyhound”

Derek Fleming driving his Ford “Greyhound” on an MCC event in the mid-50’s Derek bought the car for trialling while he was building “Primrose”, after damaging the under-side of hiis brand new Hillman Minx.

Sitting at the dinner table with Derek Fleming at the MCC Centenary Dinner we got to talk about his cars. Derek got into trials through fellow garage owner Tucker, and he started out competing in his brand new Hillman Minx. This went well, but inevitably, it suffered quite a bit underneath and when the petrol tank got damaged Derek decided to get another car for trialling while he was building Primrose.

An open pre-war Ford Tourer came Derek’s way, which he refers to as a “Ford Greyhound”. This interested me and when I got home, I looked it up on the Internet, without success! What I did find was a large amount of information on radiator mascots.

Back in the 20’s and early 30’s it was very popular to have a mascot on your radiator cap. Some manufacturers provided them as standard, but with Ford it was an accessory, a greyhound! So, “greyhound” was not really a clue to the origins of the car.

Comparing Derek’s car with the 1932 “Y” with body by Abbey Coachworks shows many similarities
The greyhound radiator cap was a popular accessory for Fords. It was available as an option from Ford, but a number of aftermarket companies also sold greyhound radiator caps for Ford cars. Each company rendered its own version of the greyhound so differences can be found.
Derek in his “Greyhound” tackles Darracott in 1956. Compare the shape of the doors and the windscreen mounting with the two pictures at the bottom of the page.
A standard “CX” Tourer is very different.

A phone call to Derek didn’t shed a lot more light on the cars history. He couldn’t remember who he bought it from, although he did remember it said “Greyhound” in the logbook. Derek reckoned it could have been a special body built on a standard chassis. But was it? Research on the Internet revealed that Ford started to produce the Y type in the summer of 1932. This was known as the short radiator model and it had a straight bumper. After this in October 1933 the ‘long rad’ model, with its longer radiator grille and front bumper with the characteristic dip was produced. 

Ford never produced an open Y type but when the “C” came along they did produce a tourer version of the CX. However, you can see that Derek’s car is not one of these when you look at the shape of the bottom front of the door, and the way the windscreen mounts to the body. Anyway, Derek had pointed out that his car had a straight ribbed bumper. This was a clue to the cars age as it must have been an early short rad model. Derek also mentioned that he used the car with 16 inch wheels but this was a red herring. Ford produced their pre-war cars with 17 inch, Firestone shod, wheels. Mitchelin were promoting their 16 inch tyres and gave away a set of 16-inch wheels if you bought a full set of their rubber. This of course lowered the gearing!

So Derek’s car was not a CX, it was based on a an early Y type. Further trawling on the Net confirmed that Ford did not produce an open top car because it was thought that the chassis was too flexible, however several specialist coachbuilders produced a range of attractive model ‘Y’ tourers. After yet more surfing I found a picture of a 1932 Y with a Tourer body by Abbey Coachworks and I set about comparing this with Derek’s car. They are both short rad models with straight ribbed bumpers. The doors look the same, so does the windscreen mount. 

In conclusion it looks as if Derek’s “Greyhound” was a 1932 or 1933 Y type produced in chassis form by Ford with a body built by Abbey Coachbuilders. What is certain is that the car gave Derek a lot of fun and not a little success. Derek attributes its climbing ability to its flexible chassis that ensured the wheels were always in contact with the ground, however rough and rocky terrain. There were disadvantages of course. The doors tended to fly open over the bumps unless they were tied shut!

The reason the chassis flexed so much was that the rivets had all come loose. When Derek sold the car to Ian Wilson he welded it up. It was nice and stiff afterwards, improving the handling on the road no end, but it never climbed very well again!

We have been publishing stuff about Classic Trials on the Web since 1995 and always appreciate feedback. Comments, Corrections, Criticism & Concerns are all welcome. You can leave a comment to have your say here on this web site or our Social Media

A Touch of Class

Mike Hayward’s Falcon Clubmates help him change the diff after Beggars on the 2000 Lands End. Hey! I didn’t know Mk 3 Escorts were Rear Wheel Drive!

As some of you may know this is not the only Classical Gas. There are two more on the Internet, plus a printed version which is distributed with The Falcon Motor Club magazine.   This is the main Web Site, which contains much of the material in the printed version, an archive site where lots of old material is stored and a “Web Community” which anyone can join and post pictures and messages.

The heart of this is a message board and sometimes there are some quite long “debates”. Mostly they are pretty un-eventful but following The Gill Morrell Trial things heated up.

It started with Mark Rosten-Edwards putting forward the view that it was unfair that Mike Hayward’s ex-Autocross Escort should be allowed to run in class three. MCC Chairman John Aley chipped in, reminding us that the MCC allows cars to be reclassified “on merit” and suggested that Mike wrote an application to Mike Furse.

Mike thought this was a great idea, responding to say that a letter was on it’s way. This prompted a post from Escortier Jason Daniel putting forward the argument that if Mike was allowed into class 3 he should be allowed to modify his car by fitting coil-over shocks. By now we were into the intricacies of five link rear suspension, Panhard rods and comparisons with the Kalber’s “Runner Bean” Pop.

Simon Woodhall donned his ACTC hat and explained that although the MCC re-classified cars the ACTC certainly did not! This prompted some a series of posts getting into the different philosophies of the MCC and ACTC which got quite exciting at times but stayed just within the “permitted rules of engagement”. It was then pointed out that Class 0 was another route, although only the MAC is the only club to run this class in one day events.

We had 16 messages in all, the longest debate so far on the web community. It was all good clean fun and fully justified the Web Communities existence as a forum for un-edited debate. Me, I’m looking forward to passengering Mike up Bluehills without a re-start!

We have been publishing stuff about Classic Trials on the Web since 1995 and always appreciate feedback. Comments, Corrections, Criticism & Concerns are all welcome. You can leave a comment to have your say here on this web site or our Social Media

Exmoor Clouds 2001

Adrian Marfell won the first ACTC trial after the enforced break with a clear run on the Exmoor Clouds. He was chased hard all day by Paul Bartleman in his new Troll and Dudley Sterry in his venerable MG.

by Ian Davis

As in 2000, this year’s Exmoor Clouds started at the Ralegh’s Cross Inn high on the Brendon Hills. Unlike last year though the morning dawned bright and sunny and the 52 motorcycle and 66 car competitors enjoyed beautiful autumn sunshine all day. The hills were in prime condition after a wet week and although one or two of the old favourites were missing, due to foot and mouth precautions, the route was similar to that used in the last couple of years.

Giles Greenslade won class 4. 
Dudley Sterry only dropped three marks but was pipped at the post for second overall by Paul Bartleman on spevcial test times.
Adrian Marfel (shown, like the ones below, in this John Salter picture on the Ebworth Chase) won first ACTC trial after the break with a clean run.

After a gentle opener in the form of Steep Lane, the trial moved on to Port Lane where considerable delays built up as the motorcyclists tackled (with varying degrees of success) this long classic section. Five saloons saw the section ends board although only four cleaned the hill. The fifth, driven by William Rosen, was judged to have stopped lower down and then got moving again – a pity as it is some achievement to get an Imp over the rock steps at the top on tiny 12″ wheels. 

The next three hills were to prove decisive. The first, Northmoor, was very muddy at the bottom with a deviation off the main track to the restart line, which stopped three quarters of Class 8. The usual suspects went clear and were joined by Paul Bartleman in what was listed as a Ford Special but what everyone else seems to call the ‘Cream Cracker’ Troll.

Following on from Northmoor was the first Special test of the day where Bill Foreshew threw the GVS II round in style to set FTD. Ski Slope was next and with the sun warming the grass, we had hopes of getting off the steep and slippery restart. These were soon dashed as the hill proved to be in fine form with a sticky patch lower down which stopped all the saloons bar one – David Turner’s BMW. He was joined at the top by Tommy Kalber in his Dutton and just three Class 8 specials – eventual winner Adrian Marfell, Dudley Sterry (after some determined bouncing) and local man David Dyer in a Canon who made it look easy, despite having shifted his rear axle on Port Lane. Falcon’s Murray and Hazel Mac were marshalling on the hill and Murray described how one special had almost rolled when attempting to climb the bank up to the restart – apparently only the fact that the spare wheel carrier had dug into the ground stopped it from flipping over backwards. 

Pin Quarry followed and in contrast to Ski Slope, where the whole hill can be seen from the bottom, the start was out of sight. Not many cars saw the top either, most being stopped by a muddy bank or the hollow that followed immediately after. Following the route thereafter was also something of a challenge as it twisted and turned PCT-style up to the top of the old section. We met a Dellow driver at the top who arrived from a completely different direction but was convinced he’d cleaned the hill! 

Allercott also had something of the PCT about it starting downhill and after climbing slightly descending further before the steep rutted grassy slope at the finish. Having made a mess of this last year, I was determined to blast straight up the final slope. All went well until the 5 marker landed on the bonnet, followed shortly by the 4 marker! I suppose the marshal gamely jumping into our path to vainly try and direct us up the left hand side should have given the game away but we weren’t the only ones to be caught out by the subtle route-marking and the penalties incurred for striking marker posts.

On to Middlecombe Woods where the first of two sections featured another downhill start to a wide left hand bend and then a long roller coaster climb with a choice of routes at the six marker – either a tight squeeze between two stout trees or round to the left. Although fairly straightforward for class 8, no car cleared the section from Classes 1-7 and delays again built up. The situation wasn’t helped when the recovery vehicle got into difficulty trying to reach the Hazelden Golf and took a full half-hour to get mobile again. 

The second Middlecombe section proved less challenging, much to the relief of most of the field who had cleared only two or three sections by this stage – two thirds of the way through the trial! Land’s End section Hindon also proved easy this year. The good relations Dick Hutchins and the team have with the locals were in evidence here as farmer and family was sat in the sunshine spectating. Apparently, the key to Dick’s success (he has something like 40 hills to chose from) is the invitation to the club’s annual dinner extended to the landowners of the sections used each year

Not far from Minehead, the slippery tree roots at the top of Avill Ball stopped all the saloons and most of the bikes although most in Class 8 managed to avoid the large stump at the top and clean the section. 

On to Tarr Cot, which proved a real challenge for the saloons, only Clive Kalber in his Escort and Giles Greenslade going clear to secure their respective class wins. There appeared to be some communication problem here as some cars were sent off while others were coming back down having failed. Clearly not ideal, especially as you need to press on a bit to get across an adverse camber half way up… Those who made the top uninterrupted were treated to a glorious view over the Bristol Channel to South Wales. 

Down through Roadwater and along the old mineral line to what looked like abandoned Iron ore workings for the final two stages – one for class 8 and one for everyone else. Getting to the start of these sections required climbing a track, which could serve as a section in itself. Unfortunately it proved too challenging for some of the saloons, especially as most arrived well after nightfall and their section was rightly cancelled – this area definitely not being somewhere to get stuck in the dark. Class 8 arrived earlier, however, and were able to tackle a long steep section with big drops to the right hand side and a slippery grassy finish which stopped most of the class. We gave it death and were pleased to get to the top only to see Adrian Marfell cruise up in second gear to complete the only clear round of the day and a well-deserved victory. Paul Bartleman finished a fine second, having dropped only 3 points, with Dudley Sterry a couple of seconds behind on special test times. 

All in all a great day’s sport for us in class 8 – all the more so after an enforced close season of 8 months. For those in some of the other classes though it must have been a very long (and in places rough) day with the last competitor finishing at 8.30pm and then facing the drive home.

2001_exmoor_clouds_resultsDownload

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Bucklers at Long Lawford by Stan Hibberd

After a certain amount of uncertainty due to the foot and Mouth epidemic, The Buckler Register staged it’s 2001 Buckler Day and Road Run at the Memorial Hall Long Lawford Rugby. The weather was perfect close to 30c, and nine Buckler cars from bare frame to road legal turned up to take part. Our friends from the Ford Sidevalve OC also brought three cars, the tea pot never ran dry all day and a lot of interested people visited to chat and look at the cars.

Bucklers, and an interloping Dutton!, basking in the sunshine at Long Lawford.

It can fairly be claimed that this Buckler Day ranks with the 40th and 50th Anniversary days as one of the best events staged by the Register. In common with those other memorable days the weather was brilliant, also as in those events we had a road run. This in my view is important. Only by encouraging cars to be driven to and at events are we able to increase the number of road legal runners. Also on show were three examples of the Buckler chassis building art. The Mark V rolling chassis of MYG 10 was brought by Ken Green and Chris Hackney, the rebuild of this car should be fairly rapid as Chris is keen to have running it on the road in next years road run!! Brian Malin brought his hybrid Buckler chassis, which we think was intended to have a Ford V8, fitted. As part of the build up to the event my DD2 frame was collected from the lock up and Red Oxide applied by Messrs. Hackney & Green and Hibberd to the replaced tubes in order to make it look a little decent to illustrate what a light strong space frame should look like. 

The roadworthy Bucklers present were Keith Ambrose in the pretty Peco DD2, 800 KBH, Keith retains the Pete Boswell trophy for another year for driving the car up from Bristol. Brian Malin, Mark V BLY 618, Ken Green Mark V DFB 140, the Boswell family brought their Mark VI JVS 347 from Thatcham. My own Mark VI NAC 344 making the shortest journey to the event. One of the things that made every Buckler owner envious was the Mk5 (KBL), brought down from Blackburn by Trevor Anderton, Henry Allen spotted this car in Lawford on Saturday, he ‘phoned me to say that Bucklers were arriving, it was a nice surprise to see the car with it’s very complete history. 

Our visitors from the FSOC were Alan Hart from Shipston on Stour with a very pretty 1962 Ford 100E saloon, John Porter from Nuneaton with a Siva tourer. C. Hammond from Hillmorton came in his Shirley Mk 2 and Rob Daniels visited, but was unable to bring his Rochdale. Keith and Claire Oakes were invited and turned up with their Dutton trials car. Both Keith and Claire go back a long way to the 1960s with the Allen Bucklers in trials, right up until the Dutton arrived and began to do the business for them. 

Everyone turned up pretty promptly, and when we had found parking for all the cars and trailers it was time for our Road Run to get under way. Rhona took the little green car for a spin round the village, sadly the car suffered a repeat of its prop shaft problems, which had led to it arriving on a trailer, so JVS was out of the run. Brian Malin disappeared in his Mark V to get petrol just as the run was getting under way and nothing further was seen of them until the run was over. Henry and I ambled off in NAC dispensing with the route card, as we knew the route, having traveled round it time or two. When we reached the Canal at Willoughby we paused for a few minutes and were joined by two Buckler Mark V’s. Ken and Chris in DFB and Trevor and Steven Anderton in KBL. The narrowboat Martin E arrived with my family aboard, so we had liquid refreshment and chat on board before resuming our wander round the leafy lanes.

A little while later we found a Buckler DD2 in a gateway and it’s driver round the corner in the pub, so we paused for lunch with Keith Ambrose. Also in the posh bit at the pub were Rhona and family but we settled for a very good and reasonably priced Ploughmans in the bar. During lunch I was lectured on the difference between a right and a left turn, funny how we all managed to end up in the same pub. I think my mistake had the cars running around a bit on the approach to Shuckborough, my claims of deliberate mistake didn’t go down too well. Then the highlight of the day for me. Our little convoy of Bucklers then set off toward Lawford and the finish, we all enjoyed the drive “home” it’s nice to drive our Bucklers but it’s much more enjoyable in company with three others. Trevor Anderton described it today as ultra relaxing. 

Back at base in the Hall lots of interested visitors, both enthusiasts attracted through the Internet, and several locals who came and looked round. Tea and snacks went down a treat, plenty of chat, David Hayes drove down from Manchester and identified his Buckler car (so far unseen by the Register) as being a modified DD2 with alloy body. Geoff Roe from Nottingham spent the day with us and brought a piece of the original rear frame from the Carnegie Buckler Mark V for us to see. The welding was typical Buckler – funny shape though! By 4.30pm people were drifting away, the car park emptying, the washing up done, by 5.00pm we were cleared up and all the cars away by 5.30 pm. 

A memorable event hopefully the first of many of it’s kind, ideal venue, superb weather, good turnout (on the day) a new car turned up. Trevor Anderton was presented with one of the Malcolm Buckler 50th anniversary mugs to mark his turning up with a “new car” and driving it round with us on the run. We also recruited two new members. Magic……

Technical Trauma

Driving a Volkswagen Beetle does induce a certain amount of complacency, they may be rather strange contraptions but they are just about as reliable as a trials car can be, especially if you leave as much as possible as Herr Volkswagen, well Dr Porsche actually, intended. When you do see a Beetle retiring it’s normally the mucked about bit that’s bust. Well, at least that’s what I thought until this year’s Cotswold Clouds!

Years of bouncing around the nations trials hills with the weight of those spare wheels on the back bumper creased the body over the rear wings
Straightening out the dents is a regular task
hings got rather ground away on the way home!
The handbrake operating arm should pivot in that hole!

I have had the Beetle since 1990, which I guess is longer than most marriages last these days, and have done between six and eight trials a year since. I can’t say that it’s exactly as I bought it as it’s on its 3rd engine and about the fourth of fifth gearbox. There are a few original bits, like the top half of the body, the steering wheel and the back brakes, which I shall return to later.

During all that time have always driven it home, even on the two occasions that I have retired. The first occasion I had any real trouble on an event was my second Exeter, which I think was in 1993. Brother in law Simon was passengering, it was the first event he had done where we were staying over and he was particularly looking forward to an evening with the lads out of site of “she who must be obeyed”. At that time, the car still had the engine it came with, a well-worn and completely standard 1600 twin port. We were running along with Fred Gregory in the days when he had his Skoda. I can’t recollect how we were doing, but we were certainly enjoying ourselves when we hit problems on Stretes. The car seemed to be going pretty well, but the engine was starting to sound a bit fruity.

On the road down to Honiton we realised something was wrong as it was making a horrible noise. We stopped but couldn’t find anything wrong. We had a good look at all the machinery in the car park at Exeter Services but could find nothing amiss. The exhaust was in one piece, the timing was OK, we even took the valve covers off and checked the tappets. We found one at 22 thou instead of six, closed it up a bit, and pressed on. The long dual carriageway stretch down to Tillerton revealed that something was very wrong. I was all for retiring but the disappointed look on Simon’s face when I mentioned it made me press on. We finished by driving on a very light throttle on the road and only opening it up on the hills, to the accompaniment of the most horrible noise.

We had a great evening and limped home the next day to more and more noise, and less and less power. I had already decided to fit a new engine that was waiting in Murray MacDonald’s lock-up, but was still interested to know what was wrong. It turned out that one of the studs securing the exhaust to the head had sheered and the exhaust gasket had blown completely away!

It wasn’t that much later that I had my first trials retirement since I broke the diff on my Mini at a PCT in the early seventies. It was on the Edinburgh that finished so late, I think it was the first Laurie Knight event. I had spent some time prettying the car up before the event, even painting the wheels, and it looked very nice. Everything was fine on the run up to Derbyshire but on the descent down to Putwell I heard a distinct knocking from the rear on the over run. A ra-a-tat-tat, just like a CV joint on its way out in my Mini days. There was a big queue for Putwell and I slipped underneath to peer intelligently at the drive-shafts, nothing appeared amiss so we pressed on. The noise got worse and worse as the day went on and the trial got later and later. It was gone six in the evening when we came down the exit road from Haggside, the weather wasn’t very good and we had a couple of sections to go, including Litton Slack. The noise was really loud now, we had failed a couple of sections, so there was going to be no medal and we retired rather than risk being stuck with a broken drive shaft at he bottom of Litton late at night.

In those days, the Edinburgh finished at The Haddon Hall. We were staying there and got in for dinner at about eight, quite late but not as bad as the last competitor, David Alderson, who arrived just before midnight!

The following morning we thought about calling the RAC, but decided to try and limp home under out own steam. I was convinced one of the UJ’s had gone and was already planning a quick change as soon as I got home, for we were entered in The Ebworth Chase the following Saturday. We made it back to Bedfordshire to the sound of really loud knocking as soon as the car was off load. The Beetle was promptly up on the axle stands to change the drive shafts. Damn, forgot to undo the wheel nuts, not much hope but lets see if they will come off with the wheels in the air. Oh dear, all the wheel nuts are loose!

What had happened of course is I has painted the wheels with Hammerite, did the nuts up over the paint and they slackened off after a hundred miles or so. A hard lesson.

The only other time I have retired the Beetle was at a Brickhill PCT. If memory serves me, right this was the first event after the big changes in Falcon when all the disgruntled “SODS” joined us. Anyway, Mike Furse was Clerk of the Course and he had a special test, which involved driving forward down hill, stopping and reversing back up. I had the family in the car and wanted to put on a show. We went flying down, I dipped the clutch, slammed it in reverse and it immediately jumped out of gear. Nothing would persuade it to stay in reverse and as something had clearly broken inside, I decided to call it a day. We stayed to take some pictures and drove gingerly home. I hadn’t had this box very long, it was a 1300 with a low ratio and I had recently had it rebuilt because it wouldn’t stay in reverse! Anyway, I had apparently bent some selector fork or other. Rather than repair it I got another box part exchange, but I never took the old one back and it’s still in my garage as a spare at the cost of a lost deposit.

Apart from punctures, I then had a long trouble free period while out on events. Not that there was no work on the car. Another new engine came along, again curtsy of Murray MacDonald. This was a 1300, putting the beetle in class four, escaping many of the dreaded re-starts that organisers had introduced to subdue the performance of the type 4 monsters. I had fitted yet another gearbox, not because there was anything the matter with the other one, but I wanted an ultra low final drive and a 4-planet diff. Then of course there was the endless work on the body, doing battle with the tin worm and straightening out the inevitable dents. Things became a bit more serious when the body started to crease at the back over the wheel arches, necessitating a lot of work to pull it out and brace it to keep it in place as best I could. The bracing bars ran under the engine so I could no longer use the Trekker “bootscraper” skid plate that was bolted direct to the crankcase. A large sheet of upturned chequer plate replaced this. All this reduced the ground clearance so I had to raise the suspension even more to compensate. I had to grind a bit off the bottom of the spring plate’s to give some suspension movement which means the CV joints bind upon full droop!

All of this of course took place in the garage rather than on the road. All the more surprising then when we had a very strange problem on the 2000 Allen Trial. It started on a road section quite early in the event. There was a funny pulling feeling at the back, as if one of the brakes had come on. It only lasted a second. I tried all the brakes, everything seemed OK and we pressed on. A little later, after Guys Hill, it happened again, in a more pronounced fashion. This time I thought we had a puncture so we stopped and hopped out but there didn’t appear to be a problem. The truth came after Burledge. We had an honourable attempt at the hill but bellied out when we ran out of ground clearance at the top. We were about to reverse down but we were only a few yards from the summit so a Land Rover backed down to haul us out. I hauled on the handbrake to stop us rolling back and it just kept coming!

We stopped and had a good think. Clearly something had broken but it was out of site inside the drum and at a couple of hundred ft-lbs of torque I couldn’t take it off to have a look inside. We knew there weren’t any horrid reverse back down hills ahead so we pressed on with the handbrake working only on one wheel. The footbrake seemed to work OK and all seemed well apart from the occasional horrible graunching noise from the back when whatever it was got stuck between the linings and the drum!

We finished the event and drove carefully home. When I took the brakes apart, the following weekend I saw that the clip holding the handbrake arm pivot pin had fallen out, as had the pin itself. With the arm detached from the shoe, the handbrake didn’t work although the hydraulic footbrake did. The offending components were still inside the drum, but in a bit of a mess, as were the lining and the drum itself. A quick telephone discussion with Murray MacDonald explained the problem. I had always thought the clip securing the pin was just pushed on and held in place by its springiness, although it never appeared to have very much spring! Not surprising really, as you are supposed to clinch the clip shut and it’s made out of a nice soft material to help you!

I suppose I had been lucky really, as I had been driving around with those clips holding on with a wing and a prayer for the last ten years and although I have religiously stripped and cleaned the brakes every summer I had only ever pushed the clips back on!

We have been publishing stuff about Classic Trials on the Web since 1995 and always appreciate feedback. Comments, Corrections, Criticism & Concerns are all welcome. You can leave a comment to have your say here on this web site or our Social Media

Mike Chatwin wins Classic Clouds

The Stroud Club found a window in the wet weather and although some of the sections were very boggy put on yet another excellent event. Nigel Moss set out to bring the event closer to a “classic format” and the sections had a more natural feel with very little “tree weaving”.

David Thompson storming Crooked Mustard in his Troll 
 Jim Scott got up a long way but couldn’t get his Stilleto round the corner (pictures by John Salter).
Paul Bartleman eases his Escort up Nailsworth Ladder on the famous cars last event. 
Hazel MacDonald being beckoned to avoid the post at the top of Ham Mill.

Stroud had their usual full entry for their event, which stands alone, no championship, triples or anything at stake, you do this one for it’s own sake. There were a couple of non-starters, including Clive Booth, so second reserve Ian Davis got a run as second reserve.

With Sandfords know longer available Nigel Moss had found a new hill called Crawley for the first section. This was pretty muddy, but there was plenty of grip, so it didn’t pose many problems. Hazel MacDonald wouldn’t agree as she under-steered off into the scenery on the hairpin!

There was a queue for Crooked Mustard and Andrew Brown had to hold later numbers out on the main road for some time. The old section was quite slippery and there was a big step between the second and third corners. Most of the class eight’s got up OK, and a few of the sixes and sevens, but the rest floundered on, or in between, the corners. There were exceptions of course and local man Mark Linforth came out of the top in his Escort. So did Mick Workman in his class seven Imp. Colin Perryman broke a drive shaft on the first corner and dropped nine. However, he managed to repair the Skoda and went on to win class four. Mike Pearson found he had damaged a wheel quite badly and had to stop to hammer it straight.

Rushmire was badly washed out so part of it was used as a down hill special test. The challenge here was to stop on the finish line and this caught out a few including David Heale, Paul Bartleman and Adrian Marfell. Neil Bray broke his gearbox, loosing first and reverse and retired to limp home after a bit of spectating on Nailsworth. Michael Leete was also given a fail, even though he and Mike Hayward were certain they performed the test correctly, perhaps it was for setting such a slow time!

There was a holding control in the lane before the road to prevent a build-up at the foot of Axe, which was causing a few problems this year. It didn’t seem to be causing any PR problems as the lady in the pub at the start was keeping Clerk of the Course Nigel Moss supplied with tea served on a proper cup and saucer! All the rain had made Axe pretty claggy in a couple of places, one just after the start and the other quite near to the top. This caused problems for the lower classes with their lees powerful engines and lower ground clearance. However, the results make interesting reading. Adrian Tucker-Peake went clean in his Front Drive Peugeot but local men Mark Linforth and Mike Hobbs both failed even though they had just cleaned Crooked Mustard! The class 4 Imp’s all failed but Stuart Cairney and Jim Scott were level pegging with local Ian Moss.

There was lots of grip on Nailsworth Ladder and there were very few failures, even amongst the restarting class eight’s. The Ham Mill restart was just after the corner this year, which made it much easier and there were not very many failures. Although it still caught out a few, including Dick Glossop and Ade Welsh in class four, Mark Smiths powerful Beetle and all the class ones apart from Adrian T-P.

Nathan Camm was disapointed not to win The Ian Moss Trophy for best presented car
The Welsh family Beetle knocking it’s kness at the thought of Ade behind the wheel
Arthur Vowden couldn’t get his Marlin off the Merves Swerve re-start (picture by John Salter).
The marshalls were flexible when it came to Ralph Talbot’s interpretation of being normally seated on Climperswell.

Lunch was taken in the civilised surroundings of the Tesco cafeteria, civilised for us maybe, but I don’t know what the shoppers thought of the muddy triallers and their strange collection of cars! Fred’s Folly was the usual glorious long blast up through the trees, there were special tyre pressure restrictions but no nonsense like restarts to impede progress. It is pretty boggy and rutty up near the top and like Axe you needed a combination of power, ground clearance and a heavy right foot to get through. This caught out both Stuart Cairney and Jim Scott, letting Ian Moss into the lead of the Imp battle.

The trial was to be decided on the next section, a new Catswood, reached after a lovely long drive through the forest below Merve’s Swerve. The Forshew family was in charge here, some of the many regular competitors who were out marshalling, for what must be the strongest trials club in the country. The lower reaches of the hill aren’t a problem, these started after a cross track where there was a restart and a ninety left ninety right, followed by a very steep, muddy gradient which nobody cleaned. Most of the competitive class eights got to the two, but Dudley Sterry failed lower down for a four and I can vouch how hard it is for Dudley to get the narrow tracked J2 up such a section as it won’t go in the ruts! This was also where all the Falcon class eight’s failed, including David Thompson, out for his first trial in his Troll.

Merves Swerve was next on the agenda, a “Clouds favourite! Not for John Bell though as he broke the gearbox on his Escort. Only classes seven and eight had to restart. The challenge for the rest was to crest the slippery big bump on the sharp right hand bend, which defeated all but Nigel Allen in his big engined Beetle. The class sevens all struggled and hot shot Arthur Vowden couldn’t even get away from the restart. Neither could David Thompson who was still adapting his driving style to the Troll. David had been told it wouldn’t trickle and was still to learning how to slip the clutch on the line and blast it! Dudley Sterry, Mike Chatwin and Peter Fear were amongst a select group of class eight’s to come out the top of the section. So was Adrian Marfell who was also one of the few to get away from the muddy restart on Highwood 1. David Thompson got away here as well with only Dudley Sterry and Mike Chatwin joining them to succeed in class eight.

Although there was, a lot of mud there seemed to be a fair amount of grip on both the Highwood sections. However, there was a horrible hump at the top of Highwood 2 and most of the entry bottomed out and faced the horrible task of reversing down carefully or risk a plunge to oblivion. Mike Chatwin cleaned the section, putting him into an unassailable lead. Ian Davis was the only successful Falcon. There was no doubt a short wheelbase helped, as the section turned left after the bump this year and the turn was very tricky.

Cimperswell was a glorious mud bath with a tricky restart with tree roots just waiting too catch out the un-wary. A lot of the class eight’s managed it OK, including David Thompson, but Mike Pearson failed. Apart from the leading class 3’s and Colin Perryman in class four competitors in the lower classes failed on or around the restart. Adrian Tucker-Peake didn’t have to restart in his class one Peugeot but never less must be congratulated for emerging from the Climperswell bog in a forward direction.

There were just the two Bulls Bank sections to complete the day. Hazel MacDonald got away from both of them and would have challenged for second in class if it wasn’t for her mistake on the first section.

Overall WinnerMike Chatwin (Troll)2
Class 1Adrian Tucker-Peake (Peugeot)33
Class 2Steve White 16
Class 3Mark Linfiorth (Escort)17
Class 4Colin Perryman (Skoda)17
Class 5Andrew Biffen (MGB GT)74
Class 6Nigel Allen (VW Beetle)7
Class 7Arthur Vowden (Marlin)14
Class 8Dudley Sterry (MG J2)5
2001_cotswold_clouds_resultsDownload

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An Exmoor Adventure

Generally I don’t write first person accounts of Trials as I think “Triple” contains more than enough reports of “….and we lost the Milky Bar under the seat on Sugg Lane” variety. However, I hope you will appreciate this report is an exception as it’s about my day passengering with Dudley Sterry on The Exmoor Trial.

Dudley Sterry and Michael Leete put on their best grins for the photograher
Peter Fear crests the rise on Floyd’s bank.
The Jones family lift a wheel as they tackle the special test at Lower Molland
Were’s Judy? Would Exmoor winner Adrian Dommett have got so close to that goarse bush if it had been his side?
Bill and Carol Foreshew at speed on Sepscott 2

I had my first experience of trialling in an open car when I passengered Dudley Sterry on The Exmoor. The drive through the breaking dawn from The New Forest up to Barnstaple was of course an experience in itself. This I will write about later! All the class eight’s were running together at the head of the field and we were third car on the road. This meant that apart from a handful of class eight’s and the occasional late biker we saw very few other competitors all day.

Jenny Wren was the first section and we had a long wait, first at a holding control, then at the foot of the section itself, as the bikes were having major problems in the slippery conditions. We heard that Adrian Marfell, who is the current man to beat, didn’t get off the re-start, but when our time came we did. Although all the sections apart from Beggars were new to me none of them held any surprises for Dudley. He knew the class 8 restart was going to be on some slippery slate. His advance strategy was to trickle off, that’s exactly what he did and it worked!

The Hallsinger test was a blast forward, then back and then forward again. Dudley directed me to hang on tight and hold the gear lever in place while we were reversing. All this while trying to keep clear of his flailing arms as they sawed away at the wheel trying to keep the little car in a straight line as we rocketed back and forth. While we were waiting our turn I saw Tony Young knock a marker flying, which according to the route card meant he should not have had a time recorded, but looking at the results he got away with it.

Sepscott 1 and 2 and Snapper 1 and 2 were in a wood and neither posed any problems for Dudley’s J2 although Snapper 1 was a bit hairy where the track was washed away. The worst bit was after the section ends and I should think the lower classes would have had problems getting out the top.

Riverton was reserved for Solo’s and Class 8. This was because the track was badly eroded. The J2 didn’t have any problems although if we had stopped it would have tipped on it’s side we were at such an angle.

We lost our clean sheet on High Bray. It looked easy from the start line but then I couldn’t see what was around the corner! We got of the re-start OK and Dudley tried to drive up the left-hand part of the track, avoiding the “Grand Canyon” on the right. Unfortunately we didn’t quite have enough momentum and the rear slid into the canyon and that was that, well after a spirited attempt to “burn-out” it was! Adrian Dommet went clear and that decided the result of the trial as Adrian Marfell failed to get his Fiat engined rail off the restart.

We were back into another wood at for Pheasants Hill and Lower Mouland, both of which we cleaned easily, although we got a flat front tyre and had to change the tube, which is nice and easy if you don’t have to break the bead! Beggars was a no problem at all. It looked completely different to The Lands End, when the restart area is rough and rocky, whether with doctoring or because it gets cut up by the earlier numbers, or both!

We got a route amendment at Beggars, substituting Lyncombe Bridge with Scoresdown (anybody know why?). This was nice and easy which is more than could be said for the last hill at Floyds Bank, a grassy weave amongst or through the gorse bushes. The J2 didn’t want to steer properly and Dudley couldn’t get it straight enough to attack the last bank so we dropped another couple of marks. I would think this would have been a nightmare for the lower classes.

John Lees came over for a quick chat at the finish then there just remained the matter of the drive back to The New Forest to pick up my Volvo to go back to Bedfordshire. I got home at 9.30 pm having left at 2.45 am. 600 miles in all, two thirds of it in an open car with no hood and no windscreen! A long day but what a fantastic adventure.

I will be honest the trial went much as I expected. Dudley is a very skilled and competitive driver. The car performed magnificently. The engine is beautifully tuned and will pull from almost nothing well into the high fives. The thing that really surprised me was how well it went on the road. Like many of you I guess I have been overtaken on the A303, the little J2 flashing by in a red blur, but this didn’t prepare me for just how well it performs on tarmac. The engine is extremely tractable at low revs and is very smooth as the speed increases to far beyond what the boys in blue are prepared turn a turn a blind eye to. We went along the A35, which has got a lot of long sweeping bends that the J2 handled with ease. Later Dudley showed me the modern suspension tweeks, all carefully hidden away so they don’t disturb the period look.

The class eights are certainly a varied lot. Some of them look a bit rough and there are some pretty weird contraptions that don’t look particularly road worthy no matter how well they go on the hills. Like Dudley I am anti-trailer and my view is that classic trial  competitors should drive their cars to and from events. If this were ever to become a rule I am sure some of the stranger machines would disappear which (imho) would be good for the image of the sport.

Overall CarAdrian Dommett (Ford 100E Special)0
Class 1P. Allaway (Vauxhall Astra)34
 D. Symons (Citeron AX)58
Class 2Bill Bennett (MG J2)22
Class 3Dave Turner (BMW)7
 C. Jeffery (Escort)9
 Harvey Waters (Escort)10
 Emma Flay (Escort)11
Class 4Giles Greenslade (VW Beetle)13
 Bill Rosten (Imp)25
 Jim Scott (Sunbeam Stilletto)32
 J. Mildrew (Skoda 136)45
Class 6T. Johns (VW Beetle)12
Class 7Arthur Vowden (Marlin)2
 Roger Ugalde (Allard J2)5
 Roger Bricknell (Vincent)11
Class 8Tony Young (VW Special)4
 Dudley Sterry (MR J2)5
 Peter Fear (Dingo)5
 J. Blight (TKP)8
Overall BikeC. Lidstone (Yamaha Serow)2
Class A1R. Gerring (Kawasaki KMX)5
Class A2S. Sandford (Hind XLS)16
Class BMike Maddocks (Honda XL500S)28
Class CTom Beckerleg (Areial)16
Class EM. Crocker/T.Griffiths (Yamaha XS)11
2001_exmoor_results_routeDownload

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