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Exmoor Motorcycle Winner Ryan Eamer tells us about his bike and his trial
Ryan concentrates as he sets up the B40 to round a tight bend on Riverton on his way to winning this years Exmoor Trial. Photo by Paul Morris Motorsport Photography. Click Here for more of Pauls work
Ryan Eamer has achieved a unique feat, winning an ACTC round on both four and two wheels. Having won the Cotswold Clouds in his Cannon Ryan has followed this with wins on the last years Tarka and now the Exmoor Trial on his 350cc BSA B40.
More on the bike in a minute. Meanwhile Ryan tells us about his Exmoor.
Trial was really good, first group of 3 sections at Porte farm were a nice start to the trial, nice little Bike deviation on the 2nd one and a tricky little restart and the 3rd which caught a few out. I understand these got a little difficult once the cars arrived!
Simon Jones captures Ryan Eamer working hard to get away from the Bulls Bank restart on his way to winning the 2018 Cotswold CloudsContinue reading “Ryan’s Exmoor Trial”
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This years Exmoor was a challenging event with Class Eight filling the first five places amongst the cars.
Norton Selwood was at High Bray to capture the action.
High Bray was particularly challenging. The right hand side of the track was significantly eroded so there was a considerable camber tending to pull those on three or four wheels towards the bank.
Amongst the restarters all the Class Eight cars were successful but none of the Class Sevens went clean.
Norton Selwood got to Floyds Bank in time to see the lower classes attempt the section. 6, 7 and 8 attempted the deviation to the right just after the start.
Floyds Bank was another tough section. Clerk of the Course Chris Barham found the old section with the ruts had gone so had to mark out a new track. Josh Moss and Paul Merson were the only cleans amongst the 6, 7 and 8’s after which the difficult bit at the bottom was bypassed which allowed the lower classes to at least see section ends even though none of them got there!
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This years event was a round of the ACTC Championship for cars and motorcycles and attracted a good entry
With his successful Reliant Scimitar now sold Aaron Haizelden has shifted his attention to Class Eight. Photo by Paul Morris
The car classes were dominated by a Class Eight battle between Paul Merson in his familiar special, Duncan Stephens in his red top powered Sandrail and Aaron Haizelden, who has sold his familiar Scimitar SS, and moved to the specials class in what used to be known as the Deere Special, hence the colour.
Dave Cook was at the top of Sandale to see Dean Partington conquer the deep ruts. Dean and Charlie Knifton in their rear engined Class Eight cars and John Kenny amongst the Motorcycles were the only “cleans”. Link to Dave Cooks Northern Trial photos to follow.
With clubs having problems gaining permission to use Forest England land, together with local issues, it took a lot of work by Myke Pocock and his team to get this years Northern Trial off the ground. Even so they were restricted in what was available and a couple of sections had to be used twice.
Nick Aldridge and Gary Browning were second and third. Local driver Josh Moss came so near to a win in his Fuel injected, Imp engined Canon but the Class Eight restart on Jerrys proved too difficult and took all the specials out of contention. It was the same in Class Seven where Nick Aldridge also saw his chance at a win slip away.
The Cotswold Clouds is one of the most established events in the calendar, this year being its 60th anniversary. Organised by Stroud and District Motor Club, probably the most Classic Trials orientated club in the country, with a great depth of organising talent in its membership. Consequently there is no shortage of experienced Clerks of the Course and this year the event was in the capable hands of Nigel Moss.
Previous winner Nick Deacon was second in his X90. Kev Standard was best Motorcycle.
Paul Merson and Nick Sherrin on their way to a narrow Clee Hills win over Nick Deacon. Photo by Steve Shelley of ssshoot photography
With no Clee last year because of Covid there was an eager bunch of trialers gathered at The Squirrel in Ludlow for the first one day trial of the year.
The organisers set out to simplify this years event and didn’t use the Clee’s well known two loop system this time.
There were also some familiar sections omitted because of forestry issues. This didn’t stop the trial being a first class event with a lot of praise on social media from the competitors.
With it being so dry there were quite a few clean sheets
Dave Cook captured a returning Dudley Sterry on John Walker
With the Camel being cancelled because of issues obtaining permission to use their forestry sections the Allen was the last Car Classic of the season, held on the same day as the Neil Westcott taking place in the West Country for Motorcycles.
Never the toughest trial on the calendar the Allen is still one, if not the most, popular, the entry reaching its maximum plus reserves within three days.
With it being a dry Allen there were a number of clean sheets. Overall victory going to Josh Moss on test times.
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.
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Peter Browne tackled a very wet Tarka Trial on his Triumph Metisse
Peter taking the high line on Snapper, rather hoping he doesn’t drop his heavy bike on the slippery rock (Photo by Tom Nicholls)Results, links etc to follow
Having enjoyed a gloriously sunny Tamar Trial a few weeks before, my brother Neil and I decided to enter the Tarka on our 650 Triumph Metisses. I was conscious that the weather forecast for the 31st was not good but took comfort from the fact that the forecast is very often wrong but in this instance that did not prove to be the case.
It was already raining heavily when I woke at 4.30am and continued as I loaded my bike onto the trailer and headed off on already flooded roads to collect my brother and his machine.
By the time we reached Bideford we had seen so much rain and passed through so many floods it was clear that we would not be having an easy day and were beginning to doubt the wisdom of using such heavy machines but we had already passed the point of no return.
The start was at Tapeley Park and fortunately the rain stopped as we arrived there. Scrutineering and Signing On were dealt with very efficiently and we were ready to start on time.
The first four sections were in the Tapeley Park Estate woods and were predictably very slippery on the wet leaves and tree roots and gave me the first taste of what would prove to be much pushing throughout the day. I did manage one clean but it was a good deal later in the day before I managed another.
Ryan Eamer and his BSA are looking very clean in Tapley Park Woods
Riding with my brother Neil and our friend Andy Petherick on his 350 BSA we left the woods for a few miles of road work to section 5, Stony Cross.
This was a loose stony climb in a narrow lane with what looked like a stream running down it which lubricated the stones very effectively.
A few miles further on was Section 6 which started as a partly submerged farm lane with the water becoming increasingly deeper until the tractor wheel tracks disappeared leaving you to guess or discover where they were as the water continued to deepen with it eventually coming over the top of my boots with my feet on the footrests. I remember my brother saying he was fearful that it would reach his handlebars at one point.
The start of Section 6 Emett. The water is quite shallow here compared to what’s to come
We then made our way to Stoodleigh Woods where there were four sections in the woods. I have no memory of the first which was Georges Bank, possibly due to trauma or more likely senile decay.
The remaining three were firstly a steep slippery climb, then a leafy climb with a tight deviation at the top and finally a climb on a track through a stream with a tight turn at the top.
I felt I should have managed the last of these at least but failed to do so and had the opportunity to further practice my pushing instead.
Metisse council of war before tackling the stream in Stoodleigh Woods
After a lunch stop at Rogers Garage in South Molton we rode to Holdridge Woods where there were another four sections, reduced to three due to the weather.
The first started in a stream and exited up a slippery bank and the remaining two were on such slippery mud that I was exhausted by the time I had wrestled the Metisse to the start board and achieved little more than that.
Section 15, High Bray was next. This is a regularly used hill with rocky slabs and steps and is notoriously slippery.
There was a restart for all classes and this was certainly a stopper for the Metisse. I had help from many Marshalls during the day but would particularly thank the Marshal that helped on High Bray for his assistance and patience whilst I straightened the bike enough to be able to continue.
Next were two sections near Stoke Rivers. The first was a bog with a steep climb out which had been affected by the previous nights rain and the second was a steep grassy climb which it was actually quite fun to see how far it was possible to get up on the Metisse but even more difficult to come back down.
Neil took Snappers low line on his Metisse to avoid as much of the slab as possible (Photo by Tom Nicholls)
Section 18, Snapper was a narrow lane with a tight bend and rock steps on the bend which I approached too cautiously and stopped on one of the rocks.
A few miles further on was the final section, Kings Cott and this was a wet stony lane which I was hugely relieved to clean mostly because it meant I did not have to manhandle the Metisse which by now appeared to have more than doubled in weight.
This only left the special test at Pristacott to complete and this was the normal start on line A, then stop astride B and finish astride line C except that this was in a lane with deep puddles of course, which did increase the sensation of speed. I did the test with my visor open and as a consequence coated the inside of my helmet and visor with muddy water and had to ride to the finish at Tapeley Park with it open.
I was hugely relieved to finally get to the finish after what proved to be an exhausting event and am much impressed with the way my Metisse survived the many attempts to break it during the day.
Neils very muddy Metisse at the finish
It is very much to the credit of the North Devon Motor Club that they were able to still run the Tarka Trial despite the appalling weather of the previous night.
The road route was very well chosen and took in some excellent North Devon lanes and scenery and the Route Card worked well with only a few exceptions and that may not have been the fault of the Card.
Having had good weather for many of the recent ACTC Trials it is inevitable that at some point this would change and this was that event. Let’s hope we do not get another like it too soon or I may need to buy a modern machine.
Ben Tonkin and family on their way to their Tamar victory (Photo by Duncan Stephens)
Ben Tonkin won Launceston’s Tamar Classic Trial on Sunday, returning in his 1600 VW Beetle with 2 year old son George passengering for the first time. It was a very close scoring day that saw the lead change multiple times on the last hill.
Classical Gas 