Category: Exeter

With all the bad weather between Christmas and New Year the Exeter organisers had an anxious Christmas. But by the Friday the snow had gone and the hills were in prime condition.

DRAMA BEFORE THE START

There were a few notable non-starters. Ian Blackburn had been under the weather for a while and wasn’t able to get his Singer ready, or help Kevin Barnes prepare his, for what would have been Kevin’s first competitive MCC event. As it happens with Tillerton and Slippery Sam being so rough this may have been no bad thing!

We were also deprived of seeing Alan Bellamy’s unique Brasilia. Alan decided not to start with only 10 psi in his new dry sumped motor. David Alderson sold his ACTC championship winning Troll just before Christmas, but didn’t want to miss out, so he and John Boswell wheeled out son Liam’s ex Graham Brasier 1303 Beetle, complete with type 4 motor. Unfortunately the car had been the victim of some dodgy preparation in the past and one of the wheels parted company with it’s hub on the way to Cirencester, so they were relegated to spectating.

Fred Gregory made it to Popham, but not without drama. One of the sealed beam light units went on the blink on the way to the start. Not to worry, as Fred and Pete Stafford were carrying a complete spare. However, when they put it in that wasn’t working either! Thinking there was a problem with the wiring they swapped the good one over and it worked fine so the trouble was clearly with the units themselves. The predicament was that it was going to be pretty difficult to find a sealed beam unit at half past nine on a Friday night. But Fred and Pete didn’t intend to miss their weekend. Calling in at a garage they managed to convince the cashier behind a locked grille that they wanted a headlight bulb. Pete then carefully knocked the back of the sealed beam unit and our intrepid pair tank taped their precious bulb in place to make the start, albeit a bit late.

In class 7 both Pete Hart and John Salter had problems even before the action started. Neither car had been used for a while, and both played up in protest. John’s Vincent refused to run properly whatever he did to it. Finally, having to decided to give the trial a miss, he just threw it back together and gave one last turn of the key to drive it back in the garage. Low and behold, it purred sweetly into action, although as things were to transpire it was only lulling him into a false sense of security!

MORE DRAMA BEFORE BREAKFAST

Pete and Carlie hadn’t used their Marlin in anger since last years Lands End. All was well on the way to the start but the problems started once they had left Popham. The engine died in the middle of a roundabout and the crew had to push it some way to work on it safety. They managed to get going and limp to the Haynes museum. En-Route Carlie realised her handbag wasn’t in the car. They were about to retrace their steps when Pete decided to stop and ring Carlies mobile. It was answered by Patrick Osbourne’s passenger, as the Citeron 2CV crew had found it in the middle of the road and reunited it with it’s rightful owner at the Tintinhull breakfast halt. Who says trials are no longer an adventure!

Verdun Webley made the start OK but the Scruitineer at Tintinhull took exception to his new tyres and the Marlin continued under the threat of the MCC version of a Stewards enquiry. Barry Topgood’s Burlington Arrow was another car to spend a lot of time in the scruitineering bay, presumably it’s huge six bolt wheels infringed some rule or other.

THE ACTION BEGINS IN BOVEY WOODS

The field finally arrived at Gatcombe Lane on a clear dry night. With very limited gradient this opening hill didn’t pose any problems, so it was on into Bovey woods for the start of the real action. Normans Hump is long and dead straight. The recent wet weather had made nice and muddy but there was plenty of grip underneath. Class 8’s had it easy this year, as their restart was on the cross track along with the yellows, allowing them a nice run at the hump itself. This is defiantly not Stuart Cairney’s favourite hill as once again the Imp bogged down on the steep bit just before the section ends board. This is certainly a deceptive hill, it looks pretty slippy but there is usually bags of grip, and the penalty for going too low on the tyre pressures is to come off the cam if you loose momentum, which spells disaster for those of us with peaky engines.

Clinton, marshalled by Falcon Motor Club, whose crew included Barrie Parker the RAC/MSA PCT Champion, was the long version, with the re-start situated in the same place as the start was located last year. This years start was further down the hill, which meant competitors failing on the lower reaches had to be hauled up to the first cross track. When the long hill was used a couple of years ago Falcon had a super four wheel drive tractor allocated to them which made mince meat of the job. This year they were given an old two-wheel drive affair, over thirty years old, with a dodgy gearbox. This made life pretty difficult for the driver, who I believe is one of the Flay family, and with around a third of the entry having to be towed up he couldn’t avoid digging some pretty deep ruts. This made life more difficult for competitors causing even more to fail as time went on.

Neil Bray came out of the top, but with a puncture, the first of many as usual! Stuart Cairney wasn’t so lucky as the Imp just didn’t have the power to get up the gradient on the lower slope. The Pop team lost their leader here when Tommy Kalber broke his half shaft just after the restart. He had a spare but wasn’t able to get the broken bit out of the Fack Diff and retired.

THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO

Waterloo had a lot of loose stuff on the hill this year, causing problems for David Haizelden who failed on the lower reaches. Neil Bray got up OK but at the expense of another puncture. Verdun Webley was having problems with his lights and stopped in a garage forecourt to fix them. Neil Bray also stopped there to change his two ruined tubes and Dave Nash had to remind him that it was still night time and attacking the bent wheel rims with a club hammer was likely to disturb the neighbours!

At Stretes there was a long climb up the old section to a special test that started just as the hill flattens out at the top. It was a nice simple special test. Just flat out and stop aside line B. No taxing of the brain cells so early in the morning!

NEW SECTIONS AT SIDMOUTH

Normally the route goes north up to Honiton after Stretes but not this year. It was south down the A375, to loop back through Sidford and into the woods just West of Sidmouth, for two super new hills, Bulverton Steep and Passaford Lane. They were both similar in character. Start on the level with a blind ninety right immediately after the start, after which came the gradient, although you couldn’t see it from the line! There was a solid surface somewhere deep down but a fair old layer of mud covered it. Some ruts developed but basically nothing too damaging.

Just like Clinton and Waterloo the blind bends caught out a few competitors including Richard Tompkins and John Salter both of whom approached the corner with too much caution and didn’t have enough momentum to cope with the gradient. 

Passaford Lane had a relatively gentle re-start for the yellows and Reds just before a final hillock at the top. Although they didn’t have to stop this hillock caused a few heart-stopping moments for some of the front wheel drive brigade as there was no recovery in sight and it was an awful long way if they had to reverse back down! Dudley Sterry had problems of a different kind on Passaford Lane when his bonnet strap got caught on a protruding branch and ripped right away, necessitating Darren Baker making a fair old hike to retrieve it once the MG got to the top.

RETIREMENTS AT EXETER SERVICES

There was no fettling allowed at Exeter Services and early entries got there well ahead of schedule. Plenty of time to catch up on all the gossip for some. But not for Tony Branson. The Marlin was becoming increasingly difficult to start, so he nipped off to the local Industrial Estate to work on the car. All seemed well and Tony and Sally Bolam continued, only to have to retire on the M5 slip road. Stuart Cairney had also run out of sparks and retired. The distributor was red hot, the advance/retard had seized and the electronic ignition cooked its goose. It ran after a fashion once it cooled down and Stuart went down to spectate on Simms.

TILLERTON ROCKS TEST TRANSMISSIONS AND SUMP-GUARDS

There was the usual queue on the approach road to Tillerton, even for the early numbers. The hill itself was pretty rough, as all the loose material had been washed away, leaving some large, awfully solid rock steps. The yellows and reds had it easy in a way as they had to stop here. The lower powered brigade were allowed to go straight through and had the dilemma of whether they should go through gently and risk bogging down or loosing grip, or building momentum and risk damaging the underside of the car.

David Heale chose the momentum way, necessitating a bit of club hammer work on the rear wings at the top where the body had distorted. There were a few broken transmissions as well. Alan Grassham broke the axle on his MG PB and was last seen taking the floor out trying to fix it. Richard Tompkins had his transaxle let go in a big way and with no way to fix it left his Imp at the foot of the hill till the next day so he could join his Falcon clubmates for the club supper in the evening.

While most of the competitive blues and whites could, blast their way over the boulders if they were brave, or stupid, enough things weren’t so clear cut for the restarting yellows and reds. It was very critical where you stopped. Tillerton has always been Fred Gregory’s problem hill, but this year he and Pete Stafford positioned the Melos in exactly the right place and pulled smoothly away. Clive Booth had been having a good run up until now. There was an unfamiliar face in the passenger seat. Regular bouncer John Allsop was not available for family reasons, so James (VW Fugitive) Lindsay was substituting. Young and energetic he may be, but James couldn’t bounce the Dellow Rep off the re-start. Clive dropped back six inches, still within the box and just drove away. Yes it was all to do with positioning and quite a few were to be caught out, including David Thompson and Mike Pearson.

WOOSTONS STEEP!

After Fingle came Wooston Steep, where Mike Pearson made up for his disappointment on Tillerton and was first out the top, closely followed by David Thompson. Pete and Carlies Marlin was running like a train and they romped to the top, the first class seven car to clean the section. John Salters Vincent had been running a bit rough ever since Tillerton and gave up the ghost here when it lost most of its power in a cloud of smoke just after the restart. John carried onto to get a finish by voluntarily stopping just after the start line on the remaining hills. Keith Sanders was a bit luckier and came out of the top in his Rickman Ranger. However, a few miles up the road he lost drive when the prop came out of the gearbox when one of the “U” bolts securing the back axle broke. Several competitors stopped to help, notably Mike Warnes, Clive Kalber and Harvey (jump the queue on Hoskin) Waters. They got the Ranger mobile, but Keith was another who decided to retire and do some spectating on Simms.

SHATTERED DREAMS AT SIMMS

The trial was drawing to a close now, but there were still some formidable obstacles to come. A tremendous crowd of spectators greeted competitors and they were not to be disappointed. The old hill was in fine form, climbable, but certainly not suffering fools gladly. There were two elements in a successful climb. Momentum and going up the right track, which popular opinion reckoned was the middle this year.

The Dellow Reps of Clive Booth and Mike Pearson both failed but David Thompson and Ian Davies crested the summit with ease in their VW Buggies, in front of some distinguished spectators. These included PCT ace Mike Stephens and MSA head honcho John Quenby, who is still putting his MG back together after it’s trip across Houndkirk Moor on the Edinburgh. Simms was to break its usual quota of hearts though and Michael Leete and Pete Hart were among those that lost their clean sheets here.

A couple of the three wheelers had problems. Clive Cooke broke the transmission of The Old Spot Piglett and Sue and Paul Davey had a double roll in their Citeron Special when they lost control reversing back down. A spectating Stuart Cairney was impressed by the class eights of Stuart Harrold and Dudley Sterry, both for the noise they made on full throttle and the height they flew over the bumps on their way to clean climbs. He makes special award to Clive Booth who managed to slip backwards at least fifteen feet while the wheels wee still driving forward! However, the unanimous vote for “best entertainer” was Bill Foreshew, who managed to get three feet up the left bank, then three foot up the right bank, without lifting off, to clean the section while the spectators fled for their lives!

STING IN THE TAIL

All to soon the field arrived at the final Hill on the outskirts of Torquay. Higher Gabwell for the Boys and Slippery Sam for the Girls. Actually Slippery Sam was pretty rough this year. It had been resurfaced some time in the last few months. It wasn’t to bad at the bottom but the loose material became bigger and bigger as the summit beckoned and the contractor had dumped a load of dinosaur eggs art the top where the restart was positioned adjacent to a deep washed out gully. Most competitors choose the eggs, which reeked havoc on their undersides. 

Over on Higher Gabwell the yellows were allowed a clean run but the poor old reds had to restart and again it was very critical where you stopped. Clive Booth got it right but Mike Pearson was among the many who failed.

At the Torquay finish, popular opinion was that it was a good Exeter. OK Tillerton and the last hill were a bit rough, probably far to rough for newcomers but just about acceptable to the regulars. The two new hills were great, filling a normally boring middle section of the trial.

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It sounds a bit monotonous but once again there was excellent Falcon entry with 16 crews in the program, plus a marshalling team on Clinton. We had a couple of non-starters on the day. Clive Booth and John Allsop were stricken with flu and Alan Bellamy didn’t get back from his overseas millennium trip in time to prepare the car. Verdun Webley had been all over his Marlin since it’s problems on the way to the Allen and had invested in rolling road time at NB Motors in attempt to sort the carb which was all over the place. 

Peter Mountain and Mike Furse were entered in the anniversary run but Mike and Sheila were also struck by the bug and didn’t feel up to a long night in the open Buckler but they did drive down in the daylight to look in on how things were going. Most of the Falcon crews started from Cirencester and were able to find the venue this year as there were not only detailed directions in the final instructions but it was extremely well arrowed as well. 

The run down to the Haynes motor museum was pretty uneventful for most people although Keith Pettit was struggling with a dodgy dynamo and resorted to following Peter Manning who had son David in the passengers seat for the first time. All was not well at Sparkford as the manager had confused the day and was not there to open up, shades of the Edinburgh! Fortunately the control was manned by a resourceful group of marshals, led by Jim Harvey of Dellow fame and including Steve Strutt. They quickly commandeered a nearby piece of land and stuck too, clearing a heap of tyres to accommodate the large number of competitors who had driven down at a reasonable speed in the belief they would be able to spend an hour browsing the bookshop! 

Mike Pearson’s drama started immediately after the breakfast stop. The Dellow Rep started wandering all over the road and Mike found the bracket locating the panhard rod to the axle had broken. In his professional life Mike has learned to be resourceful in such situations and waited for the dawn to break to seek sought out a friendly welder to help him get underway again. 

Gatcombe Lane provided it’s usual gentle introduction, always welcome to settle the nerves. Then it was into the woods at Bovey Downs where the battle would really begin. There was plenty of grip in there but the lower part of Normans Hump was very rutted. It looked truly horrifying but was relatively soft so didn’t do to much damage, although Neil Bray punctured. Tony Branson found far to much grip and didn’t have enough power to get over the hump following the restart. He got into problems reversing down in the dark, attacking a gorse bush at some speed and Sally Bolam collected some nasty cuts and scratches to her face. 

Stuart Cairney was another one to suffer from excessive grip and couldn’t make the summit either. The top part of Norman’s is pretty steep. It’s essential to keep small, revvy engines on the cam, which on Norman’s needs a bit of wheel spin as its very difficult to build sufficient road speed because of the necessity to lift off a bit going over the cross track, even if you don’t have a re-start. In recent years the class eight’s have had a tougher affair higher up, but Ken Green was being generous this year and they restarted on the cross track along with the yellows. Our Red brethren weren’t let of the hook completely as they had to tackle Bovey bank, an extra section in the woods. This shattered their triple aspirations last year as only one car went clean. This year’s hill was a bit different and didn’t present the same challenge so most of them got up OK. 

Falcon member’s hearts were in a bit of a flutter as they approached Clinton as they would have to strut their stuff in front of their teammates who were marshalling the hill. Simon Robson’s Skoda must have been very nervous as it gave a little flurry of protest, cutting out at low revs, necessitating a tune up in the queue for the section. I think all the Falcon’s got up OK, including a delighted Verdun Webley debuting his Marlin. Verdun was not without his troubles though as Lee Howells found his leg was getting a bit warm. Oil was pouring out the end of the pipe to the oil pressure gauge. Neil Bray was just behind and gave Verdun a hand to block it off. 

Waterloo was it’s usual fun but was a little more than that for Michael Leete who failed immediately after the first right hander with a severe case of “operator error” and then had a puncture on the road section immediately afterwards. Stretes was pretty straightforward but the two Michael’s had to do a bit of PR work when a lady local approached them in the queue and asked them how many more hours they were going “round and round”. They tried to explain that there were several hundred competitors and that the field took five or six hours to go by. She departed home to the house on the corner where the route turned of the road leaving one or two choice and rather un-lady like words hanging in the air. She must have been out when the PR man called! 

There was a long road section out to Greenslinch where the section finished before the slurry pit so this one didn’t trouble the score keeper to much, although Simon Robson still managed to ding the front wing of his Skoda on the exit onto the road.

John Parsons arrived at Exeter services with one of the front wheels all awry with a coil over shock unit broken. JP decided this was a good test for the RAC. The actual shocker on the adjustable Spax unit had broken. The RAC man was a little surprised but rallied round and helped JP ring round to find a replacement. Not surprisingly they couldn’t locate a replacement competition unit, but the RAC man took JP off to a motor factor to see what they could find. Meanwhile Tom Goggin kindly stayed with Dot so she wouldn’t be on her own when the Falcons disappeared to do battle with the remaining sections.

They found something the right length and JP made up a couple of spring locators with some exhaust clamps. The man from the RAC was truly amazed at this, but before they parted thanked JP for giving him the most interesting morning in the job! Although the Westfield was mobile JP didn’t risk throwing the big car up the hills in its delicate state and he and Dot went directly down to the hotel in Torquay. While all this was going on news came through on the Mobile phone that Mike Pearson was underway again and was about to tackle Stretes although he was running some way down the field. Unfortunately the repair failed again later on and Mike was another addition to the retirement list.

Windout was the Exeter’s mandatory tarmac section and then it was on to Tillerton. The re-start was pretty rough and it was essential to put your car in exactly the right place. This caught out quite a few of the class sevens including Fred Gregory and Andrew Brown. Mike Furse was spectating here but was still suffering from the flu and Sheila wisely stayed in the warm of the car. Allen organiser Pete Hart got up at the expense of a damaged exhaust and was having a lot of problems with the Marlins fuel pump.

There was a time control just before the bridge at Fingle. This was a new variation and caused a few problems later in the event when the Classic run competitors were on the same minute as competitors in the main event. This was very important to the Anniversary boys and girls as their award depended on them sticking to a strict time schedule. Those who attempted Fingle enjoyed the experience and it was great to see the period cars on this piece of MCC history. Neil Bray had to change another tyre before the special test which was pretty rough and wasn’t a pleasant experience for car competitors trying for a class win who had to throw their machines at a suspension breaking bump. 

The second special test was just up the road on the approach road to Wooston and was a much smoother affair. It involved a bit of reversing which put paid to David Aldersons AH Trophy hopes when the clutch on the Troll shattered to smithereens. Conditions on Wooston were quite favourable and the class sixes has things easy as they were allowed to take the deviation to the left. I have to say this was a problem as I don’t thing either the route or instructions or section markings made it clear where the turn was. In pervious years there has been a map at the start and the deviation has been well signed. It was OK for regulars but Peter Manning went up the wrong bit and I’m sure there will have been other competitors who got lost on the hill. Fred Gregory and Pete Stafford were delighted to make the summit and reported that the higher reaches are even more horrendous than the bit you can see at the bottom. 

There were only two sections remaining but they weren’t going to be easy. Simms was the first one, with a re-start for seven’s and eight’s but the sixes were allowed to have a uninterrupted run. The old hill was on form and broke it’s usual quota of hearts. Last year there were quite a few successful climbs up the right but not this year. The successful track was over to the left, halfway up the bank if possible according to a spectating John Sargeant. Falconwise I believe that David Thompson was our only successful climber and all of us in the lower classes came to a grinding halt. It was possible though as both Colin Perryman and Giles Greenslade got up OK in Skoda and Beetle respectively. Duncan Stephens was spectating here and said that the hill got more difficult as the day went on. It was relatively easy for the first 100 cars but then there was a few spots of rain, after which it was a real achievement to reach the A boards. Duncan didn’t see any class 1 or 5 cars reach the summit and witnessed a nasty accident when Barry Clarke rolled the Grotty Chummy. 

There was only one section left now. Slippery Sam for the blues and whites and Higher Gabwell for the yellows and reds. The restart on Slippery Sam had been on the right-hand hairpin for many years, probably to slow people down after the Yugo overturned here back in 1991. This time it was back in the old place and a good position was absolutely crucial, as there was a huge step. Michael Leete was delighted to get it just right but many didn’t including Hazel Mac in JAZ who had to tackle the obstacle in the dark and Neil Bray and Marc Lawrence who didn’t stop at all. 

Over on Higher Gabwell there was a real sting in the tail with a re-start spicing up a section that was pretty tough anyway. This cost David Thompson his gold and the other Falcons faired no better. This section really was a snorter and also claimed Classical Gas Web Community members Stuart Harrold, John Salter, Pete Hart and Sndrew Brown. 

Back at the finish, we heard that Colin Stevens had retired with gearbox gremlins and Dave Nash had been fighting with a broken gearbox mounting and failed two hills. The sevens and eight’s reckoned this year’s Exeter was a pretty tough challenge, perhaps a bit more than necessary in an attempt to slow down the “super-stars”. It ran pretty smoothly though, the weather was good and the organisation and conditions ensured things finished in good time for the traditional club supper where John Aley presented a select group with their Triples, including Classical Gas Web community member John Lees to considerable applause.

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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

We had another excellent Falcon entry, seventeen cars coming to the line. The four Popham crews had it easy. They could find the start! It wasn’t so easy for those electing to sign on at Cirencester. The MCC directions were very comprehensive, “Haynes & Strange, Cirencester” and that was that. There were many different strategies to cope with this, varying from ringing the Clerk of the Course the week before to just turning up at Cirencester and hoping to stumble across the venue. As it turns out the new start was only a hundred yards away from the old one and everyone found it OK.

    As usual there were drama’s before the off. It was a nice one for Dave Nash as the club finally accepted the Skeetle in class seven. So it was off with the red sticker and on with the yellow. Life had been pretty tough for Brian Alexander since the Edinburgh. His white Fiat failed the MOT because the under-body damage was so bad after seven years hard trialing, much of it on those rough, tough West Country events. There wasn’t time to fix it so Brian decided to transfer the white cars engine and gearbox to the red PCT car that he and Kevin drove at Brickhill last year. This is bored out and tuned a bit more than the red cars normal lump. These things never go to plan and when it was finally installed it ran hot and blew the heater valve in protest. Brian and Kevin couldn’t repair it in time so they had to blank it off and rely on the winter woollies and thermal underwear. The drama wasn’t over yet because the motor didn’t want to re-start from hot, all was well once the dirt was cleaned out of the idle jet and Brian and Kevin made it to the start. At least all was well with Alan Bellamy’s Brasilia, which was fit and ready to start its first MCC event.

     There were a few interesting crew changes. Hazel MacDonald was driving in her first classic trial with Veronica Caspari reading the route card. Andrew Cairney had exams on the Monday and wisely decided to stay at home revising so his sister Sarah sat alongside Dad to ensure he stayed out of trouble. Christine Manning had to put her job first this weekend so Peters sister stepped in as his passenger, a job she had once done for his father.

    The night was cold for the run to the breakfast halt at The Jolly Diner at Tintinhull. No, it I haven’t got confused with the Lands End. The Cricket St Thomas Wildlife Park is no more and is being converted to a posh Hotel, even Mr Blobby couldn’t save it, or was it all his fault! All the Falcons survived scruitineering, the greasy spoon breakfast and the first hill at Gatcombe Lane. Hazel MacDonald’s problems started at the summit after she and Veronica had pumped up JAZ’s tyres as the Beetle went into a sulk and wouldn’t start. They finally got things going but lost half an hour by the time they arrived in Bovey Woods. Normans Hump was first on the agenda, with Reg Taylor and Geoff Jackson on the start and Peter Mountain officiating higher up. It was pretty greasy on top but there was plenty of grip underneath and all the mud from the logging operations had disappeared since last year. A few words of description for those of you that don’t know the hill. It’s very long, absolutely straight and quite steep, apart from where a track crosses half way up. This is where the yellow restart is situated, the reds having a tougher one just where the gradient increases dramatically.

    All our re-starters got away OK for a clean but there were problems down in class four even though they had a straight run at the hill. Brian and Kevin were finding the little Fiat was severely down on power and it didn’t make the top. Neither did Hazel and Veronica. They started off OK and made the cross track but they weren’t going fast enough and ran out of momentum before the summit. This set an amusing series of events into motion, involving Fred Gregory and Pete Stafford, who else! Hazel reversed down to the cross track and off the hill where the engine fluffed and refused to start. Fred and Pete were given the all clear and stormed away up the lower reaches. Meanwhile a front wheel drive car dodged around Hazel’s stranded Beetle and crossed the track in Fred’s path bringing him to a halt for a balk. There were now three cars strewn around the junction and it was some time before the hill was clear. The Falcon drama wasn’t over as Neil and Marc arrived at the top with a puncture. Their first of six! Running at the end of the field Stuart Cairney was finding the deep ruts a problem, but once the Imp jumped out of them things got a lot worse and he stopped with a loss of traction.

    Normally Clinton is next on the agenda, but not for the class eight’s this year. They had to tackle a new hill called Branscombe Bank. This started on the main track, before turning ninety right up a rough, muddy path through the woods. It was pretty tough. The best Falcons got about twenty yards up the hill before coming to a stop with wheels spinning. Ian Davis and David Thompson didn’t get that far in their VW Buggy’s. With very little weight on the front end they both under-steered into the bank on the right hander.

    Clinton was next, the clubs own hill so all the Falcons wanted to do well in front of their friends. It was a new Clinton though, with an extra bit at the bottom. Hazel put her trotter down and stormed up but Brian wasn’t so fortunate as the Fiat just didn’t have enough power. He wasn’t the only one, Tom didn’t make it around the corner and neither did Peter Manning whose Midget had got a bit hot waiting at the bottom and fluffed to a stop immediately after the line and was another client for the super tractor. Dave Nash failed as well and there’s quite a storey behind this. Dave and Julie had punctured earlier and the damaged tyre was on the spare wheel carrier immediately over the type the engine. Unfortunately the flat took up more room and knocked off one of the air filters, this deranged the throttle linkage and the Skeetle didn’t have the grunt to get round the first bend.

    Then it was across the A3025 to Waterloo where Hazel MacDonald was still having trouble starting JAZ. Although she knew what was just around that sharp right hander Hazel didn’t have her trotter planted firmly enough on the gas peddle and the Beetle didn’t make it up the steep gradient that follows the corner. This is a common problem for Waterloo first timers and I can remember doing exactly the same thing myself. All you can see from the start is a sharp, blind, right hand bend, but its essential to put the power down hard as soon as you start to turn, even though you can’t see where you are going to end up! Hazel wasn’t the only one in trouble on what old hands regard as a pretty straightforward section. Simon and Matt Robson had their Skoda jump out of gear. Their gold depends on charitable marshals taking the view they didn’t come to a complete stop before getting going again. Alan Bellamy was having an exciting time with his Brasilia as the throttle kept jamming open. It wasn’t a problem on the sections but it was a bit disconcerting on the road, especially when coming up to roundabouts and traffic lights! Waterloo was to bring just the reverse problem for Alan as the brakes seized solid on the hill and the car came to a halt in mid-section with all four wheels firmly locked. After getting clear Alan released some of the pressure from a bleed nipple after which everything returned to normal. There must have been some muck in the system from the considerable time the car was laid up in Andy Clarke’s back garden.

    Stretes was simple enough and the special test at Greenslinch wasn’t as wet as normal, the hole containing slurry rather than water this year. After this section the navigators had to earn their keep, as the route to Exeter services was an MCC delight. The route card said “SO into Broadclyst and just after 30 mph sign L dp Dog Village”. Coming to Broadclyst there was the 30 sign and a left turning but no “Dog Village” sign, but there was a left turning with a Pet Centre on the corner. However turning left bought you into a little road with lock up garages either side which ended up as a dead end. There were competitors going up and down in every direction. The real turning was about half a mile up the road just after a 30-mph sign. Closer examination revealed that the first sign was a few yards before the “Broadclyst” sign and that didn’t count!

    After the break at Exeter came Tillerton Steep. Rough and rocky as ever, with a restart on the slab for classes six, seven and eight. This defeated Clive Booth, Alan Bellamy and possibly others, the notes are a little sketchy here! Mike Pearson didn’t fail the re-start, he didn’t see it and just drove straight through. That’s why some of us wear specs Mike! Hazel Mac was learning how to gun the motor in JAZ, finding that if you go fast enough you can fly over the bumps! This technique didn’t work for Stuart Cairney, he got his Imp airborne on the slab. When it came down it found mega grip and stalled. Our other class fours all made successful ascents, although it was at the expense of another puncture 
for Neil Bray. Fingle was next with more Falcon involvement as Murray MacDonald was Chief Official on the hill and Mike Furse was sector marshal for the area. Colin Stevens had a puncture and as he was in considerable pain from Sciatica decided to retire. Peter Manning was another to puncture here but kept going at the expense of a destroyed wheel rim.

    Fred Gregory’s Melos was making some rather horrible noises and riding mechanic Pete Stafford diagnosed the fault as a propshaft UJ bearing breaking up. They decided to carry on and nurse the car to the finish, incurring a fail on Wooston Steep by taking the blue and white route. Wooston contained various handicaps for the higher classes. Six could go up the easy route, but had to perform a restart. This was identified by a red board which according to the route card meant class eight only, a common re-start being specified as a Black R on a Yellow board. This caused confusion for Dave Nash and Alan Bellamy, Dave stopped and Alan didn’t. We await the results to see who was right! Ian Davis was our only class eight to make a successful ascent, the others being defeated by either the re-start or the steep hill they had to climb.

    The Pepperdon section was a re-start on tarmac, an Exeter speciality that had to be treated with respect as the road was covered in mud and the gradient was quite sharp. There was a time control before Simms and the early numbers had to waste away around three quarters of an hour to avoid being early. The old hill was on form again this year and only Simon Robson and Ian Davis made successful ascents. Arnold Lane was watching and said that Simon’s climb was really something, scattering the spectators as he swerved to the right hand bank to avoid the slippery slab. This appeared to be the trick, Arnold reporting that ninety percent of the successful climbers went the same way. The slab was the problem, it was very slippery and provided almost zero grip and few competitors had the momentum to carry them over this formidable obstacle.

    Competitors now only had Slippery Sam standing between them, a cold beer and warm bath. This was to be a sting in the tail. The re-start was right at the top on the last corner. Neil Bray thought he had missed it lower down and was so busy worrying where it was he did a Mike Pearson and drove straight through. Alan Bellamy was another to have brain fade here after struggling with more carburettor problems. The idle jets kept blocking up and Alan had to keep stopping to clear them. So ended another Exeter, a competitive trial run in pleasant conditions. There seemed to be a few organisational problems, but this didn’t detract from a wonderful trial, wrapped up for many with a dinner where we had twenty Falcons seated together, a fitting end to a great event.

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It had been raining hard in the week preceding the event and the news told of storms, floods and high winds in the West Country, to worry Exeter competitors and perhaps the marshals as well! We needn’t have worried. By Thursday it had become calmer and milder and by the weekend it was quite warm. However all the water had made the sections pretty competitive, this Exeter was to be no picnic! There were no Falcon’s starting from Bude, so it was Peter Mountain that led us away from the Cirencester start. Peter had entered his Dellow but business pressure prevented it being finished in time so his faithful maroon Skoda was drafted into service again. There was little time to do much to the car so Peter and James just checked the oil and adjusted the brakes. It was this that was to cause problems later!. Normally Peter runs the car back and forth to work for a few days before an event, just to make sure everything is working OK. He didn’t do it this time and it was only on the run out to Cirencester that he noticed the back brakes were binding. Now on a Skoda you have to remove the hubs to adjust the brakes, this needs a special puller and this was at home. Peter continued, but with the brakes rubbing badly was severely down on power.

Tom Goggin had Veronica Caspari in his Escort as usual. Tom had re-shelled his car before Christmas. The new one is very smart indeed, one of the tidiest Escorts I have seen for a long time. Colin Stevens came next, with Kevin Roberts reading the route card. Dave Nash had attended to his engine mountings and was hoping the Skeetle would stay in gear on the tough Exeter hills. Alan Bellamy had entered his ex Andy Clarke Brasilia but the car wasn’t ready so Alan used his faithful Fastback instead.

John Parsons and Mike Pearson ran together and to the best of my knowledge there was nothing different in the mechanical department, although presumably John had attended to his clunking diff since the Allen. Further down the field we should have seen Mike and Shiela Furse in their Racecorp LA. However, the Furse family were striken with flu and decided to spectate and help out rather than compete. A few cars later came a famous name from the past, although not currently a Falcon member. Adrian Tucker-Peake was driving his newly prepared Peugot. In Tucker-Peake tradition the car was four up as Adrian and Liz had bought the kids along.

There was nothing new with the Skoda’s of Neil Bray and Simon Robson, Michael Leete’s VW or Fred Gregory’s Dutton Melos. They were followed by a Dutton Sierra driven by the daughter of Motor Sports Bill Boddy. Then came Falcons only class one entry, Chris Bonnett in his Peugot Diesel. There was no David Alderson as he was busy finalising the preparations of his Beetle for the historic Monte Carlo Rally. Stuart and Andrew Cairney started from Popham in their familiar Imp, and so did Murray and Hazel MacDonald, embarking on their quest for a second consecutive triple in JAZ. The red lantern of the Falcon train was Reg Taylor and Bill Rule in Reg’s RDT special, running number 313, last car on the road.

The weather was kind on the run down to eligibility scruitineering at Chard. Pretty unexciting stuff, perhaps that’s why so many of us had problems staying awake! Then it was breakfast at Cricket St Thomas, the dinning room resplendent with it’s Christmas decorations. Now, assuming they were not really early for 1998 they were a bad omen because they should have been down by twelfth night which is the sixth of January. Unfortunately the normally excellent Cricket St Thomas breakfast was spoilt by some very stringy bacon!

It was dark for most of us when we got to Gatcombe Lane, a nice easy starter hill. I know some people think these sort of sections are a waste of time. Not me, I don’t want to fail the first hill. Then it was little more than a mile of tarmac before crossing the A 3052 at Hangmans Stone to go down into the Forest containing Normans Hump and Clinton to join the queue! The early Falcon runners waited an hour, those running later were in the line for over an hour and a half and by then it stretched out of the forest and onto the road. Normans Hump was the problem. Some say it had been doctored, others that logging operations had dragged a lot of mud onto the track. Either way it was tricky. The lower part of the section wasn’t too bad, although it is getting rougher every year. The big problem came on the steep part, after the cross track, where the class eight’s do their restart. This was very muddy and needed grip. power and momentum to get through.

It was just getting light as Peter Mountain came to the line. The section was being marshalled by some of the Cambridge boys and he was greeted at the start line by Falcon member Geoff Jackson. Peter managed to get reasonable speed as he crossed the track but with a binding brake it was not enough and he bogged down in the muddy section. Our other two Skoda’s got out of the top OK but not without drama. Neil Bray punctured and had to change a wheel and Simon could hear the first signs of diff problems, but carried on regardless. Stuart and Andrew Cairney didn’t have any car difficulties but his 915 cc’s wouldn’t pull the Imp through the clag. Classes’ six and seven had to restart on the cross track. This slowed down their charge into the mud but it didn’t prevent Alan Bellamy and Fred Gregory getting to the top. Michael Leete wasn’t so lucky, or perhaps I should say skilful, and lost grip in the muddy bit. The class eight’s had to re-start right in the middle of the muddy bit and none of the Falcons could get away. JP got to the top and found his cooling fan wasn’t working. He stopped at the bottom of Clinton to hot-wire it so he could continue.

Everyone was anxious to do well on Clinton under the eyes of their clubmate’s. With a level restart on the cross-track, instead of on the gradient it wasn’t so difficult as last year, provided you could get round the difficult corner at the bottom. There’s a sharp ninety right just after the start and you can’t see the steep gradient that comes immediately afterwards. Most of us made it OK but with front wheel drive it defeated Chris Bonnett in his Peugeot. This was certainly going to be tough trial for front wheel drives. Simon Robson provided the drama for the Falcon marshals. He got the Skoda around the corner and up to the restart. Simon let the clutch out and Arnold and Andy were greeted to a tinkling sound as the diff finally cried enough a few feet further on. Simon and Matt managed to limp out of the woods but the car wasn’t going to go much further. They weren’t the only ones. By the time Murray and Hazel arrived there were eight disabled cars waiting for recovery.

After all the carnage in the woods Waterloo and Stretes were relatively uneventful for most. Falcon interest was maintained with John York marshalling with the Woolbridge club at the top of Stretes. Then we had a long run north to the special test at Greenslinch Barton. Many competitors had problems finding the route. There had been an amendment at Cricket St Thomas but the route card still didn’t bear much resemblance to the road and there were cars going in every direction. Fortunately the route marking was correct otherwise there could have been major problems. The special test itself was a downhill blind through Grenslinches’s huge puddle (it’s more like a lake). This was great if you had a waterproof car, like a Beetle, but was a bit daunting if your electric’s were vulnerable.

Exeter services saw a lot of mechanical work. John Parsons managed to buy an override switch for his fan and fitted that. Tom and Dave both had petrol pump problems but they couldn’t do anything to fix them. Neil and Martin were planning to change the tube in their punctured tyre but were held up on the road when their petrol pump stopped working but a swift hammer blow soon fixed things. With no bead breaker and no Dave Nash Neil resorted to Michael Leete’s bit of fence post bolted to the brake drum of the Beetle. Don’t laugh, it worked!

Windout was a tarmac hill, a feature of recent Exeter’s. Marshalled by Mrs Troll (Anne Templeton) it had a liberal coating of mud to catch you if you were too complacent. Tillerton is getting rough again, with a tricky re-start on some huge rock steps for the six, seven and eight’s. This caught out Fred and Michael. The steps were probably a real shock to Chris in his relatively low slung Peugeot. He didn’t get up this one but was clearing quite a few of the hills in only his second classic trial. Fred Gregory’s Dutton Melos had started to fluff at any sort of rev’s and he, Pete Stafford and Neil stripped the carb and petrol pump at the foot of Fingle. It went better but only if Fred gave it a bit of choke. Fred continued to fiddle, finally finding the problem was the coil. It was a 9 volt unit and the Dutton was feeding it with 12 volts. When it got hot the motor missed at high revs. Fred had a spare and carried on by swapping between the two.

It was to get worse at Simms. Simon and Matt Robson had left their Skoda at Seaton and had got a lift to Simms where they met up with a spectating, flu ridden, Mike and Sheila Furse. They saw some of the early cars get up, including Dennis (our hero) Greenslade in his Reliant and Philip Mitchell in his Skoda. There was quite a lot of mud on the hill. It got harder as the day went on and by the time Peter Mountain arrived very few people were cleaning the section. Peter’s brakes were easing off but he couldn’t get the Skoda up for the second year in succession. Last year the car jumped out of gear but before that he had always cleaned Simms.

Peter was in good company as all the other Falcon’s failed, including Murray and Hazel who said goodbye to their triple. They certainly gave it a good try, giving it everything, but to no avail, although they got a good cheer from the spectators for their efforts. John Parsons was another to give the spectators good value. The smoke still lingering several cars later! The final hill was a sting in the tail for some. The route divided. One to six tackling Slippery Sam while seven and eight went to Higher Gabwell.

Chris Bonnett enjoyed Slippery Sam, cleaning the rough section to get a finish in his Peugeot. Things didn’t go very well for Stuart and Andrew. First they failed the re-start, then they missed the obscure right turn at the top and failed to find the Gabwell passage control. Neither Mike nor John faired very well on Higher Gabwell. They had a re-start and this was situated on a huge hole that defeated them. So it was on to Torquay to the finish at the Oswalds and Trecarn Hotels. A lot of members were staying there and we had a dozen or more Falcons around the dinner table to chew over the day’s events. Some people believe that some of the MCC events have been too easy recently and the MCC have been concerned about the financial burden of awarding so many triples. It doesn’t look to have a problem this year!

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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