Category: Exmoor

Ed’s Exmoor

Ed Nikel reports on his Exmoor Trial

We have just returned from North Devon having competed in this years Exmoor Trial in my Dellow. It was this trial that introduced us, my brother Richard (Dick) and myself, to classic trials, first as a spectator then as a competitor, let me explain….

Our cousin, another Richard, who lived in Bideford was looking for a car to compete in PCT’s and trials. Dicks old Imp (Denis) was available, so was dispatched down to North Devon to start a new life as a trials car. It was called Denis the menace having been painted red and black!!!. For several years Dick and I would make an annual pilgrimage to Exmoor and spectate and support Richard and Denis.

Fast forward a couple of years another Richard (Tompkins) influenced me to prepare a car for trials, naturally an Imp, and our first trial had to be the Exmoor trial, which also happens to be a favourite of mine.

Up to date now, Saturday 27th saw us trailering the Dellow down to the farm at Bideford, picking up a parking ticket from jobs worth Bideford warden—– empty car park, car and trailer taking up two spaces but we only bought one ticket instead of two!! ‘How does he sleep at night’?

Sunday morning we were of to Barnstaple for scrutineering, which is across town from the start. Our first panic, the radiator cap was missing! A friendly scrute was dispatched home to find his spare. Fortunately, the cap was found ledged down the side of the rad, so use of the pliers to tighten and secure it in place.

Scrutineering passed, then off to Cedars Hotel to sign in and sample the welcoming bacon cobs, and a chance to catch up with Les Newell the new owner of my buggy who was entering his first trial and coincidentally also lived in Bideford.

Onto the trial and the first sections, Snapper1 and Snapper2. A slippery access track up into the woods with a hairpin right then upto the start of the section. No restart so straight onto Snapper 2 for our first restart. No problems so far.

Out of the woods and onto Riverton via Tordown special test, which was completed not particularly, quickly but clean. Riverton was its rough slippery self; we were only the fourth car so the restart was not to badly cut up and we went clean.

Lee Moor special test was completed then into Huntstone1. A bit of a wait while the bikes had their goes at the hill. The restart on the steepest section of the hill, just after the start, was cleaned, having watched the previous cars come to grief, we kept to the left and had no trouble.

Straight onto Huntstone 2, a grassy track with a 90 right upto the restart and then no further, still our first failure and 6 points.

High Bray again caught up with the bikes. This is a right hand hairpin upto the restart on a rock slab, then a rough rocky climb with a deep gulley on the right track up to the top. We managed a 4 and after dropping back to the hairpin took a run at it and was able to clear the section in front of lots of spectators.

Higher Molland, A grassy rutted track with slippery restart. Then into another woods for Jimmy’s Hill. This is a straight drag up a shale, stone track, very steep though. Worst so far for us, we couldn’t even reach the restart 8pts here. How does Dudley Sterry do it. He cleaned it when many people barely got of the start line!!

Still in the same woods onto Badgers Hill and Rodneys Revenge. The first a right hand turn onto the hill and a straight drag up. We managed 4 here. Reversed down hill and straight onto the start for Rodneys. Left hand hairpin up to the restart, again a stopper 5pts, a run at the hill and we were on our way for the 20mile run up to Lynton and Beggars Roost. We had our first and only puncture while travelling to the section. The restart was on the right, a bit lower than last years Lands End, but was no problem, back to clean again.

Next Scoresdown with a restart for all classes. A tarred road but washed out sections and deep potholes. We were clean so onto the last section, Floyds Bank a short section at right angle to the road grassy, slippery and overlooking Breedon and the Staghunters Inn for the finish and signing off.

To cap the day of we were most surprised to see the provisional results have given us 2nd in class! 

Thanks to all the organisers and marshals from NDMC for an excellent trial and a thoroughly enjoyable days trialling with the bonus of the stunning Exmoor scenery. We will be definitely be back again next year and I would highly recommend that you make the trip and give it a try yourself next year. 

2007_exmoor_resultsDownload

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Exmoor 2002

by Mark Rosten-Edwards

My first time in the passenger seat. My father, Bill, had asked me to passenger him on the Exmoor Trial in his Class 4 Imp “Jade”. It needed an early start from Ealing to Camberley and then onwards down the A303 to the start just the other side of Barnstaple. Bill had fitted a couple of new undertrays to the rear of the car in an effort to keep more of the mud out of the engine bay after the trouble this caused after the Clee. These seemed to be making the car run a little hotter when cruising but she ran fine all day. We past Giles Greenslade on the way to the start but as he was starting last for some reason we pressed on to scrutineering as we wanted to leave the suggested 45 minutes for the signing process.

After diff check, general inspection and check of the documents and we were through to signing on. We took on fuel as suggested along with Stuart Cairney, with Jim Scott in the passengers seat in his Imp and went down to Sepcott 1. We had a couple of Escorts in front of us now and we watched them fail to move off the start line. We got some wheelspin and with a few “bounces” we were off line, past the restart for 7&8 to clean the first hill. 

Sepcott 2 next and a small delay for a Class 6 Beetle to change a wheel on the approach to the start line. The hill and the restart presented no problems. A short drive to Snapper 1 & Snapper 2 complete with a restart. Neither caused a problem for Dad and the Imp.

Riverton up next and a hill Dad had not seen before as last year it was the reserve of the Class 8 and the bikes. First queue of the morning heralded the hills intent. I heard Stuart trying hard and cleaning the hill in his Imp. I had a quick chat to a man with an Avenger which was running on Castrol R. That smelt good! Our turn came and the hill was looking ok but turning right and going past the Class 6-8 restart the track became rutted and full of mud leading up to a tight left hand bend. We ploughed through to the left hander and found some grip to take us up and out of the section.

High Bray up next and another queue. The hill was in fair form. Stuart screamed his way over the rock slab and cleared the section. We went a little lower on tyre pressure which resulted in bent wheel, puncture and us sitting in hole around the six marker. We later learned from Giles that he also cleaned the section in the blue Beetle.

Onwards to Beggars Roost. I was particularly looking forward to the Roost as it was the only hill I had done before in my Escort. The Imp found loads of grip off the restart, a failing of the Escort in past years, and continued serenely up the remainder of the hill over a lot of loose rocks.

A route change resulted in Swaincote being used complete with a third special test. All the special tests (there were two earlier in the day) were very well thought out tests. Forwards, backwards and forwards again over various lines but long enough for the lower geared cars to requiring a gear change going forwards to be slightly penalised going backwards.

Unfortunately Stuart’s transmission gave up and we found the Imp abandoned at the top of the hill with no sign of either Stuart or Jim. Very bad news as he was clean so far with the Class win to go for on Floyd’s Bank. Also in trouble here was Tony Young in his VW Special with the front suspension broken.

Floyd’s Bank turned out to be a short section which was completely visible from the road with a very slippery mud surface. The fine rain was keeping it way! A reasonable queue of cars had formed with some earlier competitors spectating on the section. Unfortunately some of the later competitors chose to join them before attempting the section and left their cars more in the lane than off preventing some local traffic from getting past. This caused a delay as the start marshal tried to sort the problem calling several times before the competitors came back down from their perches to move their cars. Probably not what the organisers would have liked!

We got as far as the 8 or 9 board before we got struck in the ruts. We saw some spirited attempts one of which saw John Bell get through the ruts but slid sideways into a gorse bush and had a moment or two on the descent. David Turner got to the 3 marker and took a trim off the BMW against the gorse bush on the way down. Best Class 3 attempt was a purple Mk1 Escort (I can’t remember the car number or name) who made it to the 1 board. An excellent effort as the only other people to get anywhere while I was watching was Peter Fear with the Dingo, which cleared the hill and Tim Whellock who got the Fugitive’s front wheels near the section ends board.

All that was left was to sign off and drive home. I was back at home in London by 8.40pm. The Exmoor was a very enjoyable trial, well organised and finished at a reasonable hour. To be recommended.

2002_exmoor_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

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

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