Tag: 15 April 2006

Claire’s Lands End

Claire and Keith Oakes took part in the Lands End in their Duttom Phaeton. Here is Claire’s report

Dry, warm and starless night made it perfect driving across the moors, no fog, thank God. The fun started for us at Michaelwood Services, when Keith found that a hose had disconnected itself from the heater, water every where. I bet Ted Holloway wished that was all that happened to him, instead of his Mini Enigma Spl falling apart a stones throw from Popham.

Felons Oak Smiles here, as I’m sure the restart has shrunk with the Vim in the wash. It was small last year but now it`s shrivelled from my big bloomers to the size of my daughters G- string. No chance of putting whole car in, perhaps it was a train buff setting out double O gauge lines.

Beggars Roost Cars were queued from the entrance to the section back to the Garage.    Ed Nickel there as a spectator now as his dynamo packed up on his VW Buggy 

A marshal said restart was higher up to try and stop 7 & 8s. News filtered down in the wait to go as far right as possible in the box. Thank you to that man who told us. As we approached the box I could see thick churned mud on the left. I shouted at Keith “go right” he did and we got away fine, just missing an over hanging branch.

Riverton Smiles left my face here, not the wait; we had that last year, but the second year of sitting behind a car, which doesn’t switch the engine OFF. Last year it was a VW, this year an orange Marlin. I have read that males unconsciously touch their bits

I think this lad was so high on testosterones by his constant vroom, vroom, the nearer we got to the section the more vrooms we had. Next year I will have a loofah ready to soak in quick drying cement to push up any offender’s exhaust pipe. Yes, I know I could have got off my butt and asked him to cease, but that would have meant getting my boots dirty! Neither navigator nor he has read the route card fully which states NO NOISE, but there again I didn’t realize how much noise I make until I saw myself on video shouting encouragement to the Dutton when driving up a section!  Thank you for getting that off my chest, onto; 

Roundswell Control. Carbon monoxide washed away by a nice hot cup of tea supplied by our son Allan who was marshalling at the control. Happy bunny again.

Crackington. Waiting at the ford at the foot of the hill we watched class 7 Andrew Browns Marlin fade & die on the climb, but a quick switch back on, he did a slick re start and he pulled away like a dream to complete the section.

Wilsey Down. Bravo to the person/s who thought of having a gazebo for the control point at Hallworthy Market top car park. This saved squeezing passed each other as control used to be just inside the café entrance 

Hoskin. We nearly got to the red restart. I do feel that yellow restart being so low down the section the Dutton doesn’t have enough time to wind up from section begins.

Bishops Wood. Our favourite hill, I think not. This hill we have never got away from the restart. We flew pass the “A” boards over the plateau track and like a swatted fly splat into the glutinous mud in the box. Keith tried to get his back wheels as high as he could but the mud held us tight. I’m sure in the past years grass was there in the box?

Blue Hills 1 Smoking wheels, but got away

Blue Hills 2. Clean pair of heels. 

Finished a great trial staying in Cornwall until Tuesday, as we celebrated our daughters birthday on Easter Monday at the Cross roads Lodge, who looked after us very well during our stay there.

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Chris Clarke’s Lands End

Last year Chris drove in Class 0, This time he tackled the main event.

The Land End seen from a competitors viewpoint. Regular correspondent Chris Clarke reports.

Following our timekeeping problems on the Edinburgh, we decided that tyre deflating & pumping was the biggest cause of delay and made some improvements to speed up the process as far as possible, helped by useful advice on the Classical Gas message board. More importantly, we had taken advantage of the Allen, Clee Hills & March Hare events to fine tune the coffee & biscuits routine with the rigour usually associated with GP tyre changes, so even in extreme circumstances we wouldn’t miss this vital ritual. As things turned out, both these preparations proved very useful. 

Having left Michaelwood via the unofficial exit (the rebel in me enjoys this bit) we proceeded by the “great circle” route to North Petherton, completed the formalities, and tried the omelette & chips at the truck stop (recommended). Then it was off to Felons Oak and Stoney Street, which we completed without too much difficulty (at least compared with what followed). I don’t know if it’s deliberate, but all Classic trials seem to start with a couple of “warm up” sections like this, a very good idea we think and hopefully any organisers reading this agree, otherwise I expect a nasty surprise the next time. 

The night driving across Exmoor is one of the best and most distinctive parts of this event. Although we know the area well from holidays in the area, it takes on a completely different atmosphere, with the arrival (and refreshments) at the Culborne Inn one of the high points. Tempered by the thought that you’re still less than a quarter of the way through; and ordering a double Scotch probably wouldn’t go down too well at that point. 

The next section, Beggars Roost, is part of Colin’s folklore as both his father (in the 1937 event), and more recently his brother, have attempted it. The weight of family honour was resting on his shoulders as we approached, while I was just concerned that we had been told to read the failure instructions before starting. As it was we were pleased to clean the section, but not before some nervous moments in the area of the restart box. Before anyone asks why we, in class one, worry about the restart area, I must record that we very much appreciate not having to deliberately stop there and long may this dispensation continue. The flip side is that it usually consists of either a jumble of razor sharp boulders, a mirror smooth sheet of rock or a bottomless mud pit, and to get maximum advantage from the concession you seem to have to drive as fast as possible through it – quite exciting. 

The build up at Beggars was nothing compared with Riverton, where we had to wait for some time. This would not be so bad, as there was time for a chat or a nap, but explanations for the delay kept filtering back – cars stuck in impossible positions, marshals having to stop them falling over precipices, crews running out of oxygen at the section ends board, etc. Finally, it was our turn and we have to say, this is the best section we have ever attempted, the length, sharp corners, straight bits to build up speed and the feeling of satisfaction when we (very unexpectedly) arrived at the top. After that there had to be a let-down and sure enough we just ran out of grip some way up Cutcliffe Lane. We were also still very late and not sure how near to the end of the field, so we had to press on through Sutcombe, Darracot & Crackington. It was satisfying to see so many people spectating and the cheers and encouragement are much appreciated, especially as we clawed our way through the muddy restart area at Darracot. However, the worst moment of this part was at Widemouth Bay, where I ambled into the car park in second gear and nearly got stuck in the sand – could have been very embarrassing.

Lack of grip (or the skill to find it) was the problem again at Hoskins, if the spectator’s encouragement was all it took we would have continued into earth orbit at the top, as it was we stopped just short of the restart, possibly weighed down by the excellent lunch we had just eaten at the Wilsey Down Hotel. Grip was not a problem at Bishop’s Wood where the plan was to build up speed on the straight lower section and across the track, so as to clear the two ramps; and thence to the finish. As it was the straight was longer than I remembered, so the speed was very high, the view of VW bonnet as we cleared the first ramp was not very helpful as to steering and the track slopes a fair bit so we hit the next ramp too far left and just slid out of contention, straight through all the carefully placed restart markers – sorry. 

Finally Blue Hills, where we prepared by finishing the last of our refreshments at Perranporth. Last year we disappointed the spectators by taking the class 0 soft option of the old hill, but this year there was no avoiding the main event. As you descent to the start, the view of the hill opposite with ant like cars bumping over the ruts is pretty daunting, but we were encouraged by getting round the first part (Blue Hills 1), although looking at Michaels pictures there was a lot less margin than we thought at the time. 

For the second part we got started well, but the car lost speed over the bumps, the little engine just couldn’t drag it any further and we stalled before the corner. Maybe a bit more skill with the clutch would have got it going again or maybe we just need a bigger engine, but there’s always next year and having spectated here for some years, just to arrive at the top as competitors (even with some help from the friendly winch) was very satisfying.

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

Lands End 2006

Tough Event for Class Eight

Good weather, big delays at Riverton, Hoskin very tough for class 8

2006_lands_end_resultsDownload

Dave Cooks Photos

Start – Falcons Ed Nikel didn’t make the Plusha start as the dynamo on his VW Buggy failed on the way down. Ted Holloway wasn’t a great deal luckier. Ted made it to the start OK but didn’t get very far as he had a hub collapse on his Mini Special only 50 yards up the road.

Felons Oak – This short little “hill” is all about the restart, which is reckoned to be getting trickier as it gets dug out. Although it claimed quite a few casualties, all the Falcon’s got away successfully.

Stoney Street – The section, which bypasses Porlock, was reckoned to be very rough this year. Peter Mountain would certainly agree. Peter retired when the rear axle-locating pivot broke on his Dellow Mk1. This was not a Dellow friendly hill as Richard Shirley also retired here with back axle problems.

Beggars Roost – Strangely there was no restart for Class 8. Simon Groves lost his triple here when he failed to get away. Keith Oakes is down in the results as stopping but as you will see from Claire’s report he didn’t. Tony Smith didn’t get this far in his first Land End in his Austin Big 7. The engine went bang crossing Exmoor and he needed a tow from Roger Teagle in his Beetle to reach civilisation at The Culbourne Inn. We also lost Mike Telford in the night when he had to retire the “Tucker Nipper Special”, built by former clerk-of-the-course H. W. Tucker-Peake for his daughters who won a triple with this famous old car.

Riverton – There were big problems for the bikes again this year. A number of riders hit the deck and it took a lot of time for them to remount and get going. Things didn’t improve much when the cars came along and some had to wait very nearly three hours in the queue, which came close to blocking the road. 

After the debacle with the bikes the field became split when Tony Divey got stuck and there were big problems in towing the Tiking three wheeler out of the section. The thinning Dellow ranks were further depleted when Mark Worsfeld broke a half shaft on the section. Then Neil Bray claimed a baulk when he was stuck behind a car with a puncture. It had to be fixed on the hill because the recovery vehicle was down stream of the incident. This took a lot of time as the car kept rolling off the jack.

While all this was going on the lady of the manor from nearby Riverton Mill decided to walk her dog up and down the section, dishing out a verbal assault on passing competitors as she did so, claiming they were hooligans damaging her back garden and that she know nothing about the trial. The delay at Riverton was good for one competitor. Ian Moss had been having problems with his Escort sliding all over the road ever since Stoney Street. The delay gave him time to get underneath, finding a broken U bolt, which he was able to replace with the help of some of his fellow competitors.

Cutliffe Lane – The hill was reasonably dry this year but it is pretty steep and defeated.Simon Robson’s Liege. Likewise most of the class one’s and five’s failed, including Peter Manning and Barrie Parker.

Sutcombe & Darracott – Neither of these wonderful old hills were to cause many problems this year.

Crackington – Not to difficult this year.  It was pretty dry and there had been little or no doctoring. The field was really spread out by now and after the bikes came there were only four cars in an hour, presumably because of the Riverton problems. Dudley Sterry recorded a fail when he over-ran the restart line. This was to cost him The Field Trophy as he was faster than Paul Bartleman on the special tests.

Ross Nuten cleaned the restart here but suffered from fuel feed problems thereafter and finished up failing four hills. Earlier Ross was one of many to get fed up waiting in the queue for Riverton and skipped the section. Andrew Brown had been suffering from engine problems during the night and his Marlin stuttered to a brief halt before Andrew gathered everything together and did a special class 7 restart to “clean” the hill.

Warleggan – Passed without incident.

Hoskin – This fearsome Camel Vale Hill was true to form. The blues and whites had a clear run but only the best built up sufficient momentum to carry themselves up the slippery higher reaches. The problem is in the area of the class 8 re-start. The groove in the ruts is extremely slippery and polished and a lot of momentum is required to get through this area.

The poor old class 8’s really struggled and only the supermen succeeded. I witnessed both Paul Bartleman and Dudley Sterry clean the hill. They stopped way over to the left, one wheel between the ruts and the other up the bank. Some people tried the same technique the other side but the camber drew them back into the ruts and wheel spinning failure. Eric Wall got the technique right but even he slipped back into the groove and spun to a halt. The results also show that Robert Williams (Buggy) and Geoff May (Dellow) also succeeded. Falcons Neil Bray incurred his only fail of the day here and the results show Neil as winning class 8. However, this is a mistake as Dudley was faster on the special tests.

The yellows had a restart lower down. It was easier to get away, but even if you did get going it was necessary to build a lot of speed to get through the difficult area higher up. Few succeeded but some did and Roger Bricknell and Andrew Martin made it look positively easy! Mark Tooth (Beetle) and Mal Allen (Marlin) both trickled away beautifully from the yellow restart, building speed without any wheel spin. Unfortunately, both of them decided to boot it just when they reached the slippery bit, they didn’t have enough momentum to get away with it and spun to a halt.

The Front Wheel Drive Cars didn’t have a restart but this was nerveless a tough hill for them. The amazing David Haizelden just flew up, no wheel spin and the car just floating over the bumps. Paul Allaway made it as well, not so elegant and the poor little Astra was on the rev limiter but still a clean. Mike Collins tried the same but lost traction and failed just after the class 8 restart. Unluckiest crew were Alan and Ian Cundy who got almost, but not quite to the top in their Golf and failed just inches from the section ends board.

Bishops Wood

Again, this had the nasty restart where the section crosses the track. Good positioning was required. Neil Bray was delighted to get away in Primrose after his passenger, daughter Jade, shouted to him to stop high in the box. Following instructions Neil got as far forward as possible. His back wheels were almost on the line but most importantly the front ones were on the flat bit and he pulled away without any problems. Simon passenger son Matt shouted a similar instruction but Dad knew best, Simon stopped low and failed.

Blue Hills 1

There was a restart on the cobbles for all classes except 1, 2 and 5. This caused a lot of problems and even those who succeeded had a struggle. Frankly, the results are a bit doubtful here. Most people really struggled and there appears to be different interpretations of who was clean and who wasn’t. Both Neil Bray and Simon Groves were credited with success, even though its doubtful they maintained forward motion as they climbed over a huge rock! While Simon Robson had a fail when he appeared to be clean.

Blue Hills 2

The section is very short now and it’s all about the artificial bit through the cutting. Unfortunately, the bank on the outside proved to be a launching ramp and a couple of people turned over. These included Anne Whellock (Austin 7), Mark Hayward (Dellow Mk2) and a couple of chairs. Fortunately, there was no serious injury to the crews concerned but the motorcars may take a bit longer to repair. Although Anne’s Austin 7 was quite badly knocked about, she set out to drive it home on the Sunday but was defeated when it started to overheat quite badly and had to summon the recovery truck. Sadly, the preliminary results for the hill looked very strange and the MCC have gone back to the drawing board to re-look at them, which will affect the awards.

Wrap Up

On balance a good Lands End. Yes, there were the problems at Riverton and criticisms of “Mickey Mouse” restarts at Bishops Wood and Blue Hills 1. It was also a shame about the results. However, the Lands End is not an event for pot hunters, its about the experience, the emotional ups and downs as you ride or drive through the night. The children waving as you go through the villages. The satisfaction the next day when you realise what you accomplished. The organisers did a good job and we should all be grateful for their work.

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