It wasn’t easy though, Excelsior in particular taking its toll on Triples.
It was a fine night when competitors gathered at Tamworth Motorway Services. There was bad news for those in the main trial who were told Bamford was cancelled due to an exposed electricity cable. This left very few “traditional” hills for those in the lower classes who would not be attempting Litton Slack.
Lost Golds at the Cliff Quarry Deviation
The first challenge came early on at Cliff Quarry, with a restart for everyone. That wasn’t the main problem though, that was a truly horrible deviation for the higher classes. This really challenged their steering lock and such luminary’s as Dean Partington, Nick Farmer, Dudley Sterry and Eric Wall all lost their clean sheets here.
Putwell Repaired
After the Black Harry complex came Putwell. The rumour was that Putwell B had received the attention of the Derbyshire road gang. Putwell A was as rough as ever but Putwell B was a bit different, as smooth as the M1! Never mind a couple of years of water erosion and it will be competitive again.
Litton Slack Only for Some
There were two Litton Slacks in the route card. New Litton Slack for Classes 0 to 5 and old Litton Slack for 6, 7 and 8. The section for the Lower Classes could hardly be described as Litton Slack, its just a smooth grassy track, with very little gradient, running along the top of the valley.
The real Litton Slack was a challenge for the higher classes and nobody in 6 or 7 reached the summit. It was a challenge for Class 8 as well and the experienced Dean Partington, Nick Farmer, Dudley Sterry and Eric Wall were the only drivers to go clean. Unfortunately for this quartet they had all flailed Cliff Quarry.
Slippery Stones
Calton and Excelsior are both traditional hills with re-starts on polished stones for everyone except Class 0. They failed more than 50% each and sadly Nicola Butcher lost her triple on Excelsior when all the class fours except James Arrowsmith and Hans Viertel failed to get away.
Motorcyclists to Hospital
The abbreviated Edinburgh finished with Clough Mine and Dudwood. Neither are “classic” sections and Dudwood was cancelled after two of the motorcyclists hurt themselves and required medical attention .
Class 0 had a very similar trial, minus most of the restarts and a couple of the rougher hills, substituted by some gentler stuff.
Triple for Julian
When the provisional results were published it looked as if there wouldn’t be any triples. However, after some time they were amended with particular reference to Classes seven and eight on Litton Slack which meant Julian Lack was awarded a Triple.
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