You have stumbled on a delightful box of tricks, Classic Trials & other perverse stuff from Michael Leete. MCC ACTC and other trials. VW Beetles, Dellows, Marlins, or even Suzuki X90's
Rob Holden was an excellent second in his BMW estate with the only other clean sheet apart from Dave’s. Dean Partington was third, keeping his Wheelspin Trophy hopes alive.
Rob Holden finally found some engine reliability, cleaning all the hills in his BMW but having to give best to Dave Haizelden on special test times
The ever popular Allen Trial took just four days to max out the entry in the main trial. There was also provision for Heritage cars to take part in a parallel event but as this didn’t attract any entries it looks as if Heritage is defunct. It was a damp start to the day which didn’t brighten up and ended with persistent rain.
The start at The Bull at Hinton. Lined up are three of Dean Partingtons DP cars competing on the trial. From left to right. The DP Falcon, trialled by Dean many years ago and recently re-acquired and updated. In the middle is the very familiar rear engined DP Wasp recently purchased and driven on The Allen by Paul Merson. On the right is Jack Selwood’s DP Ford, originally constructed by Reg Taylor. This is the car that took Mike Furse to a triple and Graham Marshall to ACTC championships. It still has the original 1500 pre-crossflow engine (Photo by Kieran Bartlett)
Tog Hill was just up the road from the start and there were some delays after about half the field went through as one of the Austin 7’s experienced problems and blocked the section. It wasn’t a happy start for Class 2 as Michael Wall’s Trojan had to retire on the following road section.
The restart on the polished stones on Bitton Lane challenged some of the Austin 7’s in a bumper Class 2 entry.
Not so Mick Holmes who got away smoothy in what I believe was his cars first trial. Mick’s passenger was son Sam, normally seen driving his very competitive Class 4 Beetle with Mick as his passenger.
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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.
The Cotswold Clouds once again lived up to its reputation, attracting a full entry of 80 cars to tackle its challenging sections under the eyes of an extremely professional organising team.
Winner Aaron Haizelden, in his Class 5 Reliant Scimitar, was the only car outside of Class 8 to climb the notorious Crooked Mustard near the start of the event and thoroughly dominated the rest of the days proceedings. It was difficult, even for the specials, and only seven of them reached the summit. The old hill took its toll on the machinery and the dead car park soon started to fill up. Alex Wheeler had his front suspension part company with the rest of his Nova. John Cox broke the diff on his Porshe 924 and even Dean Partingtons ultra reliable DP Wasp broke its transmission as did Matt Johnstons Cannon.
Across the road at the top of Crooked Mustard lay the summit of Axe, another long standing section. Competitors emerged covered in the glutinous mud which laid in the sections deep gulley. This clung to the wheels and underside of the cars, slowing many of the cars in the lower classes, some to a complete stop.
Neither of the traditional sections at Nailsworth Ladder or Ham Mill across from the Bear Inn at Rodborough caused to much trouble but that was soon to change.
Bryans by Kevin Sharp
Bryan’s is an unsurfaced track in the woods and got muddier and muddier as the day went on. Some in the higher classes couldn’t even get to their restart let alone pull away from it. Aaron Haizelden picked up his first fail of the day here and even he only got to the two, one mark further than Dave in his similar car.
Aaron and Dave continued their domination when they cleaned the short, sharp, Merves Swerve, a feat only repeated by Ray Ferguson (Liege), Dave Middleditch in the Top Gear Dutton Phaeton and ACTC Secretary Bill Bennett in his MG J2, the only Class Two car in the event.
Having raised his recently acquired Beetle after the Exeter Lee Peck tackles the blast through the trees at Climperwell. Stroud had drafted in some heavy machinery before the event to improve the section. Photo by Calvin Samuel Click Here for more of Calvins Work
The innocuous looking Bulls Bank restart is there to trap the unwary on its polished stones and this year its victims included Mark and James Smith. You can view their on James InCar Video.
Wicked Juniper by Kevin Sharp
Jerrys the penultimate section, a very muddy climb through the trees. Then there was Talbots Terror with headlights necessary in the gathering gloom for the early numbers and in the proper dark for those running towards the back. Aaron Haizelden dropped one here but it didn’t matter, he was hands down winner of this years Cotswold Clouds.
Classical Gas 