Gordano Services Bristol had the honour of seeing the first competitors away, and by far the majority wanted to start from here. Nobody really wants to arrive at Penzance nine o’clock Saturday night! As usual, there were dramas at the start, or before it in Alan Bellamy’s case. First, the oil pressure light stubbornly refused to go out on his Brasilia’s re-vamped dry sumped motor. Then the engine started to cut out with a re-occurrence of last years fuel supply problems and Alan decided to give the event a miss. He still came along to the Bristol start though, to wish his buddies well.
Fellow Falcon Verdun Webley got to the start but the B series motor in his Marlin wasn’t running properly and Neil Bray dived under the bonnet for the first of many carburettor adjustments. While all this was going on a breathless, Simon Robson arrived, but in his familiar Skoda rather than the Leige he was entered in. Simon had made a super-human effort to get the lightweight class 8 machine finished and through the SVA bureaucracy. He thought everything was ready on the afternoon of the start, but a quick run up the road revealed the back axle was up-the-shoot, so it was back to the Skoda.
Verdun wasn’t the only one with a sick Marlin. Pete and Carlie Hart’s clutch was all spongy and getting worse. Fortunately help was at hand and with John Salter’s help they managed to get it sorted out before the off.
The early runners managed to get to the holding control at Haynes Motor Museum in the dry, but later numbers weren’t so lucky and the heavens opened, so they were grateful that they weren’t locked out this time! Sugg Lane provided the usual warm up and a bit of a delay when Verdun’s Marlin refused to start at the head of the queue. There was plenty of grip here, the rain washing away any mud that was around. Remember last year when a new age traveller commune flanked the exit road? Not this time, as the farmer had constructed massive earth banks to flank the track, so there was no possibility to pull off the road!
Felon’s Oak was the only other section before a very soggy break at Minehead Rugby club, which had about an inch of water on the floor and seems to get seedier every year. The descent down the rough track just before Minehead caused problems for Derek Reynolds and Fred Mills, when the radiator on their venerable Volvo parted company with the engine, but the resourceful crew fixed things with a wire coat hanger. At Minehead competitors learned, that Stoney Street was cancelled. There had been an accident when the chief official and his wife drove their 4×4 off the track and over the steep drop to the left while setting up the section and had to be taken to hospital with some nasty injuries.
The route diverted by the foot of the section and through the winding lanes that by-pass Porlock where car competitors saw David Northover’s abandoned Yamaha leaning forlornly against a tree. John Lee’s was another biker to retire here when water got into his magneto, so it’s no triple for John this year.
Soon it was Beggars. A bit easy in recent years but not this time. Later numbers were warned by all the broken machinery, either being repaired or awaiting recovery. Some reckoned that the best part of a dozen car competitors broke their diffs or transmissions. Alan Selwood was one of the first, his standard Ford diff broke on his Escort and he set to in the forecourt of the garage at the foot of the hill to change it for one of the two spares he was carrying. Mike Hayward, who was just crawling off the re-start when his diff let go with a resounding, crack soon joined him. Neil Bray had stopped too high in the box, and failed, so he was able to tow the stricken class 7 Escort to the garage forecourt and help fit the spare Mike was carrying. Neil Plumridge, had also broken his Ford diff and soon joined them, but there was no changing it by the roadside as it was installed in the transaxle of an Imp! Likewise, it was a recovery job for Philip Mitchell who had felt the rear of his Skoda locking on corners ever since Felons Oak and the diff finally cried enough on Beggars. This is not Phillip’s lucky hill as he was excluded here last year for doing his tyres in the wrong place. At least he didn’t get caught this time, despite John West “lurking in the bushes” as one rather un-kind web community member put it!
The Beggars re-start area was certainly taking its toll. It seemed a lot rougher than recent years, all rough solid rock rather than the usual loose stuff. It certainly caught out David Alderson, running in convoy with Lee Dove, and Troll creator Peter James. The rain was coming down pretty steadily and the team were all pretty wet and cold. Lee and Peter jumped out, let their tyres down and stormed up. David stayed put behind the wheel, suffering a bit from cramp, caused by hours imprisoned in the tiny cockpit. He stormed off the line OK, stopped in the re-start box and there he stayed, the tyres finding no grip at all at 18psi. Verdun Webley lost revs on his Marlin and failed, but the Web Community Marlins of Pete Hart and Mal Allen made storming climbs, as did John Salter in his Vincent. Tony Branson wasn’t so lucky in his A series Marlin which didn’t have the horses to burn it’s way of the re-start line. Nick Wollett was giving his Dellow it’s MCC debut and failed when the clutch went on strike. He summoned the RAC to recover him, but they actually got the car going, and Nick was able to carry on for a finish.
The sun came out on the long 50-mile road run to Sutcombe. Dudley Sterry for one was glad of that, as he had been having problems during the night with his dynamo not charging below 3000 rpm. Dudley was a bit peeved, as he had only just fitted a new one. Dudley wasn’t the only one getting a bit fed up with Joe Lucas as Stuart Harrold’s brand new starter motor had gone on the blink. Stuart and Chris Phillips were relying on push starts and running only eight cars from the back were praying there would be always someone there to give them a shove.
Sutcombe was it’s usual picturesque self and was another hill with one of the fashionable “safety stop” lines at the summit. Poor Mike Hayward didn’t see it and carried on, to get a right rollicking from the chief official. Brian Osbourne broke the prop shaft on his venerable MGB at Darracott, causing a delay whilst it was recovered from the lower reaches of the hill.
Cutliffe Lane was next on the agenda. This is one of the Lands End’s tougher hills, a combination of gradient, roughness and mud conspiring to bring competitors to a halt. The rain had washed much of the mud away but this is a tough hill and there were a lot of failures, especially amongst the later numbers and Neil Bray was very disappointed to fail, especially when he found that Simon Robson had got his Skoda to the summit. Inertia was the order of the day in order to get over the rough bits half way up, the type of hill that made John Salter glad he had fitted a Fack diff in his Vincent! RAC PCT champion Barrie Parker was spectating here to see David Haizeldens impressive clean in his Golf.
Most competitors enjoyed the special test at Bude and put their trotter down to provide a show for the spectators. It was a good job you couldn’t get a “fail” as there were quite a few distinguished wrong courses, including John Salter, Allen organiser Pete Hart and Tony Branson who was also suffering from tight steering as the column bolt was catching something. Derek Reynolds had a good run in his Volvo, but at the expense of the transmission and they had no reverse gear for the remainder of the trial. They retired later with a smell of burning rubber from the their Variomatic transmission.
Crackington came and went without any drama. It was pretty tame as there was little or no doctoring, so it was a bit of a non-event, apart from it’s usual quota of punctures. If Crackington is getting easier, Treworld is getting harder. It doesn’t look any different, but it’s one of those sections that is all about the re-start and I guess that as the years go by the holes get imperceptibly deeper!
There was a hard to find diff test at the cattle market stop before the long run down the A30 to Hoskin, buried deep in the Cardinham Woods. This was the hill that sorted the men from the boys. David Thompson was clean up to now in his VW Buggy and didn’t loose his clean sheet here. Passenger Mike Pearson reported David just “let out the clutch and drove away from the re-start” and spectators said it was a similar storey when Dudley Sterry came along.
The whites and blues didn’t have to re-start but it was still a tough hill for them. Neil Bray couldn’t get his Skoda to the summit but Simon Robson proved it could be done and was still clean in yet another final outing for his Czech wonder machine! Simon and Matt were still running with Gari Jones but they had lost Peter Davis. The hastily prepared Leige had a series of problems and Peter finally gave up when the diffs lifeblood started bleeding all over the A30 and couldn’t be repaired.
Hoskin was John Salter’s Waterloo when he couldn’t re-start his Vincent but the spectators reckoned he gave up too soon. Mal Allen was successful in his Marlin. Mal and Donny were still clean and were to go on to get gold. Pete Hart saw Mal’s climb and reckoned he got it just right, trickling off the re-start without any wheel-spin and slowly increasing the revs as they built their speed. Pete broke traction and stalled when he backed-off. Tony Branson managed to creep off the line but used too much throttle to soon, lost adhesion and that was that. Stuart Harrold and Chris Phillips had to work hard in their Troll but made it OK to remain clean, but some of the other Troll’s weren’t so successful. Lee Dove trickled up but David Alderson blasted it and despite an incredible effort from Emma, and around four gear changes from David, he only managed to move a couple of car lengths.
Back on the A30 competitors were starting to get heavy eyed as they headed south-west into the sun on their way to Bluehills, where the MCC road gang had been hard at work since last year. It was difficult to see what they had done to Bluehills 1, perhaps nothing at all, but with tired eyes and a numb brain, after having been on the go for so long, it claimed a fair crop of failures. Tony Branson saw Jonathan Toulmin having a lot of trouble on the cobbles and went hell for leather around the hairpin. He crested the hump back onto the road in fine style before under-steering straight into the bank, bending the front suspension and nearly ripping off the front tie bar mounting. Verdun Webley wasn’t any luckier in his Marlin when the diff broke asunder. Verun had a spare but, having lost so much time helping Mike Hayward change his diff earlier, he had to retire.
There had been more changes to Bluehills 2. The chicane had been removed, but a lot of earth working had made the re-start area much steeper. Then the track through the gully had been narrowed and the corner made sharper. This was to catch out quite a few people, and damage a lot of cars, as it was necessary to tackle the steep narrow gully on full power and the hard walls were very un-forgiving if anything went wrong. David Heale and Simon Robson both did a lot of damage to the front of their cars when they hit the bank. At least they could keep going. Peter James went flying into the air when he hit the right hand bank and snapped a lower wishbone on landing. Neil Bray was another to go flying in the air, but his Skoda miraculously stayed in on piece on landing and he went on to clean the hill.
The end of the trial was near for the remaining wreckage. Trungle Mill was a nice easy section, a very welcome diversion after the recent excitement. Also welcome was the special test at Flambards. A simple, out and back affair over a spoil heap in a bus depot car park. This was also used as a holding control for Flambards as the section started just off quite a busy road. This is a good final hill for the Lands End, pretty straight, slippy and a fair gradient. It isn’t a formality though and can catch the un-wary as poor Neil Bray was to discover.
There just remained the run-in to the finish at Penzance, with a special test in the little car park just outside the pub. This was popular, despite being very tight and un-forgiving, with walls and railings waiting to trap the un-wary. Both the test and the pub had a nice intimate atmosphere and most competitors put on a good show for the spectators. Overall, most competitors voted this as a good Lands End Trial. The god of the weather was on the clubs side, there were no major delays and the finish arrangements were voted a major success.
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