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The story of Aquaplane and some stuff on Ford Specials from the Eastern Counties Historic Review by Leigh Trevail
Aquaplane: From Oulton Broad to Oulton Park –
When it comes to motor sport, Great Britain – or to be more precise England – is a world leader and has been for several decades. It is widely acknowledged by historians that much of this is down to the availability of two very tunable 4 cylinder side-valve engines Read more…….
The result of this years Allen was decided on the re-starts and Special Tests. There were seventeen clean sheets at the end, including at least one on every class.
The Bristol club had their usual full entry, plus reserves, for their Allen Trial on 28th November. The week before Pete Hart and his team were getting worried, as everything was bone dry, and it looked as if the hills were going to be too easy. Fortunately the rain came down pretty hard on the Thursday and Friday so there was a bit of mud about on the Sunday, even though it was a dry day.
We had an excellent Falcon entry. Fifteen crews coming across from Beds, Herts and Bucks to do battle with the Bristol hills. Well, that’s not quite right. Robin Howard came a lot further, all the way from Bury St Edmunds, to take part in his first ACTC Classic Trial. There was drama, even at the start, for the Falcon contingent. Verdun Webley had set of in convoy with John Parsons. Both of them were solo as they were going to meet up with their passengers at the start. John was to be accompanied by Keith Harris, with Sarah Harris riding with Mike Pearson in his Dellow Replica. Arnold Lane traveled to Bristol in Mike’s passenger seat, and was due to ride with Verdun, taking part in his first trial in the Marlin he bought after last years Exeter. That was the plan, however it all fell apart on the outskirts of Buckingham when the B series motor shredded its fanbelt. Verdun had a spare but it was too long and the alternator bracket fouled the steering so he couldn’t make the start.
This left Arnold without a ride, and with no car to go spectating or marshalling. In the end he went round the route with Simon Robson, getting out to walk or run up the hills so not to burden the Skoda with the extra weight! Tog Hill was the usual introduction to the competitive stuff, nice and gentle since the bumps were smoothed out a few years ago, and it didn’t trouble the scorer. Simon Robson had given his Skoda quite a bit of welly and dented a rim badly enough to need removing for some gentle adjustment with a club hammer on the following road section.
Bitton Lane had its usual re-start on the corner. There was a little more grip on the slippery stones this year and only four cars were recorded as failing to get away. I say that as Mike Hayward was not one of them, but as his passenger I know we failed as we backed down a good ten yards to get a good run afterwards! Neil Bray got away OK, but picked up a puncture in the process. There were a lot of delays on Big Uplands last year when failures couldn’t get past cars queuing at the bottom. To avoid this happening again the route went down Little Uplands, with a holding control at the bottom to keep the failure route clear. The descent was quite interesting as it gave competitors the opportunity to see just how horrendous the step is at the top!
Big Uplands itself started to sort the results out a bit as around 40% of the entry failed the hill. The Blues and Whites had a clean run, with no re-start, but even so there were quite a few that didn’t make the summit, including Neil Bray and all of class five apart from Rob Cull. Simon Robson was in determined mood, and flew round the ninety left at full speed, using the bank and scattering marshals and spectators alike. The yellows and reds had their usual re-start on the ninety left. The approach to this was nice and smooth this year as the Bristol club had spent the year filling in the gullies, caused by water flowing down the hill, with over forty tons of stone! The majority of the yellows came to grief here. Dave Nash, Mike Hayward, Robin Howard and Tony Branson all failed to get off the re-start. Andrew Brown and Fred Gregory got away OK but couldn’t build up enough momentum to get over the rough stuff immediately afterwards and got fours.
The reds fared a little better but again there were quite a few failures including Falcon’s Mike Pearson, David Thompson, James Lindsay and Maureen Chattle. They were in distinguished company as neither Adrian Dommett, Duncan Welch or Anthony Young made it either. Going back to the Falcon’s James had Julian Robinson in the passengers “seat” of his Fugitive and I believe this was actually Maureen’s debut.
Guys Hill became famous because of the court case regarding the exit road. Unfortunately the case was lost and these days we have to stop at the top and come back down, rather than go straight out the top. This was academic for many of the yellows and reds, as they couldn’t get off their restart on some very greasy polished stones. David Thompson couldn’t get his VW Buggy off the line and neither could Maureen Chattle and Ross Neuten in their Dellow. Mike Pearson did well to get his Dellow away, but even he couldn’t get much beyond the four marker. Dave Nash had the Skeetles new type four motor cut out on the approach but fiddling with the battery got it away. Looking at the results it’s fascinating to see that with a few exceptions successful restarters on Guys had also succeeded on Big Uplands and visa versa. The exceptions included Falcon’s Ian Davis in his Buggy and Classical Gas Web Community member Stuart Harrold, both of whom lost their clean sheets here.
Sandy Lane wasn’t very difficult, despite a large amount of water on the approach, which was not very Sandy. The two Michael’s caused a minor delay when they found another flat tyre on the start line and had to change a wheel. The section at Strode was pretty simple but the special test was more complicated. After going forward around a corner you had to go all four wheels over line B, and reverse back round the corner to stop astride line C. Adrian Tucker-Peake set the fastest time in his Peugeot followed by David Foreshew, which was to be important by the end of the trial.
Travers was before the lunch break this year. It had a very tough restart for the yellows and reds with some horrible holes to get your front wheels stuck into. Very few of the yellows got away and a lot of the reds failed as well including Adrian Dommett and Anthony Young, neither of whom were having a very good day. Mike Hayward had another puncture and joined Fred and Pete at the top while they fixed their exhaust. They were enjoying the trial but were having a pretty torrid time results wise.
The lunch halt was held in a windswept car park alongside Chew Valley Lake. The Falcon tyre-changing brigade was in full force and Mike Hayward, Neil Bray and Dave Nash were all fixing punctures. The ruts on Burledge were not as deep as in previous years, but they were deep enough to cause problems for the non-giraffes amongst the yellows and reds as their re-start prevented a full frontal assault. The Falcons were starting to fall at this stage. Through the wonders of the mobile phone we heard that John Parsons had retired with electronic Gremlins in his V8 motor. Dave Nash was in trouble with his electric’s again. He got to the start line on Burledge when the engine cut out and wouldn’t restart. Dave and Julie retired and eventually Dave found the problem was as simple as the wire coming of the starter solenoid.
Nanny Hurns was not quite as straightforward as usual with a bit of to and froing required before the assault on the bank. This meant the dip was not approached at quite the same speed as pervious years, reducing the time in the air for the successful climbers as they crested the hump. David Foreshew set the fastest time, which was to give him the overall win and The Allen Trophy, as there were to be 17 clean sheets at the end.
The water at the start of Mill Lane was as deep as usual and the section itself was as fun, but not one to trouble the scorer as they say. The gentleman at the top had his airline out for us to use, which was very nice of him. He was beavering away in his garage amongst his restoration projects and there was a restored Ford Consul and old Caravan outside as well as a very tidy looking Marlin, albeit one that had clearly never set a wheel on a trials hill!
The route now skirted the suburbs of Bath on its way to Stoney. I don’t know if it’s a new hill but it was certainly new to me. The slope was quite gentle but the restart was a nasty, slippery thing and quite a few people really struggled to get away, including David Thompson and Murray MacDonald who lost his clean sheet here.
John Walker was the final hill. Most people view this as a nice thrash but not one they are likely to fail. This year it was a real sting in the tail though. The ruts were very deep at the top, giving major problems to people who didn’t have a lot of ground clearance. There was an additional hazard in the form of big rock close to the track. Several of the early numbers gave this a fair clout, including a Dellow. This caused quite a queue to build up early on. I don’t know exactly what happened to Rich Welch but he got stuck on the upper reaches for at least ten or fifteen minutes.
The ford at the bottom took its toll among the Falcons and both Neil Bray and Mike Hayward drowned out here. This final hill was to be a real sting in the tail for Stuart Cairney as he lost his clean sheet here. This left Simon Robson and Giles Greenslade on zero in class four, Simon taking the class win by being faster on the special tests. That bought another excellent Allen trial to an end, for many of us the last event of the millennium.
| Allen Trophy | David Foreshew | GVS Mk2 |
| Class 1 | David Haizelden | VW Golf |
| 2 | Gerald Burridge | MG |
| 3 | David Heale | Escort Estate |
| 4 | Simon Robson | Skoda |
| 5 | Rob Cull | MG Midget |
| 6 | Nigel Allen | Beetle |
| 7 | Julian Dommett | Dellow |
| 8 | Dudley Sterry | MG J2 |
Bits and Pieces
Giles Greenslade had a different Beetle. The engine was the same but it was in a new shell. This had been built for trials and done a few events when the owner retired because of a bad back and Giles snapped it up.
After the event I asked Pete Hart what happened to Elwell, always one of my favorite hills. Apparently the local farmer planned to use it for access to his land and told the club he was going to surface the whole track. He has started from the bottom and completed about 25% of the job after which the work stopped some 18 months ago. Pete intends to have another look next year with a view to bringing it back. He always enjoyed blasting up when he was competing on the Allen, but, as an organiser is more circumspect because of the problems in clearing failures.
Tommy and Clive Kalber were giving their Dutton an outing. This is a really smart car. How do they manage to get all that ground clearance at the back?
Tim and Anne Whellock drove a VW Fugitive and Adrian Marfell was also competing in class eight.
Dennis Greenslade has won the historic rally championship, navigating the infamous oil-dropping Imp that achieved so much notoriety on last years RAC Rally.
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
Yes, sponsor Murray MacDonald won Falcon’s first road going Classic Trial after a daylong dice with Giles Greenslade, who resurrected his Sunbeam for the occasion. The class eight’s were handicapped with some tough re-starts, victory going to Dudley Sterry after a close battle with Anthony Young in his new Buggy.
The sun certainly shone on Falcon Motor Club for what was billed as a “Mini-Classic”. It wasn’t just the clerk of the weather that was on Falcon’s side. There was a handsome group of the trials elite to do battle with the Bedfordshire countryside. The organisers had hoped to have sections comprising some old tracks mixed in with visits to some of the clubs traditional PCT venues. Unfortunately the tracks had to be dropped in the rush to get a route approved, as they were all found to be adjacent to “black-spots” and although PR revealed no objection from the locals there wasn’t enough time to negotiate the use of the access roads.
The entry assembled bright and early at Brickhill where the first two sections were located. Anthony Young’s new VW Buggy was the main centre of attention. Its certainly some machine, the frame is made of light alloy, all plastic coated for protection. Most of the suspension comes from the States or is beautifully home-made. All drilled to reduce the un-sprung weight. A two-litre VW type one engine provides the motive power. The surprise is that it’s mid-engined, driving though a genuine Hewland trans-axle. Some tool! Nestling nearby was another formidable machine, no less spectacular, but a rather more familiar sight. Dudley Sterry had bought his MG J2 along, returning to do battle with the March Hare and try to regain the Falcon Trophy after an absence of some twenty-five years. There was another very welcome machine from way back then. Clive Kalber had come all the way up from Cornwall in the Runner Bean; the Capri based Ford Pop constructed by John Tucker-Peake in the early seventies. Other well known Classic drivers included John Bell in his Escort and Giles Greenslade, whose father Dennis was another March Hare competitor all those years ago. Giles wasn’t driving the familiar Greenslade orange Beetle. He was giving his old Sunbeam its first run in class three for many years. Giles dragged it out of the garage in the week, gave it a quick service and it was ready to go. He stepped back, took a look and didn’t like what he saw; the old car was far too tatty for such a special occasion. So it was down to the local DIY for a couple of cans of Dulux so it could look its best on the day!
The first Brickhill section started at the far end of the wood. It began with a straight slippery climb up to the tree line where it weaved around the trees before a re-start just before the hump at the top. This wasn’t the difficult bit. The problem was at the bottom. It needed a fair old bit of welly to get over the mud to the tree line where the grip started. A number of people were caught out here, including Robin Howard, giving his Dutton Sierra it’s first outing. Everyone survived this first hill and the field went on to the second Brickhill section. This started with a blast up the gully, turning left at the sandpit to climb the steep bank. The ruts in the gully were bread and butter to Classic regulars but a bit of a shock to the debutantes. They were the downfall of both Reliant Kittens. First Ken Martin put the fan through the radiator. He cleaned the section OK but the steam at he top indicated an early trip back to Farnborough for Ken. Along came Dave Smith, going like a good ‘un before “crack”, the axle case split in two and there was a second Kitten in the dead car park. But not for long, Dave sportingly offered Ken his radiator and they soon made one good Kitten out of the two broken ones. Ken continued with the trial, ending up second in class.
It was up with the tyres and out on the road for the run up to Edlesborough. There was quite a queue for the regularity section here, lucky for Giles Greenslade as it gave him time to fix a puncture. You had to drive at 7.5 miles an hour for 1,320 feet. The intellectuals, and those with schoolchildren as passengers, quickly worked out this should take two minutes and most of the entry crossed the line within a few seconds of this. However, the test did have another effect, it caused a bit of a queue and spread the entry out for the rest of the trial. There had been some rain the night before and grip was at its usual premium at Edlesborough. The first problem was getting to the start of observed section three and Dennis the landowner was there with his tractor to give a helping tow where needed. There was a tricky re-start at the end and only Murray MacDonald and Giles Greenslade, running at the back of the field, emerged with clean sheets. The next section had a sharp turn in the bomb hole. Murray and Giles cleaned this as well but this time they were joined by Simon Robson, John Bell and Ken Martin, making up for lost time in his repaired Kitten.
Cliff Morrell was waiting at Kensworth. There had been last minute problems when the hills had to be changed to preserve the grass in the far field. However, Cliff laid out a couple of good sections with his trademark of a tricky turn just where the gradient steepens. The first hill went up the side of the fence. It was very slippery, defeating everyone but Dudley Sterry and Clive Kalber, who both made superb climbs, Dudley’s blower howling in joy as he crested the summit. Clive wasn’t so fortunate on the next section, which went up the track behind the old barn, turning sharp right through the gate with a re-start in the cross ruts. These caught out quite a few people, including Clive and Neil Bray.
Mile Tree Farm was new to many people although it is the home of the CSMA’s annual trial. This was a long roller coaster section with many up’s and downs. Over half the entry failed to climb the final bank, including Giles Greenslade, which put Murray MacDonald into a three-point lead before heading out on the second circuit, which led back to Edlesborough. The two sections here had not been changed much since the morning, but the surface was much drier and grip was easier to find so the only failures were those who made silly mistakes, like Simon Robson, Fred Gregory and Colin Stevens. Sorry boys!
Back at Kensworth Cliff Morrell had made a few subtle changes, not many, but just enough for half the entry to fail the first hill again, although the second one was much easier. John Bell didn’t get this far as he was stopped at the side of the road with a hole in his diff casing. He wasn’t very pleased as he had broken his second “un-breakable” Fack on the Cotswold Clouds and it looked as if the damage on this third one had come from within. The second visit to Kensworth had also affected the leader board. Murray MacDonald had spun to a halt on the first section, dropping three and putting him back to equal first with Giles. He was to regain it back at Mile Tree though as Giles was one of many to be penalised nine when he bellied out on one of the humps, putting Murray into an unassailable lead. These humps were a bit of a handful for some of the lower slung cars and John Yorke did a bit of damage to the front of his Skoda.
Later numbers returned to Brickhill to do their thing in front of the early finishers. The penultimate section was a very long weave through the trees. It was pretty tight but still on for most people, except James Lindsay who wedged his Fugitive on one of the bends. The final section was another trip up the gully, followed by a nice blast round the sandpit, to finish off a really super day. Murray MacDonald was the worthy winner, although he acknowledged the class eight’s were handicapped with some tough re-starts and a high tyre pressure limit in the morning. Giles Greenslade had put up a good fight in the Sunbeam but the day had a final twist for him as the diff on the Sunbeam cried enough just half a mile up the road on the way home.
| st Overall | Murray MacDonald | VW 1302 | 6 marks lost |
| Best Falcon | Clive Booth | Dellow Rep | 36 |
| Best Novice | Keith Oakes | Dutton | 51 |
| Class 2/5 | Rob Cull | MG Midget | 33 |
| Class 3 | Giles Greenslade | Sunbeam | 9 |
| 2nd in Class 3 | Ken Martin | Reliant Kitten | 33 |
| Class 4 | Simon Robson | Skoda | 39 |
| Class 7 | Clive Kalber | Ford Pop “The Runner Bean” | 21 |
| 2nd in Class 7 | Mike Furse | Racecorp | 27 |
| Class 8 | Dudley Sterry | MG J2 | 15 |
| 2nd in Class 8 | Anthony Young | Buggy | 18 |
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
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