The Charles Pollard Trial By Richard Rimes
The King’s Cliffe site, regardless of the wettest trialling season, still produces remarkable grip as long as the rain is not present on the day. As ever the winner will never drop the amount of points from 30 hills that at home sites you can drop on one hill. The morning saw an extremely cold wind with the likelihood of snow following an early flurry before the start. Tyre pressures were a very generous 2 psi which the starting 34 cars from 39 entries would take advantage of. Even the sun showed itself for most of the day. 10 hills had been set out utilising the many trees as good ‘route guides” - no pun intended.
At the end of the first round Tom Stevenson and Ian
Bell were on zero from John Fack in a shining blue Crosslé on 2 with Roger Bricknell, Stuart Beare
and Richard Rimes in close order on 3 points.
The second round saw no real hill changes apart
from some tightening but most hills were still very
climbable as the cars recording a clear round
confirmed.
At lunchtime tyre pressures were increased to 5
psi, which, knowing this site, could have gone up to
10 psi without stopping most cars.
Before the final round the first ten drivers were Ian
Bell, Tom Stevenson (0), John Fack (2) Roger
Bricknell, Stuart Beare (3), Julian Fack, Peter
Fensom, Julian Fuller (4) Richard Rimes (5) Steve
Courts, Ron Bland (6).
The final round had only hill 4 as a ‘risk factor’. You
may have got passed the 3 pole to get a clear but in
the attempt most cars hit the 3 marker, unless you
were happy with a cast iron 2!
Overall I would say that very few drivers could not
like King’s Cliffe as it is a trial that gives a much
more level playing field when the climbing ability
takes a back seat and concentration is available to
everyone.
The last round saw Kim Warwick entering the top
ten with Julian Fuller, who was disqualified from
taking an award for using ineligible tyres, dropping
down to 16th. John Fack lost ground from 2nd to
10th. The rest of the first ten basically held their
lunchtime positions. For my part I was ably
passengered by my stepson John Wright, who
helped balance the imbalance which my Kincraft
has to accommodate!! Looking at the results could
there be some cheap Crosslés available ?
SportingTrialS |
|