November Sporting - 8 October by Duncan Stephens
SportingTrials.com arrived at Ascot to lay out their
trial on Friday afternoon to be met with a site in
perfect condition but which they couldn’t reach due
to the paddock entrance been saturated. Time to
panic but Ian Wright came into his own and
arranged use of Long Compton. They then had to rearrange
everything letting everyone know.
Sunday must have been a pleasure for the club after
the challenge of Friday, apart from no toilets. Ian
disappeared and arrived back with them half an hour
later on the trailer. Now did the toilet company have
a panic on Monday!?
We have come to expect exemplary organisation
from this club and were not to be disappointed. Ian
Veale was keeping his Sherpa out of prying eyes
having converted it to independent suspension over
the summer, while Josh was doubting it was going
to last the event. Unfortunately son was to prove
correct but Ian did repair it only for another
weakness to be found during the afternoon.
We were all briefed that we would start on 3psi,
going up to 5psi after the first round, with the hills been laid out in the steeper bowl, all as challenging
as we have come to expect from Ian’s sections.
Hills one and two were on the lower reaches with
only Duncan and following Fred getting zero. John
Yates was having great fun in the ditch of hill two,
which saw Julian running off to the paddock for
spares, although we didn’t see him running back
uphill! Hill three had Monty and Jacqui’s eagle eyes
overseeing with a very wide challenging start ready
to catch those who chose the wrong line by inches.
Pat Henson was on hill four with lots of sweeping
bends on the increasing cambers ready to stop
anyone anywhere. Hill five was marshalled by
Barry Wright with a long straight start with bumps
in the middle catching those with the wrong pace
and then a loop for the finish that was only climbed
by Crossle’s all day. Hill six proved to be a critical
hill with it being nine, ten or zero with a big drop off
a ledge at ten. This proved to a slightly dangerous
hill but was swiftly changed for the second round.
Hill seven was on the steepest part of the site with
Cathy Wright marshalling with two banks to climb
before the third bank that caught all but Ian and
Duncan. Family Gibbs’ was ably marshalling hill
eight with a first bank that caught many that weren’t
fast enough then a little camber that caught Brian
Wall and Reg out for a gentle roll. Unfortunately
Brian decided to take on the Kincraft with his head
and lost, but we were told at the results that he was
fine. He then goes and sells the car during the
following week so he now has nothing to drive. Phil
D was marshalling hill nine down in the trees. It
looked climbable but eluded all on the first round. A
big thank you to all those marshals that were there
that I have not mentioned.
It was decided to stay on 3psi for the second round
as the hills were proving very challenging. John
Fack was first on and the only person to get up hill
one taking four marks off everyone and more
importantly his biggest threat Ian to take the lead at
lunch by three. This round saw everyone’s scores
drop with the morning dew evaporating and the lush
grass been run flat. Lunch saw John on 13 leading
Ian on 16 with Duncan next on 33 just ahead of
Steve Courts, Julian, Peter Fensom and Roger
Bricknell all covered by four marks.
Lunch saw Julian working hard on John’s car trying
to fix the misfire that had plagued him all morning
making his car unpredictable. If only we could all
drive like this when fighting the car! John Yates had
been very busy at lunch making his ditch
treacherous and only five teams making it passed
the six. Monty had put on a tricky turn at the ten
over some bumps that caught a few. Hill nine had
been substantially altered with a horrendous off
camber bend over bumps at the ten that caught five
including a flustered John Fack who had pulled a
tyre off the rim on the previous hill. How this didn’t
catch more as it was so slippery remains a
mystery. All other hills were subtly altered.
Ian Wright wound up a dominant winner from John
Fack after both he and Duncan had a poor third
round. Julian was third beating Roger on a tie break,
and Steve fifth. Roland won the blue class with
Alastair Moffatt looking for tips in the passenger seat
prior to building his recently purchased Facksimile.
Nick Speed put in a fantastic drive in his Sherpa, or
is it Mike Baker’s, taking the green class ahead of
many seasoned drivers.
It had proved to be another excellent trial by the dot
com team with Ian taking another win, this time
borrowing John Ridley’s Sherpa. Will we find the
toilets in situ still in January?
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