We would normally now be circulating the regulations and entry form for the 7th Bovey Down Trial in March. However, at the Windwhistle Motor Club Ltd January committee meeting the decision was taken, for several reasons, not to run the Bovey Down single venue trial this year.
Because Easter is late this year our usual, popular date at the end of April, and at the end of the first half of the trials championship year, is not available. The March date is not ideal, the committee felt, for our non championship event. Clinton Devon Estate, the landowner, is planning extensive felling at the venue before the trees get infected with sudden oak death disease and although we were OK to use the venue in January for the MCC Exeter Trial (Normans Hump & Clinton) it is by no means certain that the venue will be available to us in March. The 2010 event attracted fewer entries than the committee would have liked.
This decision to not run the event is not without precedent. We ran the event in 2004, 2005 and 2006. In 2007 the venue was unusable due to forestry work so the event did not run. That was the year Normans Hump was not included in the January MCC Exeter Trial despite huge efforts by Terry and Jason Flay in an attempt to reinstate the surface. Then we ran the event in 2008, 2009 and 2010. So we trust that by resting the event for a year we can come back in 2012 to our usual end of April, end of the first half of the championship year, slot.
Anne Whellock, Secretary Bovey Down Trial
Windwhistle Motor Club
