Skoda

I am the new owner of a Skoda Rapid and I need some helpfull advice to make it into a Classic Trials car.

If you can help or have any spares for the job please E-Mail me or if you are a Falcon member my phone number is in Falconry.

Mike Hayward

Hot Gossip

I was chatting to David Alderson last night. He has sold is historic rallying Okrasa Beetle to Graham Brasier and taken the Cornish ship's chandlers 2 litre, Triple Winning, Beetle in part exchange.

David was also telling me that Dennis Greenslade is taking a trialling sabatical but has not sold his cars and will be back!

Michael

Silverstone Race Meeting

There are some pictures on this site http://www.soft.net.uk/hackney/mcc1999.htm

Details were provided by Ken Green

Michael

Tamar Classic Trial

This morning managed to get into Classical Gas, its a great idea. I did the Tamar yesterday in my Troll, good trial, very well organised. I thought that the class 7 & 8 only hill was a bit too rough, I like a challenge but not breaking the car. Any other thoughts on this?

Help wanted with old members.

Help ! My name is Chris Ball. My farter was a member of the F.M.C in the 60's, his name is John Ball. Dad used to rally with Peter Turner in a Tornado Talisman. I have been intouch with Dave from the Tornado regestery, we are trying to locate any information from around that time. Is anybody out there from around that time or could you put me on to any body. We moved to Canada on 1975 so there is not much to go on from here.Please get back to me at  ball@pangea.ca

Parker does the double

The BTRDA PCT final was run by Owen MC at there normal challenging site.

In class A, Barrie Parker (Pug 104), Simon Harris and Nick Pollitt (Golf GTi's) continued there year long battle. They were joined by the Clarke's in a Nova, Vic Lockley (Golf), Jeff Buchanen (Citreon BX), Chris Smith (Golf GTi) and Angela Danby using Simon's Golf. Right from the first hill the battle commenced, on a slippery morning. By lunch Simon was 12 up on Barrie and Nick who were both on 112. The three of them were complaining at lunch that they were driving badly, so it was going to be the one who made least mistakes would win.

Class B consisted of just Neil Mackay (Corsa) and his previous car, a Nova driven by Duncan Stephens. Both had fitted ballast for the day. Due to some rougher than normal hills Neil, dropped some marks to Duncan, but the Nova was climbing better generally. By lunch Duncan was on 95, with a revised target for the day, of being the front wheel drive with the lowest marks dropped.

Class C was once again being dominated by the Imp of Bill Moffatt. Continuing numerous years off battle were Steve Courts (Imp) and Mike Stephens (Beetle), just seperated by a single mark. I think that the poeple who enjoy their trialling the most, and always have the biggest smile on their face must be Pete Evans and Dave Harvey in a classic trials prepared Skoda. Even when not doing that well, they are always laughing!!!

After lunch Barrie Parker had two storming rounds, but would it be enough to win the class? Simon and Nick claimed to have bad rounds, and after all having similar last rounds it was Barrie who won the class on 133 to Simon's 145, with Nick not far behind. Next was Matt Clarke and then the rest were all inthralled in there own little battle.

Neil was now getting the hang off the car with ballast in, and beat Duncan on the fourth round. Duncan was driving badly, by own admission!! This was put right though on the last round and finished with a total of 142. More than Barrie!!

Bill Moffatt continued to pull ahead of everyone else in the class. Steve pulled out a small advantage on Mike. Malcolm Brown (Westfield) ended up fourth and Dave and Pete were very closely matched at the end.

Barrie Parker won the event and thus the BTRDA Gold Star, from Bill Moffatt by 0.6%. You can not get much closer! Congratulations must go to Barrie. He has driven excellently all year and drove even better to pull something out of the bag in the afternoon. It is very hard to Bill though to loose by such a close margin.

The Moffatt familly have won enough though this year!! Alistair (son, 21) has won the BTRDA gold star Autotest and Allrounders. John (youngest son, 19) has won the MSA Autotest championship outright and also the BTRDA Silver Star. It would be a bit boring if Bill had won the PCT too!!!!

Championship award winners:

Gold Star: Barrie Parker
Silver Star: Nick Pollitt
Silver Star runner up: Jack Williams
Bronze Star: Malcolm Brown
Bronze Star runner up: Chris Smith

Class A: Simon Harris
Class B: Duncan Stephens
Class C: Bill Moffatt
Class D: not awarded

Ladies Award: Angela Danby

Dunca

Simms and Stuff

Fred (Dutton Melos) Gregory is down in Devon on holiday and naturally dropped in at Simms to update his pace notes! He sent me a postcard saying that the farm on the right is for sale, including the escape road. Guess the MCC need to do some PR work with the new owner. Would affect the Torbay as well as they use this as the entry track rather than going thru the village.

On another subject we have quite a few people drop by the community to read the messages but are not members. As there's no way to add a counter we don't know how many but I have had a few e-mails and phone calls so people out there are reading your stuff members.

Hey you lurkers why don't you sign up!

Michael

Jenkins Chapel

We had an old films night at Bristol MC this week a local chap collects old 16mm films and calls himself the Dustbin Film Company. The first film was a sales film from Ford for the Ford 8 he believed from 1938. It consisted of a whistle stop tour of the country and to my suprise a trip up Jenkins Chapel in Derbyshire. The car was filmed on the right hand hairpin and up past the restart site. The track looked in much better condition than it was a few weeks ago!  

 Pete

Updated Edinburgh Notes

Falcon Members:-
256 Fred Gregory and Peter Stafford (Dutton Melos) (7) - Failed Pindale and Hucklow
268 Jonathon Baggott and Ian Banton (Marlin) (7) - Retired after Excelsior
Others:-
Barry Clarke retired his Austin 7 on the track after Hucklow with a dead battery. He was hoping to limp to his hotel using only dynamo power.
Derek Chatto (Cannon) Winner of JTP cup
Andrew Brown (Marlin)- Failed Litton and Hucklow.
Adrian T-P (Peugeot) failed Litton and Bamford
W. J. Bennett (MG J2) won class 2
David Heale (Escort estate) won class 3
Terry Ball won class 6 but then he was the only starter!
Roger Ugalde won class 7 in that wonderful Allard
Pete and Carlie Hart won a Gold in their Marlin
In the bikes John lees won Class A

What's in a name?

As I compile the ACTC Trials Section Database, I come across Sections that have been known by more than one name so I thought I'd share this information with you all and see if anyone knows any others:

Historic Names

• Today's Calton was known PreWar as Taddington Moor.


• Today's Corkscrew was known PreWar as Jenkins Chapel.


• Today's Crooked Mustard was known PreWar as Breakheart.


• Today's Darracott was known for the 1933 Lands End only as Gooseham.


• Today's Swan Rake was known as Hollinsclough until 1937.


• Today's Travers was previously known as Ubley Drove.


• Today's John Walker was previously known as Hall Lane.

Duplicated Names

• Bidgood Lane (Silverton) = Port Lane (Minehead).


• Bray Hill (Holsworthy) = High Bray (North Devon).


• Crackington (MCC) = Mineshop (Launceston).


• Higher Gabwell (MCC) = Higher Shells (Torbay).


• Rocky Thomas (MCC) = Milltown (Camel Vale).


• Upper Dean (MCC) = Lower Dean (Torbay) - strange but true, I think. Can anyone confirm?

Any others?

Andrew

New Mill or not New Mill?

Now that the collective knowledge of the wired Trials Community has solved the 'Jenkins Chapel puzzle', it's time to start the next piece of historical research. So here goes ...

Not many competitors in the Lands End, descending the steep hair-pinned road to the start of Treworld, know that they are actually descending New Mill, a famous Pre-War hill included in both the 1938 and 1939 Lands End. There are good photographs of the foot of New Mill, all taken on the 1938 Lands End, on Page 70 of Peter Garnier's history of the MCC (although this is incorrectly captioned as 1937), Page 53 of Roger Thomas' history of MG Trials Cars, and Page 121 of Donald Cowbourne's mega-tome British Trials Drivers, Their Cars and Awards.

However, what really interests me is another sequence of photographs referring to New Mill which is clearly not the same hill. These, all apparently taken on the same event (and definitely not the Lands End), appear on Page 48 of Roger Thomas' book, and Pages 122 and 156 of the large-format book The Golden Age of British Motoring by Roy Bacon with photos by Bill Brunell. They can't be before 1937 as two of the photographs show Musketeer team MG cars from that year (ABL 961 and JB 9445).

I've checked the trial numbers against the lists in Donald Cowbourne's book and they don't match any of the major events listed so the pictures must have been taken on another trial, albeit one of sufficient importance to warrant an entry by the MG Team. Unfortunately I don't have the facilities to scan the photographs easily but, hopefully, there may be someone out there who has the books and recognizes the hill. All information will be gratefully received and, when we've solved this mystery, I'll move on to my next 'where is it' conundrum!

Thanks in anticipation.

Andrew

RAC(MSA)/BTRDA PCT Championship Review

The start of the season started off with some very wet events, and generally conditions have been getting drier and drier.

The largest battle for class honers has been in Class A, for non-ballasted fwd cars. Nick Pollitt and Simon Harris (Golf Gti's) and Barrie Parker (Pug 104), have all won the class and events. Barrie won the MSA championship at the Owen, a few weeks ago. Nick and Simon took second and third in the championship. The class has been very popular throughout the year, and Mike and Duncan Stephens have been doing some events in Neil Mackay's old Nova, a very competitive car. Shame about the drivers!!! There have been battles for class position all year. Jeff Buchanen (Nova) has won the class award.

The Loughborough Youth Squad, have been a very welcome inclusion at three events, and were getting the hand of it. At there own event one of them was third in class at lunch (out of about 15), but fell back as it got tighter. Very comendable nonetheless.

Class B has kind of lost compititors through the year, as it appears that the way forward in fwd is in class A. The Clarke's and Lane's have done some events though, and won the class on each time out.

Class C, rwd generally, has been ultra competitive all year, apart from when Bill and Alistair Moffatt in a 915cc Imp come out!! It has been very tight between Malcolm Brown (Westfield), Steve Courts (Imp), Duncan and Mike Stephens (1302s beetle) and Matt Barker (Skoda). Different conditions have suited different cars, but competition has been very close. Duncan Stephens has managed to tie up the class award in the MSA, due to Bill Moffatt not entering!

Class D, kitcars etc., has been strugling for entries in the latter half of the year, but that has not stopped Jack Williams dominating the class in his umbelievable Tempest.

The BTRDA gold star will be decided on the 17th October, at the championship final. Marshalls would be very welcome, as always. It is being run by Owen MC at there usual site. MR will follow!! The silver star is between Nick Pollitt and Jack Williams, and the Bronze is probably nearly in Malcolm Brown's hands already.

Dunca

Edinburgh - by John Lees

hanks for your message , yes I had spotted it ,but feel a little out of
place, being a motorcycle intruder! had a sort of enjoyable Edinburgh , don't
know how well I did at the restart at Haggside, ran back off the edge with
the back wheel both locked but there was no flag and he was counting!!! very
strange, got away OK so might be a Triple. Great Hucklow horrific on a 500lb
1961 Triumph ,needs to go up sections fairly quickly but this was not
possible here, leapt from rock to rock and ended up at the top OK.
Cheers, John Lees.

Edinburgh - By Andrew Brown

Michael -
Looks great (so far) but, at present, I'm finding it totally impossible to
get my 'Passport' and join. I'll keep trying! ... and ... How do you find
the time to do all this??
I assume that the Trial was 'cut short' as per the Route Card - I was
running #146 and we did Putwell 2 as did everyone that finished around the
same time. The early delays at Excelsior were due to the petrol problem plus
a large number of the bikes then failing (or so I believe - we certainly saw
quite a few whilst we were waiting).
I failed the Litton Restart and Great Hucklow - the first driver
error/hesitation in selecting the right place to stop, the second bad luck
(or so the spectators said!) in clipping the most exposed rock at the
deviation with a front wheel that stopped the car dead and slewed me 90
degrees across the track. We exited up the failures route, parked, and
walked down to see how it should have been done - better luck next year!
Andrew

Just got back from the Edinburgh

Hi,

Just got back from The Edinburgh. Personally I had a great time, failed Great Hucklow but otherwise managed to climb everything. There were quite a few delays. First the bikes couldn't find any fuel. Then there were a couple of problem hills. Last person signed off about 8pm.

I hope to post something on the site later this evening. However it will probably take me around a week to put together a fuyll report. What I will probably do is put the drafts as a message here first as it is much quicker to put stuff on thw Web Community than on the web site.

I am after as much Edinburgh info as possible and would welcome it either as a message posted here or as an e-mail to mleete@compuserve.com

Many thanks for participating.

Michael