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
Its heartening to see that an Imp can still be competitive in the right hands.
ReplyDeleteI see from the BTRDA news that Duncan has been out in a sporting trials car - on the face of it the sporting trials cars look tricky to master with those fiddle brakes etc. on much tougher sections. Are you going to continue in both formulas next year Duncan, and if so how do they compare in terms of enjoyment?
Are we going to see you out again in your Imp Stuart?
ReplyDeleteThe plan next year is to continue using the Beetle and Nova for PCT's. I shall be contesting the West Midlands (on for a three in a row), the MSA and also BTRDA, and possibly the Cotswold too. The Stroud Classic trial lads have it all there own way!!
I have now done three sporting trials, and have thoroughly enjoyed them. It is very challenging, but I have been down to Ian Wright's (he won everything last year) for a day of tuition. I finished 15th overall and third in class on my second event. Next year I shall be contesting more Sporting Trials too, and also doing a few Autotests, as I am going to be chasing the BTRDA allrounders championship. There is an added incentive, a 짙2000 prize fund!! I hope to finish in the top three.
I find Sporting trials equally as exciting as PCT's, and there have been some very good events this year of both sports.
Dunca
I am hoping to compete in some PCTs next season; changing my day job, and a relatively expensive engine blow up kep me away this year.
ReplyDeleteI've kept the engine at 915cc which compromises the car on classic trials where I could run a 1200 (if I had a grand to spare!) so I really need to compete in class C again otherewise I've wasted my time.
I don't know if the car will be ready for the 1st BTRDA round in November as I've got to finish the latest round of the war against the rust and re-fettle the carbs but we shall see.