It
was a fine night when competitors gathered at Tamworth Motorway Services.
There was bad news for those in the main trial who were told Bamford was
cancelled due to an exposed electricity cable. This left very few
"traditional" hills for those in the lower classes who would not be
attempting Litton Slack.
Lost
Golds at the Cliff Quarry Deviation
The first challenge came early
on at Cliff Quarry, with a restart for everyone. That wasn't the main
problem though, that was a truly horrible deviation for the higher
classes. This really challenged their steering lock and such luminary's as
Dean Partington, Nick Farmer, Dudley Sterry and Eric Wall all lost their
clean sheets here.
Putwell
Repaired
After the Black Harry complex
came Putwell. The rumour was that Putwell B had received the attention of
the Derbyshire road gang. Putwell A was as rough as ever but Putwell B was
a bit different, as smooth as the M1! Never mind a couple of years of
water erosion and it will be competitive again.
Litton
Slack Only for Some
There were two Litton Slacks in
the route card. New Litton Slack for Classes 0 to 5 and old Litton Slack
for 6, 7 and 8. The section for the Lower Classes could hardly be
described as Litton Slack, its just a smooth grassy track, with very
little gradient, running along the top of the valley.
The real Litton Slack was a
challenge for the higher classes and nobody in 6 or 7 reached the summit.
It was a challenge for Class 8 as well and the experienced Dean Partington,
Nick Farmer, Dudley Sterry and Eric Wall were the only drivers to go
clean. Unfortunately for this quartet they had all flailed Cliff Quarry.
Slippery
Stones
Calton and Excelsior are both
traditional hills with re-starts on polished stones for everyone except
Class 0. They failed more than 50% each and sadly Nicola Butcher lost her
triple on Excelsior when all the class fours except James Arrowsmith and
Hans Viertel failed to get away.
Motorcyclists to Hospital
The abbreviated Edinburgh
finished with Clough Mine and Dudwood. Neither are "classic" sections and
Dudwood was cancelled after two of the motorcyclists hurt themselves and
required medical attention .
Class 0 had a very similar
trial, minus most of the restarts and a couple of the rougher hills,
substituted by some gentler stuff.
Triple
for Julian
When the provisional results
were published it looked as if there wouldn't be any triples. However,
after some time they were amended with particular reference to Classes
seven and eight on Litton Slack which meant Julian Lack was awarded a
Triple.
Published 15 December 2013
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