Classical Gas
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December 2000 - Part 3
Guy Fawkes Trial
Parkers Kensworth - The storms abated for just long enough for Falcon to run their Guy Fawkes Trial at Kensworth on 5th November. Barrie Parker won the season opening BTRDA round by a very big margin. However, it was Ross Nuten who lost the lowest number of marks overall, driving his Dellow in the Clubsport event.
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Barrie Parker has time to smile for the camera as he cruises to another easy victory. |
Jonathan Baggott gave Adam a run in his Marlin. |
Colin Reid battling hard in his Golf GTi |
Owen Turner making his trials debut in his Metro |
Andrea Lane being pushed back from the abyss on section two. |
Ross Nuten bouncing his way to the lowest score of the day and victory in Clubsports. |
Falcon had 39 entries for their BTRDA opener, although only 15 were registered championship contenders, most of whom were driving VW Golf GTI’s. Barrie Parker stamped his authority on the event from the outset by clearing the first three hills. Simon Harris fought back valiantly to better Barrie on hills five and eight to end the first round on 23, but Barrie had still dropped 10 marks less. Robin Howard was easily leading class D, ahead of Jack Williams who was struggling to find grip for once in his familiar Tempest, and couldn’t tiptoe across the slippery grass on the lower slopes of section one.
The wind got up later in the morning and this dried the grass out for the second round. However, it was still slippery enough to keep the sections competitive, without Clerk of the Course Arnold Lane having to make too many changes to his sections. It was necessary to tweak section two a bit, as some of the BTRDA lot had moaned about the dangers of slipping over the bank if they didn’t get round the last corner. They all did and the only car to get into any real danger was Martin Cheshire’s Polo, driven by Andrea Lane! Barrie Parker continued his winning ways, tiptoeing the little Peugeot across the slippery grass. This was the only way, as Andy Clark found out when his Golf Gti overheated after Andy burnt his way up Mike Hayward’s section and he and Matt had to nurse the car through the rest of the day.
Stuart Cairney was the easy leader of class C at the end of the first round, but Dave Smith fought back during round two to set up a good battle for the afternoon. Over in Clubsports Ross Nuten was finding plenty of grip for his Dellow and had a super second round, cleaning eight of the nine hills. Andy Curtis fought back in his Buggy and by the second round had started to get to grips with the conditions and chase after Ross. Richard Tompkins was winning the Imp battle in class C after a super first round, but David Russell was another to close the gap during the second round.
It was a similar storey with the FWD Clubsport’s brigade, where Murray MacDonald immediately got to grips with the early morning slippery conditions in the Golf Gti, now repaired after it’s attempts to uproot one of Brickhill’s trees on the Gill Morrell Memorial Trial. Like Barrie Parker Murray was able to tiptoe through the slippery upper reaches of hills one and nine while Michael Leete came to a halt in his Nova with wheels spinning. However, Michael came to terms with the hills as they dried out in the second round, and Murray went into lunch without increasing his lead.
It had become quite cold by lunch-time, making the hot food and drink prepared by Tom Goggin, Alan Davis and team very welcome. Most of the cars were surviving quite well, although we had lost Neil Mackay’s Corsa, although I am not sure if it was car or driver that decided to throw in the towel. Ian Lawson’s Dutton was sounding a bit under the weather and didn’t appear to be firing on a full complement of cylinders but Ian and co-driver Damon Young were enjoying their day and carried on regardless. The break gave competitors the chance to look at fellow competitor’s cars. There was a particularly fine collection of Marlins to look at. In addition to Robin Howard’s and Jonathan Baggott’s familiar cars Alun Lewis, David Harrison, Adam Baggott, Mike Biss and Mike Hinman were also Marlin mounted and it was interesting to look at the different way the cars were prepared.
Barrie Parker and Robin Howard continued their winning ways after lunch, but class C turned into a real battle as Dave Smith first fought back then finally overtook Stuart Cairney on the very last hill which Dave cleared while Stuart struggled on the very tricky first corner and dropped ten. Stuart still won his class though, as Dave was best Falcon.
Dominic Girardot had a great final round, cleaning all the hill’s in Andy Curtis’s VW Buggy. With such a big lead from the morning Ross Nuten’s lead was never threatened and easily won Clubsport’s with Andy Curtis taking class D. Michael Leete pulled back a few marks in class A but not enough to challenge Murray MacDonald. However, Richard Tompkins had quite a fright when he also struggled on the first bend on hill nine and David Russell closed to within one mark.
The rain started to come down towards the end of the third round so Arnold lane and Peter Manning decided to call things to a halt while it was still possible to get out of the venue! Can anyone beat Barrie Parker?
Postscript - I had an e-mail from Duncan Stephens with news of Neil Mackay's retirement - "In case you want to add it to the report, the reason that Neil Mackay retired is that the Corsa's ECU went mad, and started ticking over at about 4000rpm, apparently. That would have made life interesting if he drove it back!!"
National B
1st Overall
Barrie Parker (Peugeot)
32
Class A
Simon Harris (Golf GTi)
66
2nd
Colin Reid (Golf GTi)
76
3rd
Matt Clarke (Golf GTi)
89
Class C
Stuart Carirney (Imp)
65
Best Falcon
Dave Smith (Kitten)
65
Class D
Robin Howard (Marlin)
57
Clubsport
1st Overall
Ross Nuten (Dellow)
17
Class A
Murray MacDonald (Golf GTi)
88
Class C
Richard Tompkins (Imp)
67
Best Novice
David Russell (Imp)
68
Class D
Andy Curtis (VW Buggy)
41
2nd
Dominic Girardot (VW Buggy)
66
3rd
Roger Dudley (Dutton Melos)
91
