Classical Gas
www.classictrials.co.uk
March 2002 - Part 6
BTRDA 2001 Sporting Trial Finals
by Duncan Stephens
The first challenge the morning of Saturday 12th January was to get into the field at Heightington, despite 10tons of gravel been laid in the gateway the day before. Ross & District had two competitors, Duncan Stephens and Pete Fear in the Goldâ and Silverä Star respectively. These are separate events running concurrently on the same hills, with individual awards for each. It was Duncan’s debut in the Gold Starâ , but Pete was having an all out attack on the Silver Starä after finishing a close second last year.
Duncan was a little disappointed in being justly promoted to the Gold Starâ , as he now had to compete with all the main contenders for the valued trophy. Over the course of the first round he quickly got the hang of the extremely challenging conditions and the very wet conditions. The hills were changing very quickly, and also had Ian Wright (1999 Champion) following him for advice. The required technique from the off, was flat out in the biggest gear that you had, despite the hills been wide and open. This suited Duncan down to the ground, as he normally goes fairly well in conditions similar, with his passenger Michael Quinn. Having made a couple of mistakes on the first round, along with some good climbs, he had dropped 24 on the round, but it was the second round when the hills became a little easier due to some ruts been dug enabling slightly more grip to be found. After a short lunch break he felt very hardly done by on his second hill after being given a two, and then promptly let this get to him on the next hill to dropping a very careless seven marks, by just clipping the pole. It was time to not let a fantastic debut result in the Gold Starâ slip away, as at lunchtime he lay sixth overall, only four marks behind Ian Wright. Having refocused himself he continued his good climbs, being the first past the eight on one hill for six cars, and completed the round on 17, but he had dropped back to seventh overall, albeit best Midlands competitor.
Pete was determined to win the Silver Starä this year, as it has eluded him for a number of years. Bob Dayson turned out to be his only real challenger for the award. Bob had a very good first round going round on 30, but Pete was staying in contention with a round of 43 and second in Silver. It was Pete’s turn to have a good second round, just dropping a further nine marks, to Bob’s sixteen. At lunch, with just ten hills remaining, it was going to be very close. Pete still trailed Bob by six marks, but now Pete was into the swing of things, so could he overhaul Bob to take the Silver Starä ? Bob took the odd mark off Pete on the first seven hills of the round to increase his lead by a further two marks. Hill seven had numerous cross cambers, and may well be know to the PCT competitors, who go to Kidderminster’s PCT in June at the same venue, as the hill two that we all hate and can not understand how to do! Bob dropped a five here, while Pete climbed it, so it was a very costly error on Bob’s part. Still flustered, like Duncan was, Bob promptly made a similar error to Duncan and dropped a seven on the next, so all was to be decided on the final hill of the day. Pete having taken the lead by two, promptly dropped two to Bob, the title was to be decided upon the tie-decider. They had both dropped 75marks, twenty five ahead of the next Silver competitor. Pete was too loose the Silver Starä alas on the 14 zero’s to Bob’s 15. What a way to loose it. We all had to feel to Pete, as we know how much it would have meant to him. He later confessed to giving up after lunch as he did not feel he was driving well enough to be in contention for the crown, so if only he had know… I guess the motto is never give up, as you never know what might happen.
So it had been a good day for Ross member’s Pete Fear finishing second in the Silver Starä and 19th overall, and Duncan being 7th overall in his first run in the Gold Starâ .
