Season Review
by Duncan Stephens

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The first event of the year saw Fack and Wright in a class of their own battling for the event win and this has been proven to be a yearlong contest with them filling the top two overall places on no less than ten events.

Steve Courts has been upholding Hillman Imp power in his Facksimile but has just failed to win overall, although consistency has placed him fourth. Duncan Stephens debuted his new Crosslé at the start of the year and showed some promising results early in the season but took till the end of the season to be comfortable winning the last three trials overall, snatching third on the last event from Steve Courts. Julian, 2005 British champion, has had a year of development taking three wins but has also unusually showed inconsistency in his Suzuki powered X-Factor, and suffered from untimely breakages.

The Blue category of drivers (for non event winners) has seen Ian Rodman, Steven Barnes, Jon “Fred” Moores and Roland Uglow all taking class wins. Moores narrowly missing out on an outright win on home territory in Cornwall, only being beaten by Robin Alexander specialist Roger Bricknell who won the event for the eighth time. Rodman continues to improve in only his third year with a fine fourth overall at Bristol Motor Clubs Roy Fedden trial. Uglow changed his home built Kernow for a Crosslé during the summer and has put in a late championship challenge, nearly taking his maiden win on the John Southern in Cumbria narrowly loosing out to Julian Fack when it rained on the last section. Steven Barnes has also put in some tremendous results at the end of the year with two third overalls.

Peter Meakin has dominated the newcomer category in the championship and challenged for the overall win on the Walsingham trial. Anthony Lane, son of hillclimb champion Roy Lane, is now developing as a driver taking a couple of class wins and starred at the Peter Blankstone trial in the snow of March taking sixth overall beating all the blue category drivers. A number of new competitors have been taken on the challenge of sporting trials with Bill Sherras transferring from motorbike and sidecar trials showing determination to master the sport. Some very notable performances have been put in by a number of competitors in their first year. Alistair McVittie taking ninth on his home event in Scotland, Nick Speed tenth at the Gloucester, Jason Daniel (Thomas Bricknell’s Escort passenger) twelfth the following week at the Pete Fear Pinford.

Unbelievably the British championship came down to the last section of the year after sixteen events. Ian Wright had to win the final event with John Fack third or lower. At lunch Duncan Stephens lead with John two behind and Ian seven behind. Over the last round John’s gas supply got knocked off costing him six. With two hills left John was champion elect as Duncan held a comfortable lead, but he promptly hit an eleven on the next section falling out of the ruts. With John and Ian finished on 25 and 24 respectively, Duncan scoring 22 with two best on his last hill, meaning the title would be decided by Duncan’s score. John couldn’t watch. Ian could see his opportunity with the title his if a three was scored, but a two or four gave the title to John. Duncan achieved a two, and with one more zero’s won the event. Never before has the British championship been so close.

Conditions varied hugely, some events being run in glorious sunshine to sub-zero snow has meant that driving skills were tested thoroughly from Scotland to Cornwall. Sporting trials continues to evolve technically with independent cars taking more wins than conventional live axles cars, and with Honda engines of varying capacities proving to be most popular running on either LPG or conventional petrol.

BTRDA Champions:
Red Class – John Fack
Blue Class – Roland Uglow
Green Class – Peter Meakin
Passenger – Kerrie Meakin

British Championship:
John Fack 143
Ian Wright 143
Duncan Stephens 132
Steve Courts 126
Julian Fack 114

Stats:

Trial Wins:
John Fack (Crosslé) 6
Ian Wright (Sherpa / Kincraft) 4
Duncan Stephens (Crosslé) 4
Julian Fack (X-Factor) 3
Mark Vaughan (Crosslé) 2
Roger Bricknell (Facksimile) 1
Richard Waterhouse (Sherpa) 1

Rear Axle Configuration:
Independent 15
Live Beam Axle 6

Engines:
Honda Integra 1500 10
Honda Acclaim 1340 6
Suzuki Swift 1300 4
Hillman Imp 1200 1

Fuel:
Petrol 11
LPG 10

Pre-View of Championship Final – Saturday 13th January 2007

Saturday 13th January 2007 sees seven competitors from Northern Ireland meeting the best fifty drivers in Britain for the prestigious BTRDA Gold and Silver Star Championship with many Englishmen focused on stopping the dominance of the Northern Irish over the last four years. If the BTRDA season is anything to go by then this trial, held at Long Compton near Stratford upon Avon, should be a tremendous battle of the best trials drivers in the world.