Falcon's Edlesborough Clubmans

This clubmans trial was an additional event in the Falcon calendar, organised by John Parsons to take the pressure of the February Southern Auto's event which is to be National B only this year. Edlesborough is very badly affected by the weather, so John Parsons and Mike Pearson were very happy that they had dry weather for their trial. Peter Manning and Robin Howard set the pace on the first round when they went clear. Peter was driving his usual Midget and Robin was back in his Marlin after using his Dutton Sierra on the Clee Hills the week before.

Dave Smith was struggling with his Kitten, which would clearly have much preferred to be back home in front of the fire, and developed a major fit of the sulks, refusing to come out to play on the second round. Dave Nash was another one in trouble. He had punctured on the way to the start and had some more tyre problems before he could get down to the serious business.

Both Peter and Robin dropped marks on round two, and started to fall back into the clutches of Jack Williams and Jonathan Baggott. However they both had problems of their own. Jack wrong coursed on hill 5, when he when he failed to notice the hill had been changed since the first round and went straight on instead of dog-legging round the bushes. After a good start on rounds one and two it all fell apart for Jonathan on round three when dropped a 12 on one hill, putting him well down the field at lunchtime. Ross Nuten was creeping up the field, after being the only driver to be clear on both rounds two and three.

Old stagers Arnold lane and Murray MacDonald were dominating their saloon car classes. Arnold was in his familiar Mini while Murray was sharing his old Skoda with it's new owner Mike Hayward. It will be interesting to know when Murray last drove anything other than a VW in a trial.

Kit cars dominated the entry - Jonathan Baggott (Marlin), Roger and Andrew Dudley (Dutton Melos) and Ian Lawson (Dutton Phaeton) do battle with JP' s sections while Dave Smith's Kitten needed a helping hand to get home in front of a nice warm fire.

The wind during the morning had dried things out a lot and there was getting to be quite a lot of grip. So, while the competitors were at lunch JP and Mike Pearson had quite a lot of work to do to make things competitive for the afternoon. Ian Lawson was pleased his Dutton Phaeton was going well. He had discovered that the overheating experienced at Kensworth was due to a wire behind the bulkhead that had broken, preventing the electric fan working. Liam Alderson was finding his type 4 engined Beetle had plenty of low down torque and would trickle up anything if you could avoid hitting the poles! Roger and Andrew Dudley had been going pretty well as well in their Melos. They were finding plenty of grip. Unfortunately neither had a good third round but the battle between them was pretty intense.

Things went pretty much to form in the saloon car classes, with Murray MacDonald and Arnold Lane staying in the lead of their respective classes. In the open class, Robin Howard started out confidently, sharing the lead with Ross Neuten on five, with Peter Manning just one point behind. Ross kept his head and went clear on round four but Robin wilted a bit under the pressure and dropped five on the round. Then on the final circuit it was Ross who felt the strain, dropping a massive eleven. It was the VW Buggy with Lee Howell and David Thompson who rose to the challenge and went clear on the final round. This gave Lee the lowest score of 13, equal with Robin Howard and by a process, that I don't understand Lee won the class. David ended one mark behind, followed by a delighted Ross Nuten.

All in all an excellent day, organised in a professional but friendly way by John, Dot and Mike. It's hard to beat these real club events where the success is judged by the smiles on the faces.

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