Cliff and Gill Morrell had twenty five competitors sign on for their trial. It should have been twenty six but Dave Nash’s Skeetle broke down on the way to the start. He had started to experience problems on the Edinburgh but the Volkswagen type three motor has now given up completely. There was a little dew on the ground at the ten o’clock start but basically it was very dry under-foot.
Jack Williams certainly found plenty of grip in his Tempest and took an early lead, going into lunch eight marks ahead of Arnold Lane , who was closely followed by Robin Howard. Robin was taking things very gently as his A series powered Marlin has broken no less than two diffs in the last few weeks. Things were not going well for John and Peter York as they couldn’t get their Skoda to run properly and had to retire. This was a shame as I was looking forward to see if Peter is as good at trials as he is at autotests.
Jack Williams led for most of the day until he dropped seven at hill four on the last round
Tom Goggin was having problems with his Escorts SU throttle linkage and this was to lead to his retirement later in the day. This was the penultimate outing for this car as Tom has nearly finished a new shell. Pete Stafford’s similar car was going well, although his 1300 motor is getting a bit tired and a bigger replacement is on its way. Stuart Cairney was having a real battle with James Hall in his similar Imp and you may remember that James used to share Stuart’s car. Today it was Andrew Cairney’s turn and he was putting in a tidy performance. However, after lunch Stuart and Andrew were another crew to retire with mechanical problems when the Imp lost all its power.
During the afternoon Arnold started to claw back some of Jacks lead but it looked as if the Cornishman from Bury St Edmonds would hold on, until he dropped seven on hill four during the last round under the keen eye of marshal Lee Howells. This put Arnold one mark in the lead and he held this to the end, to take a closely fought victory. Jack won class five and Andrea Lane class two in the National event. Best clubman was Barry Blofield, co-driving Robin Howards Marlin. The clubmans class wins going to Martin Cheshire (Polo) and Michael Leete (Beetle). A good day. And lets not forget the super catering.