Arnold Lane was best on index in the National B event at a glorious autumn Brickhill trial. However, there was unanimous agreement that it was David Thompson's day. David was best on index in the Clubman's and dropped the lowest number of marks overall. He was awarded the new trophy, donated by Central Auto Supplies. An actual brake disk from Michael Schumachers Formula One car.
Conditions at Brickhill were pretty near ideal. There had been some rain in the week, making the ground nice and soft under-foot, but we had nice sunny autumn day for the event. The organisation was in the hands of Gill and Cliff Morrell who must have organised more trials than David Thompson has had hot dinners! They had their problems though, like only having fifteen entries the week before the event. Fortunately the usual last minute rush occurred and there were thirty competitors lined up on the day, split more or less fifty/fifty between National B and Clubmans.
Jack Williams was off the blocks like a thoroughbred, dropping only eleven on the first round. Jack's Tempest is a fantastic car, I once had the privilege of a short drive and it is beautifully set up. Coupled with Jacks experience he was going to be tough to beat. He certainly had some determined competition with Peter Manning, Robin Howard and John Boswell all snapping at his heels. But look out! The other side of the valley was seeing a stunning start from David Thompson in his VW Buggy in the Clubmans section. OK, I know these guys have free tyre pressures but to only drop thirteen, that's pretty good on your first PCT! Guess who his nearest rival was, that's right, Simon (I can drive anything in any event and do well, including a number 37 bus) Robson, who had only dropped 20 in his Classic Trials prepared Skoda Rapide.
Back in the National B things were pretty close in the other classes. Stuart Cairney had only lost 25 in his Imp (another Double Dell man) and Iain Pearce (Skoda), Dave Smith (Kitten), Michael Weeks (Mini) and Andrea Lane (Mini) had all dropped 29.
The pattern of the day was set by the lunch break. In national B Jack Williams was streets ahead overall. Competition was pretty hot in his class though, with Robin, Peter and John having a ding dong battle. Things were unbelievably close in B and C, a postage stamp would barely have covered the field. Over in the Clubman's David Thompson was still best overall but Simon (super Skoda) Robson was snapping at his heels and was only four marks behind.
The afternoon was not to change things a great deal David and Jack continued to dominate in the overall standings. However, the national B index was to be decided by hills 5 and 7 in the third round. Arnold cleaned them both, but his nearest rivals dropped an average of twelve between the two. The gap at the end of the day gave Arnold the National B Index, even though Jack Williams, John Boswell and Robin Howard all had much lower scores. Such are the rules and regulations!
Over in the clubman's Simon Robson had a good afternoon and Dave Nash clawed back a mark but it was David Thompson's day. He won the clubman's with the lowest score of the day, was best on Index and dropped three marks less than Jack Williams! OK I know Jack was on 24 psi and David was on free pressures but its still pretty good going on your first PCT!
Nice to see Graham Gould at Brickhill again. Graham heard about our event in "Classical Gas" last year and travelled down from the Midlands to take part.
This article was originally published on the Classical Gas site in November 1998 and moved here on 29 October 2000