Derwydd Car Trial

After the long off-season through winter, the last time I competed was the 16th of October at the BTRDA grand final, and with spring in the air I got the car out and gave it an annual service, oil/ filter and ignition parts. It didn’t really need much else apart from a track rod end which it failed its MOT on. One of the good things about using a standard car is there’s no really expensive parts, I bet the season’s spend to keep it going was under £160 and a couple of hours of my time.

Drove it round locally just to get a feel for it again even went to a classic car gathering and the stage was set, roll on 2023 season and the first weekend away in North Wales. Kicking off with Bala MC’s Derwydd Trial on the 15th April.

The weather wasn’t kind. It rained all week leading up to the event, but as luck would have it Saturday was forecast dry and sunny. Had to load up Friday afternoon in driving rain though, sat waiting to see if it would stop but it had no plans to. Once loaded onto the trailer one last job…put the light board on, normally take a minute but one side was dead. There’s an old farmer’s expression of if “it’s not broke (******) , don’t try to fix it”). Which I should have adhered to. Like a fool I had decided  to tidy up my light board and screw the number plate a bit better and while doing that I somehow managed to drill the wire inside clean in two. Lucky I had an old spare one kicking about but had to do all of this in hard rain and I got soaked!!

Saturday morning sunshine and smiles, the 2 and a bit hour drive passed quickly and it was nice to be driving though the Welsh countryside and once at the venue it was great to start catching up with all the regular people who I hadn’t seen for  many months. After the normal pre-event formalities we all set off up a steep farm track to where 8 sections awaited us.

The sun may have been out but the ground was soaking. Wales is  good for early season events as the fields are tough and rugged and seem to recover well from getting muddy. Out on the sections my day seemed to be going quite well, grip seemed to be plentiful and I got separated from the rest of the class so just pottered around ahead of everyone. Some bits were steep, some parts were very muddy and some parts were rather lumpy but all was good. The sun was out. I was enjoying myself and I kept my nose clean assuming it was going to be a low scoring day.

After 16 sections we stopped for lunch. I was one of the first to come back and  grabbed myself a burger from the BBQ put on by the members of Bala MC. Munching away I was unaware what a morning I had had. Wasn’t until someone asked in passing how many I had dropped and I said 6 and he suggested that was a good score by using 4 and 3 letter words. Turns out I was miles ahead in the older FWD class which definitely came as a nice surprise. My nearest rival was on 25.

It was far from over though, RWD mounted championship stalwart Barrie Parker was right behind me on index, less than one percent it was reckoned….so as we headed off into the afternoons altered sections it was still all to play for.

I was still holding my own but the gaps in scores between myself and the chasing pack were very narrow even losing the odd mark,  still in front but the bigger the gap the better the index.

Had a better round 4 but would it be enough? Barrie had had a good afternoon too. Loaded up and waited for the results…didn’t really want to look, I kind of expected the worst, nothing wrong with winning the class but overalls wins are nice and few and far between for me. But somehow I had managed to stay in front for a first overall. And by a mere 1.06 % on the index. I don’t know what the factors would be but that tight could well be 1 or 2 marks won or dropped could have made the difference.

Ever so happy with my days of motorsport, a group of us headed off to the pub for a meal with a few drinks and a night’s sleep. I was raring to go to Sunday’s event, the Peter Williams Trial.