Golden Springs Trial

Event Report

36 competitors gathered at Woolbridge MC’s regular site near Crewkerne on another warm, dry day, but not quite as sunny as we experienced the previous day. From the 13 apiece in Classes 1 and 2, 9 in Class 3 and 1 in Class 8, we had 15 from our Championship. Mark Hoppe had marked out 9 sections, from which we used 8 per round. By any measure they were all extremely challenging and many of them were almost wide enough to get lost en route. We all circulated the extensive site clockwise, starting at three different sections, but keeping Merv the scorer full updated each time we passed through the paddock.

In Class 1, all eyes were on Rupert and the impressive Suzuki Alto to see if he could make it 3 in a row. With a start number of 11, he was well placed to judge the sections and fellow-competitors’ techniques and at the end of round 1 he was definitely in the mix at 1 behind 2020 Champion Trevor Moffatt (Corsa). Further back, Henry Kitching (Corsa) was holding off local Andy Webb (Saxo) by one point. In the next round, Trevor’s Corsa power and inherent weight played into his hands as he only dropped 5 over the round, Rupert 10 and Henry 15. Following Henry, there was a mini-competition between Andy, another local Gary Morris (Corsa auto) and Tim Beard (Ka) with scores in the mid 60’s at the lunch break. Trevor’s dominance persisted through the afternoon, despite being first car on the hills in the class, only losing 8 further points. Henry nibbled a little into Rupert’s lead but not enough to overhaul him.

Moving on to Class 2, we had 4 contenders in the total of 13 and an interesting mix of cars as you’ll see from the results. On the day, it was most likely that Simon Harris in his cherished Golf GTi would be most effective, with lots of torque to trickle over the greasy bits and lots of power if needed elsewhere. And so it was, with a super first round score of 21, significantly making an on-camber turn on hill 5, thus avoiding the 11 that befell everyone else. Simon went on to score best on each of the rounds to secure a well deserved Class win and 3^rd overall. In spite of Neil Mackay’s inexcusable error off the start line of hill 6 and missing out the 12 gate on round 3, he coaxed his Ignis to 2^nd in Class ahead of the local drivers’ GT-engined AX with Pete Hilleard (106D) holding off Paul Myatt, who was driving Garry Preston’s Fiat 127.

In Class 3 we find 3 Lieges and a Melos sprinkled amongst local drivers in Reliant Scimitar SS1’s, with Mark Hoppe’s Melos in the hands of former BTRDA multiple Allrounder Duncan Stephens, who went on to claim 1^st overall by less than half a percentage point from Trevor Moffatt (Class 1). After the first 2 rounds, Barrie Parker was on 9, compared with Duncan’s 8, and Dick Glossop one point further back. It was all to play for in the afternoon. In round 3, Ian Nute (Melos) got into his stride and match Barrie and Dicks 2 points, curiously all incurred on different sections. John Charles seemed to lose out by being first on the hills in the Class after the lunch break, running up 6 points but then a decent 1 on round 4. In the final analysis, Barrie took the Class award, followed by Dick, John and Ian.

Another first class event from Woolbridge Motor Club, as we’ve come to expect, with at least 2 marshals per hill and a warm and welcoming atmosphere throughout. Followed by bank holiday Monday to catch up with home life.