25th June 2023
Wye Valley Car Trial
Event Report
With temperatures in their high 20’s it was a tough day for marshals, organisers, competitors and cars on the bone-dry hillsides.
Competing in Class B, Tim Dovey took the Clio Sport to another decisive win, but only after Charlie had an out-of-form 4th round to lose his earlier advantage. In an increasingly rare appearance, Nick Pollitt turned up in Class A in a Fiat 500 and showed no loss of skill with a score better than several top drivers in Class B.
Kevin Roberts enjoyed an uncontested day out in his MX5 auto whilst in Class D the winner was one of several Lieges, this time in the very capable hands of John Charles, also scoring the fewest penalty points .
and from Rupert North:
After a promising start to the season it most definitely has been an uphill struggle….pun intended!!
I find myself heading off 200 miles south on a Saturday afternoon to meet with a fellow trialer at a beautiful pub and campsite in Gloucestershire for the Wye Valley Trial. We tend to camp overnight for this event as it’s a little far to do in one day, for me I would have to leave at about 5.30 and not get home till nearly 9 pm and i’m not that keen! The pub campsite is only 10 minutes round the corner from the venue so I don’t even have to get up till after 8.
Once the pre-event formalities had been dealt with we headed off to the 8 sections laid out for us. The ground was dry and the weather was sunny but I was finding grip at a premium, the venue is steep in places and is one of places that doesn’t suit the smaller CC cars. My performance in the morning was mid class at best, failing to make it past the points in the sections which really counted. I found myself laying 4th in a class of 10 which wasn’t the best but certainly not the worst either, I was 35 and the guy at the front of the class was on 7! The nearest competitor in front of me was on 19. There was the slimmest chance of catching him if I were lucky.
The afternoon was a bruising experience…..the hills had been changed, finding ever steeper parts of the field and it was now even drier. This tends to lend itself to the bigger CC cars, there’s no light tip toeing driving to be had here, I couldn’t maintain enough speed to climb the sections nor could I power my way up them. The score sheet was reflecting this badly. I don’t think I drove particularly well if I was to be honest with myself, I can think of a few places that I could have done better. By the end I had dropped to 6th in class. I do think with better driving there was the possibility of a 3rd in class as the winner came from class B which promoted everyone up a place.
A surprise from the day was a very well driven 17 plate Fiat 500 twin air running in the new car class which if it had been in class B would have taken 3rd in class. The long haul home passed without incident.
RN
Event Details
What better way of portraying the event than to quote from the SR’s –
We will be at our peaceful and picturesque Putley site at Hill Farm, which
offers a fair variety for the Clerk of the Course to set different challenges on
different hills.
Please enter online via this link: http://www.rossmotorsports.co.uk/events/wye-valley-car-trial-6/
Wye Valley Car Trial 2023 Regs (431 KB)