2013 Gold & Silver Star Trial
Event Report
Duncan Stephens retained the BTRDA Sporting Trials Gold Star championship on Saturday on the Welsh borders near Kington, while Paul Price won the Silver Star.
In wonderful, still, bright sunshine British champion Tom Bricknell set out fifteen long challenging sections covering the vast site that hasn't been used since 2007. The sections were run twice, making 30 in total. Despite the preceeding month's rain the site was in prime condition testing the crews skills to the limit.
2010 Champions John and Maxine Fack took the lead over the first fifteen hills in the morning with some fantastic trickling on the big long grass bank sections dropping just fifteen points. Reigning champion Duncan Stephens, with Kiel Wright passengering for the first time, were a close second just three points behind, and ready to jump at an mistake by the Fack's. Ian Bell and Russel Sharp were a couple of points behind having made a mistake costing four in the pine woods but battled back on the grass with some superb blasting on hill two. Peter and Liz Fensom were just behind with a steady round with no mistakes.
In the Silver Star, the first round saw newcomer Richard Sharp lead by a single point from Paul Price, Alastair Moffatt and Martin Grimwood.
The sections were all changed in the afternoon, one completely relocated onto fresh grass and bracken during the lunch break which saw competitors trying to work out who was doing what. Old rivals John and Duncan knew all was to play for and every single point was going to count but didn't know what each other was doing over the hills. Duncan and Kiel were working extremely hard trying to gain a couple of points with lots of bouncing on their early sections before trying some different lines at maximum revs in fourth gear and then some very delicate trickling on the next hill. They finished the round dropping just eleven points to finish the day on twenty nine. John and Maxine (Kiel's mum) started the round well, but as temperature dropped the dew came out of the ground making the big steep grass hills even more challenging with every car passing but some superb slow trickling dropped them a few points back. Their penultimate hill proved very costly with them not climbing the middle climb, and handing the title to Duncan and Kiel at the last gasp. Just two cars in front of the Facks, the Fensoms had a very good round to climb into an unexpected third overall, beating Ian Bell on a tiebreak with five more zeros over the thirty hills. The five visitors from Northern Ireland were best placed in seventh, with former champion John McKinney, on sections harder than they normally experience.
Paul Price had a superb round to beat his fellow Silver Star competitors by ten points to secure the Silver Star for the first time, ahead of former British autotest champion Alastair Moffatt who beat Richard Sharp with two more zeros on the tie-break.
Kiel Wright won the Bouncer cushion for the second time, and Duncan Stephens the Gold Star for the third time in eight years, becoming the first competitor to retain the title since 1994. Duncan Stephens Sporting Trial championship win, adds to his BTRDA Car Trial and Allrounders titles of 2013.
Gold Star
1. Duncan Stephens / Kiel Wright (Crossle) 29points
2. John & Maxine Fack (MSR) 37points
3. Peter & Liz Fensom (Crossle) 38points
4. Ian Bell / Russell Sharp (Hamilton) 38points
5. Julian Fack / Meg Marrion (Crossle) 49points
6. Peter McKinney / Peter Flack (Crossle) 52points
7. John McKinney / Chris Miller (Kintec) 53points
8. Josh Veale / James Washer (Sherpa) 56points
9. Simon Gracey / Alan Flack (Crossle) 57points
10. Roland Uglow / Laura Wilks (Crossle) 58points
Silver Star
1. Paul Price / Kate Kirk (CAP) 79points
2. Alastair Moffatt / Hamish Rowe (Facksimile) 88points
3. Richard & Joe Sharp (Cartwright) 88points
4. Martin Grimwood / Duncan Walker (Crossle) 103points
5. Harry Barr / Peter Frost (Crossle) 105points