Gloucester Sporting Trial

Event Report

The Midland Trials Car Club ran the last trial of 2020 at Frocester, it was the end of a very unusual year for so many reasons and with a lot of hard work due to COVID restrictions by the team it was a good turnout with 24 cars having entered.

Clerk of the course was Peter Fenson, and 6 hills had been laid out on the west facing bank which would stay cold and damp all day, the hills were laid out quite wide with various route options. This was my first year as a Rookie and wide sections were going to be new to me. It was decided to do 3 rounds before lunch and the final one after lunch due to the light fading fast and for some, a long drive home.

After scrutineering there were some quick repairs in the paddock when Darren noticed that the timing belt was catching the cover on Simon Kingsley’s Crossle, this was soon fixed and 23 cars set off up to the hills. Unfortunately Gary Plews and Victoria Parker could not make the event.

My first hill was hill 6 and I was fortunate to have Ian Veale and George Watson in front of me and new Rookie John Fox behind. For people new to the sport and a Rookie this is a great help, you can walk the hill with very experienced competitors and then watch their different lines when they complete the hill. But also they are there to keep Rookie’s safe, giving essential advice when getting off the hill safely which can sometimes be quite a challenge. For the first round there was some grip on the damp grass and I had quite a good round. The conditions suited me, on the other hills the top three competitors having clear rounds. Darren Underwood had a fantastic first round in his live axle Sherpa, having 6 clears tying with Josh and Ian Veale. Just behind and only dropping 1 was Andy Wilkes and John Fack, John Firth was also having a good round with a 2 and the leading Rookie. John has had an excellent first year in his live axle SRB.

As we moved onto the second round of hills the grass was starting to disappear and for me blasting was a completely new experience, having not had to use the car this way in anger before. From some of the sounds in the passenger seat I think I will be buying dinner tonight. At the end of Round 2 Josh and Ian were both on 2 each with John just 1 behind with all to play for. Andy, Jerome and George chasing their heels, Darren was still having a good day but a 7 on Hill 5 was going to be costly without that he could have been in the top 5, but as it was he still had his best result of the year with an excellent total of 30.

For me Hill 4 was becoming quite a challenge, with it turning my car into a sledge with some quite spectacular results, more words from the wife. The weather had closed in just before lunch with some light rain which made the hills very greasy and blasting became the order of the day on the majority of the hills.

As we finished for lunch George and Victoria were having an excellent round with an 8 finishing in the top 6. Whilst everybody was having lunch Peter had made a few changes, I was starting on Hill 1 and this was a blast through a small stream and up to gate 7, left turn and up to the top which had changed from the last round.
For me this was a wet affair, I slipped on the walk up to viewing the changes and landed on my back in the stream, not boding well if I couldn’t even walk up it. As a Rookie and new to blasting I found the last round quite hard, trying to get the car to rev hard enough to keep blasting, also getting off the hills can be quite interesting, but a few words from Richard Sharp helped an awful lot.

For anyone looking to join the sport you have so many words of encouragement from the other competitors, they are always there to give advice on lines and car control even when they are challenging for top championship points.

Back to the results and at the end of Round 4 with the afternoon drawing in Josh was 1st with Ian 2nd with a hard fought battle for the next 4 places. Andy and Mark split the Fack brothers with George and Victoria coming in an excellent 6th and Darren and Sue leading the live class in 7th ending the day on an excellent 30. Richard Sharp finished 8th, Bob Packham 9th, John Firth and Ann Boyes in 10th winning the Rookie class with an excellent score of 45. Sian and I managed 2nd in the Rookie class and an excellent 3rd finish in the Rookie class goes to newcomer John Fox and Laura with this being her first ever trial. Unfortunately we had 2 casualties Simon Kingsley had to retire with a loose timing belt tensioner which fortunately didn’t damage the engine and Stuart Beare who suffered an untimely coil pack failure.

For Sian and I this was a special day, it was exactly a year on from coming to watch our first event at Frocester, meeting and talking to a great bunch of people all with a similar interest, little did we know we would end up buying a car and actually compete a year on at the same event. I asked Darren to sum up his year and I think we will agree with his statement “its been a challenging year for everybody in more ways than one and still a steep learning curve, great competition, great events and great people what more can you say”.

I must conclude with a heartfelt thank you to all the people behind the scenes running the events throughout this unusual year.

We wish everybody a merry christmas and more prosperous new year.

Report by Ian and Sian Blease-Dudley