Mercian Sporting Trial

Event Report

The Mercian 2020 – It’s a Family Affair

2020 has, let’s face it, been a difficult season for motorsport in general and Sporting Trials has suffered just as much as all the other branches. Not only have we had very few events over the season thanks to the pandemic, but also there have been some concerns about the consistently low winner’s scores to date, which up until the Mercian averaged just 7.4 points over all events. Had it been unusually dry, or did the Toyos offer too much grip compared to the old Maxxis? Were the sections too easy? The slightest error meant that it was impossible to get a decent result etc… Whatever the concerns, the Mercian brought a degree of normality to proceedings, with a proper winner’s score and a whole raft of fight-backs to gain positions, thanks to the fact that it was possible to make a mistake almost anywhere. And over and above all that, it was not only by far and away the best trial of the year, but arguably the best trial of the last 5 years.

All the elements for a brilliant trial were there, some by luck, most through design. Long Compton has long been my favourite trials site because here more than anywhere, you cannot tackle sections at “monopace ”; you have to accelerate where you can and back off on every slope whilst using your fiddle brakes perfectly if you’re not to be caught out by the sites humps and bumps – in other words, you have to use the full range of trials skills that are so hard to master. Add in perfect weather conditions on the day – the grass was wet initially, and it was overcast so the ground did not dry out over the day as it so often does – and long, open and bumpy sections where the terrain rather the marker poles presented the challenge, and almost all the elements for a perfect day’s trialling were present. But there was one vital part of the recipe that transformed the trial from merely good to magical, and that was, as Austin May said in this pre-war book on trials called Wheelspin, the margin between success and failure is minute. If proof was needed, consider this: on section 8, only Jerome Fack recorded 3 clears against next best & eventual winner Ian Veale’s three ones, whereas on section 5 Ian Veale dropped just 1 point with the next best score being 4 for the day. Finally, the best score over all sections (or par score) was just 7 points for the day, from which even the winner was 16 points adrift. If there was head-scratching amongst the experts, I can only imagine what the rookies were thinking about their first Long Compton experience. And finally, the ultimate compliment: there was arguably no need to change any section over the course of the whole day.

Historically, the first round at Long Compton has been crucial, so MSR jockeys Jerome and yours truly might have thought they had it made with excellent opening gambits of just 6 points, although even here there were gains and losses on different sections. As it turned out, things got harder rather than easier for the second round and both were to throw away their advantage by lunchtime. Mike Salton has been showing some excellent form recently in his newly acquired Hamilton with its unusual Peugeot engine, but after losing 12 points on his first 3 sections he must have been wondering what hit him, although he did recover over the rest of the round to finish on 16. Other visitors from the North were putting in solid performances, notably Jeff Armistead who finished on an excellent 11 for the round, Bob Packham on 17 and John Firth who was cleaning up in the rookie class – who said you needed an independent car to excel at Long Compton? Despite losing 6 points on hill 7, like most of the field, Josh & Ian Veale were showing intent with scores of 9 & 10 respectively, Ian scoring the only clear on hill 5 and Josh the only clear on hill 2. Stuart Perren was making his first outing in the ex-Peter Thorpe Patrial, which he had restored beautifully over lock-down. Sadly, he was forced to retire with rear suspension failure after 6 hills.

In Round 2 nothing was any easier, and arguably every section it was more a little bit more difficult. Nevertheless, Michael Salton managed an exceptional score of 5 which was just a single point behind par for the round, whereas Ian and Josh jumped to the top of the leader board with rounds of 7 apiece. Peter Fensom’s round of 8 meant he jumped ahead of yours truly who managed to hit not one but 2 markers to drop out of contention, and the rest of the field were in double figures for the round. Bob Packham suffered a battery failure which cost him five 12s, but since he was the only person in the red live class he remained in the lead for the class! Perhaps the most exceptional performances of the second round belonged to John Firth in the rookie class, his 20 points being ahead of some in the red class, and Jeff Armistead in the Live blue on just 14. Ones to watch in the future, I feel. John has done some mods to the front end of the ex-David Morris SRB, fitting a new axle and new springs which has resulted in a front end weight loss of a fairly amazing 10kgs.

After a few minor tweaks to the hills over lunch, it was Ian Veale who stepped up to take the win with a round of 6, leaving the rest of us trailing with rounds in double figures. In the other classes, notable results were posted by Jeff Armistead in the Blue live whose score of 54 was almost half that of the nearest competitor, and John Firth in the Rookie class whose final score was the same as the winner of Blue IRS.

A wonderful trial organised, administered, laid out and won by the Veale family who claimed first and second positions – truly a Family Affair. I can imagine there were a fair few teams who ran through the “could’ve, should’ve, if only” routine on the way home, which in itself is the mark of an excellent trial. I can’t wait for the Spring Trial 2021 at Long Compton.

Report by John Fack