FEATURE : HSTA
Competitors are waiting to get started again
Historic sporting trials
2020 is a year we would all like to draw a line under , says Martyn Halliday as he reflects on the Historic Sporting Trials scene .
2020 was not a good year for historic sporting trials with the effects of the Covid-19 worldwide pandemic decimating our calendar . Our only sporting event was on 9 February when the Midland Trials Car Club ran the Sywell Historic Sporting Trial . 54 people attended the enjoyable Sywell Supper on Saturday evening and , despite the intervention of Storm Ciara ,
Car SOS came to Sywell
55 competitors from an original entry of 61 turned out for an excellent , if at times damp and exceedingly blustery , trial on the Sunday . We were joined by the CAR SOS television presenters who acquitted themselves well in a Cannon loaned by Ian Wright .
The HSCC again kindly allowed us to use a corner of its stand at Race Retro at the end of February . Stuart Roach provided his Alexis for display and generally we had considerable interest in our cars and events .
With the rest of 2020 written off from a trials point of view , it is better to concentrate on the positives that occurred during the year . We would have had our first truly northern trial organised by Mark Milne and his friends in the NPTCC at the Gale Hall site and our Inaugural Heritage Trial .
The Heritage Trial is a new departure for HSTA . The aim is to attract owners of early post war trials cars not fitted with fiddle brakes , such as the Dellow , to bring their cars out again . These cars are not competitive in our Historic class against Cannons and as the modern classic trials are generally too rough for 60 / 70-year-old fairly fragile machinery it was felt they should have their own trial .
The response was amazing . If the Inaugural Heritage Trial could have taken place in June 2020 , we would have had at least 42 cars ( not double entered ) at the event . Only eight of the drivers currently compete in historic sporting trials so we had a very encouraging 30-plus new drivers . The hunt for the early cars continues .
During the year we would have seen at least four newly restored Cannons joining the fray . The most frustrated owner must be a newcomer to our trials , racer Jonathan Lewis and his wife Sam who had finished their BMC A series engine Cannon in September only to have every trial since cancelled .
On the administration front 60 competitors have registered with our online entry system ( www . purplelap . com ). Once the registration has been completed
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