REPORT : HISTORIC SPORTING TRIALS
Richard Rowe on home ground Frank Lyons sprays the mud
Andy Jarvis in his ‘ new ’ Facksimile
The Wright stuff
Sixteen current or past HSCC racers were among the 56 competitors entered for the Wotton Historic Sporting Trial which was held near Wotton under Edge in Gloucestershire in November . Martyn Halliday reports .
Conditions were perfect , the steep grassy hillside was damp and slippery , and the sun shone all day . Six observed sections had been laid out , these were tackled twice in the morning and once in the afternoon .
Hill 4 consisted of a wide long steep gentle curving climb to a ledge where there was a change of direction to a twisting steep finish . Several drivers failed to reach the ledge but of those who did many were left without the momentum to help them conquer the final climb .
Mike Bletsoe-Brown was the best of the HSCC racers in the Historic class with a great climb to reach the 1 marker in his Cannon . In the Post Historic
class Tim Barrington stormed out of the top of the section , one of the few clears while Peter Hore was going well to drop only one point . Jim Chapman suffered a distributor failure on the first lap and had to retire whilst landowner Richard Rowe had a great first lap in his Concorde dropping only 3 marks .
Subtle changes were made to sections for the second and third laps , but this did not affect the leadership in the classes . Andy Jarvis and Mark Goodyear were debuting a rare Facksimile Mk2 in the Invitation class . They were clearly enjoying themselves and once the car has been returned to its period specification it will be competitive with the rest of the Post Historics .
Stuart Tizzard out did everyone by arriving with two beautiful Cannons – one of which he intends to sell . He used his current 1172 engined car in the morning and the 948 BMC engined car in the afternoon .
In the end Ian Wright easily won the Historic class dropping only 6 marks . Second position was hotly contested by three drivers , Mark Busfield , Julian Fack and John Fack who each dropped 17 marks . Simon Kingsley convincingly triumphed in the Post Historic class losing only 2 marks to Dave Oliver ’ s 8 .
In all it was a hugely enjoyable event run expertly by Josh and Elaine Veale of the Midland Trials Car Club .
Mike Bletsoe-Brown in action
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