On The Pegs June 2020 - Volume 5 - Issue 6 | Page 98
On The Pegs 98
1994 was my first Scott Trial win. It’s one of those trials you do need a little bit of
luck. You don’t want to have any punctures. It’s very rough ground. There’s always
a lot of punctures and sort of crashes and things like that. I had a good phase,
and obviously that’s at the back end of the year. I had won the British Championship.
I had won the Scottish Six Days. I had finished sixth and the world, and just
finished off with winning the Scott as well. So to win those special races like the
Scottish Six Days and the Scott Trial in the same year is special anyway, but to do
it at eighteen years old it’s something I look back on very fondly. You don’t really
think about it much at the time, but now it’s something I’m very proud of.
52017: SSDT Trials win with just one point
I thought you might mention that single dab. I try and forget
about that.
I have a few sleepless nights when somebody brings
that up. It’s been done with a single dab before by Gordon
Jackson a long time ago. That was back in the ‘60s. I have
finished the event on three before, and also on five before.
It’s a long wait and obviously the competition level is going
very quickly up there. Things were going really well, and
then you have an early day just to go pit and stuff. It was
working out to be Friday, which is normally not one of the easier days because
of how slippery the sections are. So Saturday morning there was a lot of talk
around he’s clean, and the organizers are going to probably put harder sections
in. I think that’s probably where I psyched myself a little bit really because obviously
you never go to an event wanting to finish on a certain amount of points.
You just go for the win. I think really I didn’t slam it in the head just exactly how
I should approach the day. I do kick myself for it still now. It was early on in the
day and I had a little bit of a wobble and I was like, the crowd went silent. I think
Facebook knew about it before I got about ten inches out of the inside. I think
news traveled very, very quickly that I’d had a dab. I cleaned the rest of the day
which was pretty spectacular. It was a strange thing, really, because I don’t think
it really annoys me that I have to go clean or how it would have been amazing to
go clean. In the years to come, you’ll just remember it as a victory, hopefully, and
not about that dab. But it’s how I applied myself that day. I didn’t decide whether
I was going for the win or whether I was going for clean. That’s something that
always plays on my mind. n