Ashfield 17^th March 2008

Clerk of Course: Dave & Matthew Tomley

 Trail Report

Well what can we say, after the rain we had on Saturday afternoon setting up the trail, what could we expect when we arrived at the ‘Ashfield’ Site?? Having to get up at 5.30am to go to the ‘Price Estate’ to collect our motor after having its new gearbox fitted, we headed to the site to see if the sections were as easy driven in the motor as what they were on the Quad bike on the Saturday afternoon.

Section 0. – “Attempt to Park in the field”

Well the name says it all for this unofficial ‘section’! After all the rain on Saturday & Saturday night the parking area was very wet, with most parking on the verge.

Section 1 – “Round in a circle (By the Fence!)”

The main rule of the day was ‘DONT HIT THE NEW FENCE’, with that in mind the 1^st section was by the fence!

The draw was made and, believe it or not it just so happened that, JPR was first off. Well all we can say is that he was present in body, but I think his mind was still on the rugby pitch, or on the 20^th Pint of Cider he had the night before. Being the 1^st Driver off on this Section proved to be a great help, as he was the only non-Fiddler to get past the 6 Gate. John managed a 2 with Chris Spittle getting a clear. Unluckily for Clive, he got the wrong side of a bolder, and managed to break the Rule of the day, and for that he got 20!

Section 2 – “A Drive through Trees & Stone, with a downhill 1 gate”

1^St off was Matthew Morgan in is new machine. After a good attempt he missed  the turn into the 5 gate. Simon found the correct line, which the rest of the drivers followed. This was helped by the black smoke trail left by the ‘Red Diesel burning machine’. This section being the only clear for the Price Family for the whole day!!

Section 3 – “A new Section that headed for the sky!”

Whilst setting this section up, I decided that dad must have had a ‘Head turn’ as his idea of a 10 Gate was undriveable on a Quad Bike!! We negotiated and made it a 7 gate. To my amazement Dad got the Land Rover out and tested the new gearbox out and FLEW up the bank. Even more shocking was that every other motor got up the bl**dy bank!! All we can remember of this section was Chris Spittle ‘fiddle’ on the side of a mountain, unable to see what he was driving over, as it was covered in fern. Very Well Driven or just Luck!!

Section 4 – “The Dreaded uphill stony Bank with Trees”

John Bradshaw was 1^st off, scoring a very respectable 3. Tim Mackley was soon on the case, managing to get through the 3, and scoring 2. Chris Spittle however, managed to avoid getting a 10 for running over the Clerk of Course, scored Zero. Yet again Clive’s Yellow Peril was looking very light on the front end, though managing to score only 2! By not fitting an alternator to Simon’s oil burner he had to bump start the motor. He also had to leave his Disco running at 2000RPM for 10mins to try and charge the battery back up. However, he has got an extra 3hp from the Oil Burner!

Section 5 – “The 1^st Section with slight modifications”

After a quick ‘rekkie’ by Senior he thought it would be possible for the rest!

Well, Tim was 1^st off managing to keep all 4 wheels on the ground, and scoring 2. The next driver was Marc. He managed to pick the wrong line, and keep 2 wheels on the ground. However Angus & John B, thought they would try yet another line, and ended up with No Wheels on the ground!! But rest assured JPR was there to tow them back onto 4 wheels. Marc was there to take pictures as proof of the affair.

Section 6 – “The Wet gulley by the road”

After a quick lunch-break we were all back to it. It was still dry overhead, just a shame it wasn’t under feet! All was steady with a nice clean blue Peugeot, with open windows, parked on the road watching. Senior spotted that Mick was approaching so advised them to move back slightly. After looking at him a bit strange they soon saw what the hell he was on about! It was nice to see that

Mick still knows what his right foot is for! Angus Managed to clear the section, WITHOUT any shunts!

Section 7 – “We Buried our motor driving this!”

After a couple of slight alterations, the 1^st Motor was off. Trouble was it only had 4 Pistons! But this proved that you don’t always need 8! Dave Dee would have been proud of Les on this section, showing you don’t need to floor it! WELL apart from getting out of the section!

Section 8 – “A walk in the park”

History was made, JPR took the wrong line! Either the cider from Saturday wore off, or he was still seeing double! His was the highest score out of all drivers on this section. Highlight of the Section, was Mike Range-Rover Lee. We are still unsure what he was trying to do. He was either to shorten his motor, by hitting the 2 gate at great speed, or he was trying to pinch a bit of welsh mud by embedding his motor into the ditch!

Section 8b – “Picking the correct route to the next section!”

Some Drivers decided to take a bit of de-tour on the way to the next section, this ended up very messy!

After some very complicated recovery, that even Frank would have been proud of, all the motors were free again to attack the last section!

Section 9 – “It’s nearly over!”

The thought of taking the mud sodden overalls off was getting closer! The Last section was soon here. Jo ‘Fiddler’ Willett was the 1^st and only clear of the section. Clive, JPR & Mick all managed 1’s, with many other drivers getting 2’s.

It’s was back to base, then load up and complete the trial by getting back onto Tarmac!! With a few recoveries required we were all sorted, with just ourselves & vehicles to steam clean!!

A Bit like ‘Top Gears Cool wall’, but tow-motors capable of getting on site!

SAY NO MORE!!!

Hope every body enjoyed the day, and thanks to Ian for helping to record the scores & organise the site.

Dave & Matthew Tomley