MAY TRIAL WEEKEND

CWMGILLA 3,4,5 MAY 2008 

This years trial weekend turned out to be a bit of a damp squib, and that had nothing to do with the weather.

Normally we would have people on site from the Friday evening but the first on site, other than Jo doing his setting out for the trial, were John and Elaine on Saturday morning. I arrived, in the early afternoon, expecting to help out with the running of a gymkhana. John and Elaine had devised games and bought equipment along for anyone to join in with. The only other people to show up, and stop the night, were  Martin James, the ‘newly-weds’ Sam and Ian and Tim Mackley.

With John, on Saturday afternoon, I then started to sort out some possible trial sections for an RTV/Tyro event for the bank holiday Monday. These turned out not to be needed as no one turned up.

Sunday morning broke with pitch black skies, in the direction of Knighton. with rumbles of thunder. We had some rain over night but this proved not to be enough to even damped the dust down. 

This was the day of the bank holiday trial, which would also be the team trial for 2008. Sixteen drivers turned up, although we reckon that Dave T had been seen over every county in Wales, before he arrived. Regular conversations were conducted and directions were being fed to him to talk him into the site. I thought that we had used this site before! Although, it could be an age thing – memory and all that. Anyhow, he eventually arrived and the running order and teams were worked out.

Frank turned up in a road going vehicle, with half-pint being out of commission, but proved through the day that 90’s will pretty well go where-ever you point them, if there is room. 

Five teams of three were selected, at random, by Elaine and they were: 

Team 1: Huw Wozencraft, Simon Crowe & Chris Spittle.

Team 2: Malcolm Sumner, Les Davis & Ian McMahon.

Team 3: Mike Lee, Marc Price & John Bradshaw.

Team 4: Dave Lloyd, Martin James & Frank Bright. 

Team 5: Malc Whitbread, Tim Mackley & Dave Tomley 

The sixteenth driver, Jamie, was a day member, so he was not included in the team competition.

The trial sections, although on a site we use regularly, proved to be ‘new’ to most taking part and appeared to have a ‘class 5’ twist to them.

SECTION 1: ‘THAT BANK!!!!’

This saw Les Price lead off and nip through to the ‘1 Gate’. I followed and stopped very suddenly when I hit a bank, which I had to climb up to get to the ‘5 Gate’. 88” was too long and the nose dived in and got stuck in the bank. A recovery was the only way to get the motor out. As a result only five other motors got passed this point, these were the shorter or modified motors. All the others needed recovery, as the hole got deeper and the bank steeper. The only clear was by a class 5 vehicle driven by Chris Spittle. 

SECTION 2: ‘THE QUARRY’

This section was along the quarry, at the side of the track, with a drop down to the track and then a climb straight up the valley side to the ‘3-2-1 Gates’. This was worked out by most and there were 10 clears as a result. The higher scores were as a result of not making the tight turn between ‘6 – 7 Gate’, resulting in coming into contact with the Quarry side, which wouldn’t move, or bottoming-out on some large stones located just before the ‘6 Gate’. 

SECTION 3: ‘THE RIVER DROP’

The river played a large part in this section. Everyone was interested in, and had a close look at, the one access point to the river, which was a sheer drop. There were no real problems or dramas until you went through the ‘6 Gate’. This is were the nose of the motor went straight down but, you had to turn left along the river bed between the high banks. It was crucial to get the right line, so as not to catch the ‘6 Gate’ going in and maintain some drive. If you didn’t do this the motor hit the bottom and the rear swung around. This resulted in the rear of the motor catching the ‘6 Gate and, if you were really unlucky, as a few were, the motor ended up with the nose against one bank and the rear against the other. Class 2 vehicles were allowed an alternative route. A few stumbled at the ‘6 gate’, or in the river, but two class 5 vehicles, driven by Chris Spittle and Jamie Fowler, got clears. 

SECTION 4: ‘ALONG THE BANK’

This section seemed to hinge on two things - being able to stay high on the bank, by the fence, between the ‘7 and 6 Gates’ and being able to make a tight turn down the bank, at the ‘6 Gate’, to the ‘5 Gate’ which was between two rather sturdy trees. The ‘6 Gate’ caught a number of motors out as it appeared, for the earlier motors, to be in a position where it couldn’t be hit!!!!. How wrong. However, the ‘6 Gate’ came into play after half the tree was demolished by Mike Lee. A big score was collected by Jamie, in trying to make room for the turn using his fiddle brakes. A ‘10’ was scored when he hit the fence. It was then down to the shorter, modified and class 5 motors to make good scores, everyone else was just really hoping to miss the 6 and get a 5.

After lunch we went to one section on the opposite side of the valley, to that we had been using, and were to work our way back towards the campsite. 

SECTION 5: ‘MIND THAT FENCE’

This just seemed to be a section for after lunch. It appeared you only had to work out how to get to the finish from the ‘4 Gate’, which all but one motor did.From the ‘4 Gate’ you crossed the river onto a track with two deep ruts running up the hill. The problem was how to make the turn, off the track, to get to the ‘3-2-1 Gates’. There was little room to get momentum to climb off the track to the finish gate so, it was all about making room and keeping out of the ruts. Most attempts were promising with a host of 2’s, along with 3’s for those taken passed the finish in the ruts. Dave T went for a slightly different line to get a run at the finish. Well, after falling off the track and coming to rest on the fence it was the infamous ‘10’ score and a recovery.  

SECTION 6: ‘THE ROOT OF THE PROBLEM’

Only two clears on this section, Chris Spittle and Malc Whitbread. The ‘6 Gate’ seem to be the extent of travel for the greater part of the field. Early fallers were due to a large root and step in the ‘8 Gate’. This bounced motors across into the right hand cane. Those that compensated by keeping tight to the lefthand cane couldn’t climb the step. Those that shot through the ‘8 Gate’ then had problems making the turn back to the ‘7 Gate’ or, if they managed to squeeze through, were in the wrong position to make the ‘6 Gate’. If it went wrong early on you were only looking at how soon you would fail!! 

SECTION 7: ‘WHAT A START’

The ‘10 Gate’ was situated on a good side slope. Positioning for the start was important, keeping the motor high on the bank with a view to get room for a short steep climb out to the 9 gate. Four of the intrepid drivers came to grief catching the lower can of the 10 gate. If you didn’t fail to negotiate the climb through the 9 gate, or belly out in the gate for an 8, you had a tight right turn to get back through the 8 gate, when a good score was then possible. At the end there was an optional finish with a gate for the class 5 motors to make it a little more difficult for them.

Clears were made by Chris Spittle and Jamie Fowler with six other getting 1’s. 

SECTION 8: ‘LEAN OVER’

Here there was the righthand cane for the ‘8 Gate’ in the middle of the river and the lefthand one on the bank. This looked a good sideways lean and, a rough measure, showed that you wouldn’t be able to drive through the bottom of the river bed between the bank and cane. However, this did not catch anyone out and there followed a number of climbs in and out of the river. The majority of motors got caught out between the ‘4 and 5 Gate’ where there was a tight line to get between a tree and the river bank or the climb out of the river to get to the ‘4 Gate’. With the exception of 1’s scored by Chris Spittle and Jamie Fowler, everything else stopped at or just passed the 3 gate. At this point you had to descend the bank into a ‘V’ shaped gulley. In this gulley there was quiet a large, deep hole. Dave T was through the 3 gate then hit this hole. His motor came to a very sudden halt. The back end shot up into the air and pivoted around with the rear driver’s side wheel hitting the cane top. A spectacular stop and probably the highest a cane has been hit by a vehicle tyre.

This proved to be a very interesting trial which everyone thoroughly enjoyed. Credit to Jo Willett for his hard work. 

At the end there was the individual and team scores to be checked, verified and totalled. After much scratching of heads and the use of fingers and toes the results were announced, see results page.