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November 2001 - Part 2

Gill Morrell Trial

Cliff Morrell and his team had a good entry of 31 for Falcon’s first trial since February. National B entries were a bit thin on the ground, as the BTRDA final was on the same day up in the Midlands. This left Colin Reid as the only FWD in National B, so he quickly transferred to Clubsport to have a bit of competition. Colin was driving his silver Nova as the Golf Gti is a desperate need of a bit of welding.

The National B squad set out to do battle on the woody slopes leading back up to the paddock and by hill two all but Howard and Manning had lost their clean sheets. The Howard was Marlin mounted Robin and the Manning was David, having the cheek to lead Peter in the family Midget when Peter dropped a four on hill two. Peter fought back and was the only National B to scale the third hill. By the time the lunch break arrived Peter was in the lead, one mark ahead of Robin. David had dropped back after a couple of mistakes and the lead was hotly contested by four drivers. Peter Manning (16), Robin Howard (18), Jack Williams (19) and Dave Smith (21). Jack came into contention by some canny driving on hill eight, picking his line around Cliff Morrells heavily cambered corners and easing the Tempest over the hump at the top. Dave Smith was driving in a more determined style, he wasn’t so concerned about breakage’s as he had a backup car ready and waiting up in the paddock!

Ian Lawson was having problems as the exhaust manifold had broken and the Dutton was loosing power as it became noisier and noisier. By now class C was down to two as Ed Nikel had broken another Imp diff and decided on the spot to fit a Ford unit like Richard Tompkins who was sharing his car with Dave Russell.

The large clubsport entry started out on the other side of the valley where they had to tiptoe across the dewy grass until they got to the grip on the sandy bits. Mike Pearson found plenty of grip for his Dellow and had lost only seven marks at lunch. Dave Nash had kept very close on the first round but found Noddy a handful on some of the tight turns as there wasn’t enough weight on the front to stop the special understeering off the track on the sandy hill six. Simon and Matt Robson were also going well in the Liege and were tying for second place behind Mike at Lunch. Keith Oakes was doing well in his Classic Trials Dutton Phaeton until hill six was modified on the second round and Keith just couldn’t get the long wheel base machine around the tight turn at the top.

The front wheel drive Clubsport cars were having a tough time on Brickhill’s rutted and tree rooty sections and it was interloper Mark Rosten-Edwards (Mk 2 Escort) who was leading the amalgamated class 1 and 2 at lunch-time. Colin Reid (Nova) was the only FWD car to keep in touch with Mark. Watling MSC’s Jamie Turner was putting in an impressive performance in his MG Maestro. It is quite a big car to get round some of the tight turns although the big wheels must help to offset this a bit. Graham Raeburn was struggling with the ruts in his Mini and Michel Church retired before he damaged his road car.

Lunch provided an opportunity to relax and swap yarns. The weather was fine despite a gloomy forecast. There had been a little drizzle in the late morning but this soon went away and the afternoon was very fine. All the moisture disappeared from the sections and grip was easier to find. Cliff had realised this of course and had been busy tweeking his sections to compensate!

In the afternoon Robin Howard retained his one mark lead in National B all the way to hill 5 on the last round where he dropped one when Peter cleaned the section. This meant that at the end they tied on 26, the win going to Peter on the basis of a tie decider your reporter doesn’t understand! Dave Smith was only four marks behind, closing the gap during the afternoon when he put in the best performance. Jack Williams wasn’t able to close the gap when he lost eight on hill two immediately after lunch. David Sheffield was sharing his Midget with Michael Weeks and was another driver to have the mastery of Cliff’s sections in his well sorted car. Ian Lawson’s Dutton became noisier and noisier and his day came to an end when the diff let go with a loud bang.

It was no surprise that Mike Pearson retained his lead in Club Sports. Mike’s skilled driving was a joy to behold and he lost only three more marks during the afternoon. Matt Robson came second in the Liege after Simon understeered off the track on hill six after lunch. Ross Nuten had a better afternoon, drawing ahead of Keith Oakes and nearly catching Dave Nash as Noddy was objecting to the tighter turns in the afternoon. Roger Dudley was another driver to go well in the afternoon in his smart Dutton Melos. Neil Bray won the class within a class battle, heading Owen Turner after the Imp broke a donut on the penultimate section.

Colin Reid got down to some serious work in the afternoon, putting together a string of zeros to catch and pass Mark Rosten-Edwards who hung on to second. Colin was the winner of a resurrected Duckhams Trophy for best Falcon on Index. Murray MacDonald stayed just in front of Jamie Turner. Nigel Taylor was another driver to go well, driving his Talbot Samba rather than one of his Turners.

There was a little confusion at the end when Cliff found a mistake in the original index calculation which changed some of the results. However, it did nothing to spoil a really enjoyable day.