Somerton MCC Classic trial at Priddy

Written by MIKE WOOD Tuesday, 14 June 2011 00:00

Over two day's of very contrasting weather conditions,Somerton MCC staged a super Classic trials event last weekend at Priddy.Whilst Dave Fisher very kindly sent us his report,Lynda Metherell took a week off from motocross action to provide the pics.

It was a weekend of contrasts for the 36 competitors at Somerton Classic’s two day British bike trial at Lower Pitts Farm, Priddy on the Mendip Hills. Saturday was warm and sunny for three laps of ten sections set out over a two mile course in four groups of wooded hillsides, interspersed with moss covered limestone outcrops. There were several low scores on the A route, a clean sheet on the B route and cleans by Giles Pursey, David Bell and Mick Brown, riding a beautifully prepared girder forked rigid Triumph Tiger 90, on the C route. Sunday however was completely different with continuous rain all day, but clerk of the course Mike Palfrey and his helpers had been up early changing sections and quite a reasonable course was the result. In fact Mike Fear lost less on Sunday than he did on Saturday, probably due to the extra energy gained by eating Christine’s chocolates she won in the observer draw.

As expected Barry Barthorpe was the overall winner, but it was a close result, he lost 3 marks on Saturday and 17 on Sunday, whereas Colin Legg only lost 15 on Sunday but his 8 marks on Saturday was too much to recover. All of Colin’s 8 mark loss went on Roger Hand’s section 9, comprising of a cambered turn followed by a climb over some slippery angled rocks. The right amount of speed and throttle control was the recipe for success here.

Tony Bradley cleaned the first day on the B route, but was beaten on Sunday by Chris Hurworth from High Wycombe, who managed to find grip on his 500 rigid Gold Star where others were struggling. One of the hardest A route sections was Bill England’s number 1 consisting of various turns around trees but being situated near the bottom of the wood it soon got very slippery, best rider here was Mark Wheeler who just lost 1 dab on the last lap. In spite of the weather everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and many favourable comments were passed on to the organisers.

RESULTS

A ROUTE

Pre-65 over 250cc, Barry Barthorpe 350 Ariel 20, Bob Hill 500 Ariel 35, John Pym 350 Trifield 82.

Pre-65 under 250cc, Colin Legg 200 Triumph 23, Alan Borton 250 BSA 33, Mark Wheeler 175 BSA 46.

B ROUTE

Pre-65 under 250cc, Tony Bradley 200 Triumph 36.

Pre-65 over 250cc, Jon Cull 500 Ariel 44, Simon Marks 350 Triumph 65.

Rigid, Tim Hancock 350 Matchless 121.

C ROUTE

Rigid girder forks, Mick Brown 249 Triumph 12.

Pre-65 under 250cc, Alan Wheeler 175 BSA 24.

Report by Dave Fisher and images by Lynda Metherell

Lynda Metherell  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it