Stan Hinsley Trial 10th August 2008

report by Brett King
Full Results

The small yet dedicated band of members at Wye Valley Auto Club staged the Stan Hinsley Trial, their second of the summer, when they put together a challenging contest at Bowley Court Farm in Herefordshire last weekend.

Helped by a respite in the wet weather, just shy of fifty riders ranging over 50's to Youth D class appeared, testing themsleves against four laps of tree root strewn cambers and rocky stream sections. The battle for the Premier on the standard route was dominated by the Centre's top two riders - Simon Welch and Henry Bendall. It very nearly took the form of a cake-walk for Simon as Henry was well off the pace at the end of lap one, trailing by 7 marks in what was going to prove to be a low scoring contest. However, Henry got his act together and started to reel Simon in to the point where he was only two adrift going into the final lap, largely thanks to a slack 5 from Simon on the cambered fifth section. Sadly for Henry, just when he was mounting his last lap challenge, Simon raised his game and put in a clean last lap to take victory by 4 marks and another maximum of championship points. Leo Rochfort was best Youth A as he saw off a firm challenge from Matt Christopher, the log of section 6 providing the obstacle that spilt the two of them.

On the Clubman/Expert route, ACU Traditional Series contender Dan Sanders led the way on his beloved air-cooled Yamaha and set the pace from the off with an opening lap of just 2 marks lost. This set him up for the route win wtih a seven mark advantage over Bretton King who took best Inter ahead of Stuart Essenhigh. These two had a day-long tussle as they finished the first lap tied and it was only in the last quarter when King got a comfortable margin courtesy of Essenhigh as Stu fived the opening section of the final lap.

The lions share of the entry were roaring around the alternative route like it was a time and observation trial and the top two performers here were P.Marsh and R.Fowler, each dropping only 6 marks and winning Best Novice and Over 50 respectively. Chasing their tails was Andy Perry who claimed that his riding style was not suited to the rocks of the venue but this didn't affect his ability to win the Over 40 class as he eeked out a 3 mark margin over CHG's Mike Clarke. Perry nearly blew it on the final lap when he fived section six's stream-bed turn, but fortunately for him, Mike scuppered his chances when he picked up a two on the climb out of section four. The twinshock class was well populated by BSA and John Pickering had a fantastic ride to win by a massive 27 mark margin from Dudley's Geoff Hawkins, while Youth B winner was Will King, securing his first victory in a centre trial.

The C & D youths were a welcome sight as they will hopefully provide future depth for the Centre and they all had a terrific day. Expert winner was T.Watkins in the C's whilst on the novice route Best D was M.Cunnington, only 7 marks adrift of C class victor A.Williams. Well done to all of them, especially Emelia Fletcher who notched up some very stylish cleans.

Full Results