TRIAL REPORT
MCC - Lands End Trial
9th/10th April 2004
With lengthy delays on a number of sections, four tricky sections right at the end, and the seemingly inevitable rash of RBs, JFs, and ORLs spread throughout the results, it was not a vintage year for the MCC's Lands End Trial. When the route card arrived it was immediately apparent that it was going to be a very similar event to 2003 for Class 7, with a restart on Bluehills 1 the only significant change. But, as all the regulars know, there are a myriad minor changes that the organisers can make to catch the unwary, and then there's always the vagaries of the weather to contend with.
Those of us who started from Michaelwood Services had the pleasure of a fly-past and send-off by three vintage aircraft - a Gypsy Moth and a Tiger Moth (both biplanes), and a single wing plane whose name I can't remember. As is now usual the route turned north - the opposite to the obvious direction - and took a huge clockwise loop through the Cotswolds to Chippenham and eventually to North Petherton. On the way we resisted the temptation to turn right, just before the New Inn in Dursley, and attempt Crooked Mustard in the dark. For some reason there was a huge queue, stretching right out of the door, when we got to the breakfast stop but this seemed to abate by the time we actually sat down and we didn't feel pressured to leave the table the minute the last mouthful was finished.
The six-hour procession that is the Lands End Trial wound on through Felons Oak (which only stopped two Marlins) to Stoney Street (where all Marlins were clean) and thence across an extremely misty Exmoor to the control at County Gate. Approaching Stoney Street our headlights suddenly went out and we were delayed nearly forty-five minutes sorting-out a problem which should have taken us five - Repeat after me (100 times) "When the electrics fail on a kit-car, always check the earthing first". The first section after County Gate was Beggar's Roost where we drove straight past a line of cars parked on the 'wrong' side of the road thinking they were just adjusting their tyres. Too late we realised that the queue for the section stretched all the way back to the Barbrook Filling Station so we had to carry on some way up the main road, turn around, and then go all the way back to Barbrook to join it - losing another dozen-or-so places in the process. There was no obvious reason why the queue should have been so long although there were slightly more failures than normal (including five Marlins) and a distinct lack of urgency from the start line crew. The restart was certainly tricky and, having driven-off without a moment for several years, we had an urgent wake-up call when it required a bit more effort this year.
There were more misty moorland miles before Riverton where we were delayed still further when one of the driveshafts of a Citroen AX just in front of us decided to part company with the car and the recovery tractor had to work overtime to haul the (now three-wheeled) car right out of the top of the section before we could all get past. Although all the Marlins went clean, there were lots of comments that it was a bit rough "compared with normal". These comments came only from those who've never done Riverton on the North Devon Exmoor Trial - held in January - when it's really rough! The sun was up, and the mist gone, by the time we got to the Torrington Control and the smiling faces of stalwart marshals John and June Blakeley. Sutcombe must be getting easier as none of the Marlins failed the restart, only seasoned competitor Murray Montgomery-Smith in his first outing in the ex-Dave Parker LWB Marlin dropping a point for a 'Jumped Flag'.
There's always a long queue before Darracott but this year it was longer than I've ever seen it. There were the inevitable mutterings that it was all due to Class 0 being allowed to attempt the hill, but I don't expect that we'll ever find out the real reason. Whatever, the marshals at Darracott were determined to uphold its reputation as the 'RB' hill and managed to fail 30 competitors (10% of the entry) for this highly-questionable technical infringement. I was, unfortunately, one of the 30 and, although I have absolutely no recollection of 'running-back', I'm all too well aware of the futility of protest on this issue - you just have to grin-and-bear-it. Crackington (all Class 7 Marlins clean) was a positive delight for those not 'baulked', a foot-down blast up the lower section to gain enough speed to get through the quagmire further up where the only question is whether you can keep the speed up and keep the car in a straight line. The restart on Treworld should be straightforward but managed to catch three Marlins including poor Tony Branson who got off the restart line without a problem only to have his engine die within feet of the 'Section Ends' board.
By the time we got to the Wilsey Down Control we were running over three hours late but the marshals made us take the full hour-long break despite our normal pleading - always worth a try, always the same (non) result! By now we were running so close to the end of the trial - a repeat of this year's Exeter but not for the same reasons thank goodness - that the course-closing car was in sight before we attempted Warleggan, and Warleggan was rough! All the Marlins cleaned it, although we had a 'moment' when I was forced to lift-off over a particularly large step and couldn't find enough grip for rather too long afterwards.
On the current Lands End route, any Class 7 competitor with serious expectations of an Award has to stay 'clean' until after Warleggan, and before the last four sections which all have the potential to stop the inexperienced, the unwary, or the plain unlucky. We, being blissfully unaware of our 'RB' at Darracott of course, thought that we were in this desirable situation as we attempted Hoskin, the first of the four final sections, all with restarts for Class 7. Hoskin, as Alan Foster has remarked, is a very rare example of a typical 'MCC section' which is also a genuine stopper - a surface of polished stones which is non-damaging but affords very little grip and, most importantly, stays in virtually the same condition for the entire trial. Classes 1 to 6 get a clear run, Classes 7 and 8 are treated to restarts with a more difficult restart for Class 8. Only a handful of competitors saw the top this year, and only Mal Allen, John Ludford, Bryan Phipps, and Arthur Vowden from the Class 7 Marlin contingent. 'One-down' we continued on to the Special Test and section in Bishopswood. With ultra-dry conditions in 2003, Roger Ugalde had set-out the Bishopswood restart to 'get-a-result' and get-a-result he did [See Trials Scene - June/July 2003]. This year it was back to the same configuration as 2002 and 12 Marlins cleaned it. The other 12 of you had better re-read my previous article [See Trials Scene Extra - Lands End Trial 2002] which tells you exactly what to do!
So now, as every year, it was down to the two sections at Bluehills to determine the final results and the route card had already alerted us to the two most signficant changes from 2003 - a restart on Bluehills 1 which could be really tricky if set-out as a 'stopper', and a higher restart line on Bluehills 2 which should, in theory, make it slightly easier. By the time we arrived there was virtually no queue and thus we had no chance to see how the competitors ahead of us were tackling Bluehills 1 - it probably made no difference anyway! Whatever, we stopped low-in-the-box and, when the flag dropped, stayed there in a cloud of tyre smoke although we were actually scored, along with a few others, as 'RB' - I'm sure if we did slide backwards it was with the wheels revolving forwards! Six Marlins made it - Mal Allen, Peter Hart, John Ludford, Murray Montgomery-Smith, Peter Morris and Bryan Phipps - proving that it was possible. Bluehills 2 is still my all-time favourite section despite the chicane and deviations introduced when John West was Clerk-of-the-Course for the Lands End. This year Roger Ugalde had moved the Class 7/8 restart up from just above the 'chicane' to right at the base of the final climb out of the section. After my spectacular 'flying fish' failure in 2000, we'd cleaned the section in 2002 and 2003 by trickling around the corner then, when straight, giving the car maximum revs to climb out. It thus required only the subtlest variation to this technique to stop with the front wheels just 'in-the-box', then floor the throttle for the final few yards.
So that was our Lands End - a totally-to-be-expected failure at Hoskin, and a rather annoying failure at Bluehills 1 - and rather too much time spent hanging-around. But at least the modifications to the fuel system seemed to have worked and we had no recurrence of the problems which had given us such a disappointing start to the season.
27 Marlins were listed in the Entries, 23 in Class 7, Owen Ingram's v8-engined car in Class 8, and 3 in Class 0, and the final awards tally was:
- Gold: 1 - Mal Allen. Mal was one of only four Golds in Class 7 putting him into the 'superman' class alongside Clive Kalber, Andrew Martin and Harvey Waters.
- Silver: 4 - Peter Hart (failed Hoskin), John Ludford (failed Bishopswood), Bryan Phipps (failed Beggars Roost), and Arthur Vowden (failed Bluehills 1).
- Bronze: 3 - Ray Easterbrook, Murray Montgomery-Smith, Howard Stephens.
- Class 0 Award: 2.
- Finishers: 12 + 1 in Class 0.
- Retired: 2.
- Non-Starters: 2.
Results: See the Marlin League updated to include the Lands End results.
Photographs: View the Classical Gas Web Community Photo Album.
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