Reigate Redhill and North Downs MCC ran the August round of the South Coast Group Championship at Betchworth Quarry, Surrey on Sunday. An excellent turnout of 83 riders signed on in warm sunshine to face the 3 laps of 12 sections planned for them. This chalky venue features some sweeping climbs which can be dusty when dry and as slippery as anything when wet. The clerk of the course warned riders not to hang around as showers were forecast for later in the day, but not everyone took heed of these warnings!
The Experts (white) route featured some daunting climbs with Section 6 including a tight uphill turn between rocks and tree roots followed by a series of three off cambered hillocks a bikes length apart. James Fry (MRS Sherco) and Jamie Jones (Gas Gas) were the only cleans on this section on the first lap with James being the sole clean a lap later.
Simon Bird (Sherco) trailed James by 7 marks after the first lap, but then pulled back three marks on their second circuit, as rain started to fall. However, with the rain falling heavily on the last lap he was unable to close further finally finishing only 6 marks in arrears. James' lap scores of 0, 11 and 32 show how much the rain affected the sections!
The Inters rode 50:50 white/blue route sections which obviously was the ideal mix for Gary Martin who took a close win, riding his brother Phil's Repsol Montesa. Clint Leggett took second place 6 marks in arrears with Simon Levett third in what proved to be a complete sweep of the podium by the Montesa marque. Obviously the Montesa's were quite at home in the slippery going, contrary to what some would believe.
The Inters lap scores again showed how the rain impacted things. The big hill climb of Section 8 took 3 or 5 marks from everyone on the last lap, apart from Steve Forrest (Farley Beta) who had his moment of glory with the sole clean. In fact Steve and James Fry were only riders to clean this section on the last lap.
Luke Thomas also rode the Inter route and had an excellent day taking his Farley Sherco round for a score of 45 marks lost, which equated to fourth place on the day. It would have been even better but for a careless five on Section 7 on the first lap when the slippery camber caught out Luke.
The Over 40's Blue route victor was Steve Wells on his Montesa closely followed by Steve Farrell and Mark Elms who tied on 19 marks lost, with Mark getting second place by virtue of one more clean! However, all these riders were overshadowed by Over 50's victor Reynard Norris who took his Scorpa around for a brilliant 7 mark loss, which included a five on Section 2 on his first lap! Super ride!
The novice riders were badly impacted by the rain on their third lap, and obviously had not heeded the warnings regarding the weather outlook as Sean Staker took the win on 38 marks lost having cleaned his first two laps. Andrew Fry took second ahead of Scott Martin, who in turn pipped Martin Carter for third place. The two Bognor lads continuing their friendly rivalry from the recent French 4 day trial back on home turf with Scott taking the spoils on this occasion.
Jim Scott took a slender victory from Mick Morris and Dave Harris in the Gentlemans Over 50 route. The wily folk in this class appeared to have looked to the heavens before the youngsters and got their laps done before the rains fell! However, Frank Puttock obviously spent too long showing everyone his new Repsol Montesa and thus got caught in the showers on his last lap, costing him dearly as he had been clean up until that point.
Thomas Moss showed how much he has improved of late, on his new Gas Gas, taking the win in the Schoolboy B class by some 30 marks from George Hayes. Nice to see that all that practice is paying off and the 2 hour trip to the recent evening trial produced some benefit!
Charles Courtney took his Sherco to a good win in the Schoolboy C category with Elliott Tickner taking the schoolboy honours on the Yellow route. Pixie Briggs and Stu Ridgewell were untroubled by the yellow route sections, both posting a perfect clean score at the end of the day. Well done gentlemen.
All in all an excellent trial which was only spoiled by the rain later in the day. Thanks go Derek Tickner-wand, Brian Flook, Catherine Ross, Jonathan Redman, Luke Thomas and Eric Clarke who gave up their Saturday to help layout the trial and then their Sunday to observe so that others could ride. Thank you also to all the other observers who also gave up their day so that others could enjoy another good RRND event at this popular venue.
Eric Clarke