Kings Norton MCC Aston Auto Trial

Right from the first group of sections, it was clear that in the muddy conditions everyone was going to lose more marks than usual. Anybody losing less than ten marks there, was having a very good ride and there was still a further six groups of sections to go.  The riders must have been worried that they were in for a really tough day!

 

After four groups of sections the riders faced a long trek through the Warwickshire lanes with many running on "fumes" to reach the half way point. This was due to the very small tanks on the modern trials bikes.

 

With the muddy conditions it was really easy to have a slide and a quick dab on any section, although only the one section at Pinley proved impossible for Steven Harris and Richard Wells who were riding the expert route. In the very well supported 50/50 route where competitors ride half of the hard route sections and half of the clubman sections, it was very close between Ian Watts and Mick Flanagan. Ian only won by the most cleans tie decider.

 

The clubman route was also very high scoring with four of the very slippery sections taking marks from every competitor. Steven Davies had a really good ride until two fives on the very last two sections of the day. This was still good enough to put him ahead of Kevin Stannard to win the clubman route.

 

With light fading fast it was important not to hang around in the last group of sections; and it was here that Steve Clarke had a superb ride losing only one mark on the eight sections.  This was the best ride of the day on this extremely slippery group.

 

Another few miles of lanes took the riders back to The Bluebell Inn to finish.