WOWEE! What great news, three World Championship trials over the next three years at Nevis Range, just outside Fort William. I feel sure that many of the trials fans who read this column will be more than familiar with this venue, and I know that you’ll readily agree that it has EVERYTHING needed to provide a fantastic world championship event. The venue even has proper sections – something that is not always the case for such events where the facilities frequently come second to the actual trial.
And if you don’t know the venue, then get yourself up to Scotland next week for the Scottish where you’ll be able to see for yourself exactly what the area has to offer. Fantastic sections, acres upon acres of hard parking, a mountain gondola to transport you up and down the mountainside, mountain restaurant, conveniences, easy access, and in Fort William and the nearby villages, loads of excellent accommodation including first rate camping facilities.
Roll on 2010, 2011 and 2012 for a world round each side of the Trials des Nations. And don’t forget there’s the Scottish too in the first week of May each year, still one of the best weeks of the year as far as I’m concerned.
It’s easy to forget, with this great news, that there is a World round next month in Cumbria with the Lloyd Motors sponsored round at Armathwaite near Carlisle/Penrith. Following upon the heels of the Lampkin and Miller partnership was never going to be an easy task, but the determination of John Kerwin, Graham Jarvis and Gary Bingley is set to bring a double header world trial to the UK this year, so make sure you support this event which once again gives you the only chance this year to see the world’s best riders in outdoor action in the UK.
The proposed rounds at Nevis Range don’t come as a surprise to me, for many, many months ago Jake hinted to me that he was working on getting the events to the Fort William area, and I respected his confidence until he was ready to make a formal announcement. He never said as much, but after a lifetime in his game one gets to know by a nudge and a wink what’s going on. Not all the time, but enough of the time to surmise what’s happening.
I was delighted by the response to last week’s column about results, though as so often is the case, the replies went down the road of how to physically do the results quickly rather than concentrating on making them available early by means of e-mail and the internet.
However, that’s the way these threads go sometimes and I am a bit surprised that more people didn’t pick up on my mention of how much money there is to be made in organising a trial.
It was my intention this week to explain fully the financial implications of running a trial and where the money goes, but with the news of the world rounds in Scotland breaking, I shall leave this subject until next week.
I have some apologising to do in advance. My laptop is overdue some maintenance work so it is going into the computer doctor just before I go to Scotland next Sunday, May 3.
Therefore, I’m writing this column a couple of days before it gets released and will write next week’s column several days before we SSDT fans meet in Scotland. This means that there is a chance there will not be a column on the Sunday following the Six Days trial. It depends a bit on how accessible other lap tops are in my household. So if a week goes by without a column, I’m not being lazy, it’s just that circumstances prevent me from writing one. We’ll have to see what happens.