This event on Sunday the 31st of July was billed as being dry under wheel but care was needed as the overnight rain filled many dips to capacity. Thirty six riders turned up and almost half were riding pre-units and vintage two strokes.
Mick Clarke on his big Ariel came out top dropping only a single dab, well ahead of the chasing pre-unit pack. Young Johnny Cooke showed his improved recent form bringing his superb Ariel into second a further 8 marks behind.
In the rigid pre-unit class John Feather on his reliable Ariel lost 14 to top the class with Gordon Imrie trying out his ailing Matchless 4 marks worse off.
Bomb Holes
The first sections are set in the bomb holes with cambers, rocks and tight turns being much in evidence and not much trouble was caused Section six was the first to test the riders where a slippery rut to a right hand climb demanded some attention before the off camber downhill finish.
Section 7 caused a surprising amount of trouble amongst the pre-units with only Johnny Cooke and Steve Rayner (Matchless) remaining clean on the loose sharp right hand bend before the steep climb to the finish. Mick Clarke lost his only mark here. The lightweights had little trouble with several riders going clean on all laps.
The steep wooded climb at section 8 was damper than previous years and the big bikes used the extra power to their advantage.
A new compact nadgery section 9 greeted the riders to test their cross camber control. An awkwardly set tree root had to be hit perfectly to avoid the tricky lower line and only Clarke and a handful of lightweights hit it right on every lap.
Sting in the Tail
Section ten is notorious at Greetland and Sunday was no exception. The uphill approach found a revised line before the sharp left cambered turn and climb between gritstone blocks to the finish took marks from all but Clarke. Even the top three lightweights succumbed to dropping their only marks here. Chris Bacon needed rescuing when he stalled against the gritstone block with his boot pinned by his BSA C10. Neither rider nor machine suffered any lasting damage!
Lightweights
Two stroke champion Steve Thomas was best of the non competitive riders tying on a single dab with Steve Cordon on his 8E Villiers engined Bantam with the former taking the tie on the oldest rider rule. Recent Bantam convert Steve Gossop took his first club podium on his Brogden built machine losing 3 at the final hurdle.
It's a small venue, but the majority agreed that the ten sections made for a great day out for a Pre Unit event. It was good to see at least 3 riders out for their first ride with us on big pre-unit machinery.
Results
Pre-Unit Springers
1st Mick Clarke (Ariel) 1 2nd Johnny Cooke (Ariel) 9 3rd Paul Jackson (Velo) 21
Pre-Unit Rigid
1st John Feather (Ariel) 14 2nd Gordon Imrie (Matchless) 18 3rd Steve Rayner (Matchless) 21
Twins
1st John Patefield (Triumph) 28 2nd Rob Lowther (Triumph) 69
Pre-units under 347cc
1st Chris Bacon (C10) 27
Vintage 2 stroke Rigid
1st Eric Atkinson (Ambassador) 55
Vintage Two Stroke Springers
1st Neil Anderton (James) 39
Just for fun – non competitive
1st Steve Thomas (Bantam) 1 2nd Steve Cordon (Vill/Bantam) 1 3rd Steve Gossop (Bantam) 3 4th Dave 'Stav' Ingham (C15) 5