Unlike last year when constant rain led to cancellation, the sun shone on the Pennine hillside above Cowling for the 54 pre65 riders on Sunday. It was a day when familiar faces returned to take the premier route spoils. Best on the day were guests Ben Butterworth (Ariel) and Chris Gascoigne (F/Barnett) losing a miserly two marks each around the four laps of ten sections. The quartet of guest winners was completed by friend of the Club Robin Luscombe (Cub special) losing 11 and farthest travelled Tom Sjoman (B40) from Finland losing 34.
Section one was the familiar channel with boulders set to make life difficult. Only Ben, Robin and Nigel Greenwood (Bantam) avoided penalty here as Chris lost both his marks on the tricky rocks. The clubman route avoided the larger obstacles but clubman open class winner Richard Bainbridge (Cub) took a careless dab here.
Consternation
The embedded rocks of section two again needed care but it was the pile of large rocks at section 4 that caused some head scratching for the premier route riders. A ‘U’ turn took riders onto the top of the pile followed by a rock strewn sharp right before the drop back to grass where a large rock glared at the unwary. Robin got it wrong and had to abandon ship over the bars thankfully without injury.
The final six sections were in the familiar stream and the bottom of the hill. Section 7 with its large boulders caused more than its fair share of trouble and Andy Scott’s five mark loss cost him the Cub class win with Vesty dropping a third of his total here.
Clubmen
It was less tricky for the clubmen who avoided the stream for most of the time and four riders shared the spoils losing only 2 with Malc Cocking on his faithful Triumph twin taking the pre-unit class and age decided the order in the open class leaving Richard ahead of Steve Cordon (Bantam) and young Harry Lyons (Bantam) filling the podium.
Some excellent variations in the sections at a good venue made it an enjoyable day out especially with the bonus of warm sunshine despite the cool breeze.
Results
Premier route
Class A- Pre-Unit Springers
1st Ben Butterworth (Ariel) 2 2nd Mick Clarke ( Ariel) 43
Class G-Twins
1st Will Harrison Triumph 49
Class D-Cubs
1st Tony Calvert 11 2nd Andy Scott 11 3rd Ian Myers 18
Class E- unit over 250
1st Tom Sjoman (B40) 34 2nd Roy Wood (C15) 128
Class F- 2 strokes
1st Chris Gascoigne (F/Barnett) 2 2nd Yrjo Vesterinen (Bantam) 6 3rd Nigel Greenwood (Bantam) 14
Class S – Specials
1st Robin Luscombe (Cub special) 11 2nd Dave Ingram (C15 special) 36 3rd Michael Dorricott (Armac Cub) 51
Clubman Route
Class B - Pre-Unit Rigid
1st Steve Rayner (Matchless) 5 2nd Tim Pawson (Norton) 28
Class H - Vintage 2 strokes
1st Eric Atkinson (James) 21
Class K – open Clubman
1st Richard Bainbridge (Cub) 2 2nd Steve Cordon (Bantam) 2 3rd Harry Lyons (Bantam) 2 4th Bob Baker (James) 3
Class K specials
1st Keith Hobson (Armac Cub) 5 2nd Paul Harrison (Bantam) 29
Class T
1st Malc Cocking (Tri Twin) 2 2nd John Feather (Ariel) 5 3rd Paul Jackson (Velo) 6