Chris Pearson piloted his Splat Sherco to victory on Sunday in a very wet and challenging event.
Chris held off new Vertigo recruit Sam Yeomans and brother Tim to win this high scoring event at Herbage Farm, a new trials venue, high in the Staffordshire Moorlands.
Herbage Farm has a mixture of steep sided rocky gullies, slippery muddy banks and rough moorland terrain between sections. There were quite a few tired competitors who were happy to see the end of the three laps of 15 difficult sections.
Quite a few sections on the Expert route proved difficult but the decider was section 8 where Sam Yeomans lost 13 marks to Chris Pearson’s 4. A real tester was the final Hill Climb section where only the top three escaped without losing the maximum.
Montesa power was needed on the 50/50 route, as demonstrated by Josh Atkinson who kept the 4 stroke ahead of a host of Spanish 2 strokes to win by a margin of 6 marks from Rob Bowyer, Tom Bennett and Luke Meredith.
Andy Hipwell and Mark Timperley were locked in combat all day on the Middle Route but Andy gained the advantage by one mark at the finish. Such is the nature of trials that these two competitors, although equally matched did not see each other at all during the competition.
Steve Davies, Martyn Snutch and Steve Kenny followed home with only 3 marks between them.
The Clubmans Route was restricted to 3 laps of 12 sections and the terrain between the sections was probably more challenging than the actual sections themselves.
Paul Clowes came out tops from Neil Marsh and John Lawrence.
Grateful thanks to Jeff Day for the use of his land, a real peach of a venue.
Thanks also to the officials and observers who made the trial such a success, without your assistance and hard work we could not organise these events.