Report by Steve Blakeman

Martin James, Adrian Gregory and myself all turned up bright and early on Saturday morning (well they did, I was a little bit late even when living 5 minutes away!) in lovely dry conditions to lay out a nice gentle clean trial... so we thought!

Laying Out

The site is a new site to our club and I think it is going to prove to be a firm favourite amongst the drivers. When we first got there we had a nice little drive about, scenic drive style to survey the land and what we could and could not use. 

Luckily a couple of our more amateur drivers, Russ, David and Rich were not planning on playing on the Sunday so we made the trial a bit more technical and demanding to please the rest of the drivers! ;) 

If it was down to my driving ability then we would just about be able to use the open field as I seemed to be getting stuck everywhere (and that was just in between laying out the sections) but "luckily" I had Adrian and Martin to pull me out. I say luckily like that cause after driving one of Adrian’s special sections I got stuck at 45degrees pointing up a bank in a big stinking mud hole with my rear tow point bedded firmly into the ground... only one way to go...! Needless to say I got showered in mud, but hey least that’s my annual shower out of the way! 

Martin and I soon got our own back on Adrian. After he went off to tow an RTV'er out of some mud, he came back to find Martin and myself standing by a nice big hole and pointing in to it. Being a typically intelligent MROC CCVT driver... he drove straight into it... and... Stayed there! Fortunately there was a nice escape route though some lovely spring water... or not!! Turns out we had found the smeggiest (technical term), smelliest hole on site... what a shame!! But the important thing is we worked as a team to get him out of this hole... he drove… we laughed! 

It was probably the most fun you could have had laying out a trial, and speaking of the trial, I best mention that... 

The Trial 

Come Sunday the weather was quite nice and we had 19 Landys signed on and one tractor thanks to Hamish but after some strict scrutineering (many thanks to Richard Banks) Hamish’s tractor was just about passed so we had a grand total of 20 drivers!

It would have been 21 drivers signed on but my car was stuck in low box and after driving it home down the Fosse Way flat out I decided that with the temperature gauge stuck permanently in the red I best leave it at home! As most of you know, it’s very rarely that my car has any breakdowns or issues so this was a huge shock to me!!!

Section 1:

This was probably one of the easier and cleanest sections of the day, with most people scoring a 2 or 1. Martin James though showed us all how it was done, and drove masterfully and majestically although some might say with a little bit of cheating as he had laid out this section to get a… 6! D’oh.

Section 2:

This section was a section of two halves. The first half was a nice drive around the woods and the second half was pretty much a tractor pull section, of blasting though deep ruts trying to get up the climb to score a clear. There were some excellent drives on this section which was catching many drivers out and some even managed to find some grip which soon confused them and put them into the cane! A special mention must go to tractor boy on this section. He drove superbly all the way up to the one gate, had the perfect line, sneaked his left hand hub through, went 6 inches more to make sure, then another few inches, quite clearly through, all he had to do was stop, which he finally did, after resting his bumper against the cane, oh dear!

Section 3:

This was the section where you needed 750’s and a nice right foot, or your name to be Glynn and try some crazy line that would surely result in going sideways into a mud hole. But no, turned out to be a great line (if not very risky) and powered his way up through the 3 2 and 1 for a great clear. Up to this point in the day Ben Tandy had been struggling due to his car working on all cylinders something none of us are used to, but thankfully for him, after this section it soon started missing again much to his relief and his driving standard soon picked up.

Lunch

A nice hot bacon and sausage sarny from the farm, just what the doctor ordered and back to the fun and mud…

Section 4:

Yet again this section included plenty of the thick claggy stuff they like to call mud. It was a nice twisty section into deep mud with a loop up a bank and back into the mud with a nice kink before a sharp right up a very slippery climb. Quite a few drivers were caught out at the three gate misjudging how much momentum would be needed to avoid the canes and my favourite of all objects, the trees! The ones that did this, most of them managed to get a 1 after failing the final climb, though some who found some grip from somewhere managed to power up for a clear, excellent driving by those who did!

Section 5:

How strong is your bumper?!? Well this was the perfect section to find out as Paul Taylor Demonstrated. A nice twisty looping start to the section up and down a few banks greeted the drivers before a sharp descent between the undergrowth through the 4 gate caught a few drivers out before going through some nice water and a 90degree left up the band for the 3 2 1. Either side of the 3 2 1 canes were some well placed trees to guide you up, but not necessarily down. Paul then failed the climb and on his way down got a tree jammed between the back of his bumper and his wing. Amazing despite taking the full weight of the landy the bumper stayed straight as can be, which is very unlike a landy bumper! Eventually we managed to gently ease him off the tree with the helping hand of Martin and a rope round the cage. This wasn’t the end of it though, after being removed Paul drove down a track to park up with the rest of the Landys, however after hearing a bang, we turned around to see him drive into another tree harmlessly at the side of the track and… he bent his bumper! In contrast to this comedy of errors, Simon Wise powered his way up to be the only clear on this section.

Section 6:

This was by far the best section of the day, nothing at all to do with the fact that I had laid it out, as I’m just not biased like that at all! This section started with a descent over some humps before a short sharp climb that caught a couple drivers out before a sideways climb up between two trees at the 5 gate which caught many out with many drivers hitting either the bottom cane or the top one depending on their line. The few who got through this then had the fun of a sharp right, foot to the floor climb up the bank for the 4 3 2 and 1. Adrian in his flymo was most impressive going up this bank, steaming his way all the way to the top and over, although sadly to his disappointment he had already hit the 10!

Section 7:

This was the section that included that smeggy, smelly hole that a pig would have been proud to of called home. The Highlight of the section was of course the drivers driving through the hole covering themselves although it was noticed that certain drivers “accidentally” clipped the 4 gate thus meaning they didn’t have to carry on into the hole, surely no one would do it on purpose would they!??!

A special mention (you get a whole paragraph to yourself) must go to Ben Tandy who was the first person into this hole. He bravely, right foot hard down, steamed through it, struggling to get grip to climb up the bank to the finish though sadly he could not manage this, even after many attempts. Fortunately for him a tow was on hand, but not by a CCVT landy, oh no, but by an RTV’er. A lot of you may wince at this but it is a true story, Ben Tandy got towed out by an RTV’er, much shame on him. Is there any way to move him to another club?!?

Section 8:

A relatively tame section in terms of mud and power required but gave the drivers a different challenge for the days last section as it was very twisty and technical as it weaved through the trees with a very difficult and tight 3 2 1 with only a small number of drivers managing to get the right line through a very narrow gap to get through the one gate.

Trophy Winners in each class

80 Leaf	Simon Wise	3pts (1st Overall)
80 Coil/Tractor	Hamish Grundy	15pts
86 Leaf /Tree Hugger	Paul Taylor	21pts
88 Coil	Stephen Banks	25pts

All in all it was a great days driving, excellent turn out (best in years for a club trial), great new challenging ground, good weather (for once) and plenty of good spirit with lots of smiles (and mud) on faces. A special mention must go to Paul Glover for marshalling and keeping the scores through out the day.