Anglian Autosolo Challenge 2015 - Results
Sunday 8th November saw the finale of the 6 round Anglian Autosolo Challenge for 2015. Our congratulations go out to Andrew Scott for taking overall honours in the Autosolo events, and ECMC's own John Peterson for taking top honours in the Autotest challenge. Other class positions can be seen at the link below:
Lamarsh Trial - 4th Oct - Results
The Trials season got underway today in the glorious October sunshine at Top Farm, Lamarsh. 26 competitors took part, with many cars being double driven. ECMC would like to thank David Holmes for doing an excellent Clerk's job today, tweaking the hills between rounds to ensure they made a sufficient challenge without being impossible. The long grass was still very wet with dew for the first round, but as soon as the sun hit the hills it started to dry and the scores steadily dropped. Sadly ECMC Historian Leigh Trevail retired early in the day with fuel pump issues, the car objecting to not having been run for a couple of years! The Citroen AX of Cliff Morrell/Adrian Gibson seemed to be suffering with a flat battery at the end of the morning, as a consequence they missed a couple of hills and had it back on the trailer, but a quick tinkering session saw it apparently behaving again and they were able to complete the after rounds.
At the end of the day Chris Pettitt started the defense of his AMSC Trials series title with a very impressive score of 24 (15 of which picked up on the slippery Round 1 hills), and in fact did not pick a single penalty all afternoon - a worthy overall win. Andy Mount kept him honest all day and only lost out by picking up a 3 on the final round, but 26 points was an easy Class B win. The Hanman Dellow was the cream of Class D with Peter and son Tim going into the final round equal on points, had it stayed that way Peter would have taken the class on the 'furthest cleanest' rule but in the end Tim pipped him by 2 points on the final hills to take the win.
We had 5 newcomers trying out PCT'ing for the very first time and all came back to the admin desk grinning after each round so there no question that they enjoyed themselves. Barry Franklin came out top in this class and in fact finished 11th overall, which is very impressive for a first event.
This event was the opening round of the AMSC Trials series 2015-16. David Bell will be doing his numerical magic and allocating the first scores for the series based on these results, so check the AMSC website soon to see how you faired.
AMSC Autosolo Challenge - Round 3 Results
Round 3 of the 2015 AMSC Autosolo Challenge took place on Sunday 19th July at Debden Airfield. It was a hotly contested day in all classes with some very close results
Many thanks to Caroline Cruz who took some excellent photos during the day, the pick of the bunch can be seen on the AMSC Facebook page, with the full set on Photobucket.
The class points standings for the AAC15 so far can be found here.
Results from the previous rounds can be found using the links below:
South Suffolk Classic - 10th May 2015
The South Suffolk Classic run will be in its 7th year and once again we have an excellent days driving lined up for you. Kerridges of Needham Market are once again our kind sponsors for the 2015 event. The run will take place on Sunday 10th May and this year we are offering a choice of routes so you can choose to spend more time at the stop points and South Suffolk Show, or spend more time behind the wheel enjoying the excellent scenery and 'driving' roads the team has selected.
Full details of the event, including route and entry forms are available from the event website www.southsuffolkclassic.co.uk. Once again we will be raising money for the East Anglian Air Ambulance - a worthy cause I'm sure you'll agree.
Beginners Guide to Car Trials
So you have seen the pictures and you fancy a go!
1. What is a PCT?
Its proper title is a Car Trial (CT) – which us nerds shorten to PCT, they used to be called Production Car Trials.
2. What is the aim of the event?
Its pretty much what it says on the tin, the aim is to get your car as far up the hill course as possible whilst driving between marker poles. You get penalty points for stopping on the hill or hitting a pole and the person with the lowest scores wins!
3. What car do I need to compete?
ANY normal road car is eligible to complete in a PCT, as you can see from the Facebook page The most common are small front wheel drive hatchbacks, but anything is usable (Nissan Micra, VW Polo, Ford Fiesta, Citron Saxo, but even Mazda MX5s are used ). The car does not need any modification although the tests are on hilly fields so a ‘slammed’ golf is not an ideal car.
4. Will I damage my car?
The tests are designed to reward gentle smooth driving without damaging the car (though if you don’t drive with the right level of care you may catch front spoiler)
5. On the web page there are specialist trial cars competing, how can I compete against those?
The days competitors are divided into a number of classes by car type and each type of car has its own class ie:
- 1. Two wheel drive production cars first registered on or after 1st January 1998, taxed, carrying no ballast, driven to venue, no modifications
- 2a. Front wheel drive production cars up to 1400cc not eligible for class 1
- 2b. Front wheel drive production cars over 1400cc not eligible for class 1
- 3. Rear wheel drive production cars not eligible for class 1
- 4. Modified production cars, kit cars, sports cars and specials
This way so you only complete against similar cars (note:- 4wd cars are not permitted)
As you can see the specialist trial cars are in a separate class, so you are not competing against them.
6. How do I prepare my car?
Take all the loose stuff and rubbish out - weight is a problem in ALL motor sports,.
Drive it to the event – it will be checked but the scrutineering is a simple once over to make sure things like the battery is secure and the wheels are bolted on its not a repeat of the MOT - if the car is road legal it is very likely to be OK. At the event they will check you tyre pressures (each class has an allowed pressure – so bring a tyre pump)
7. How do I enter?
There are a number of PCTs held in this area by the local Car clubs, the 2014/5 Eastern Trials Challenge consists of the following rounds:
- 19th October Kensworth Trial (Falcon MC)
- 2nd November Guy Fawkes Trial (Falcon MC)
- 16th November Lyng Garage Trial (SCCoN)
- 30th November Wattisfield Trial (West Suffolk MC)
- 1st January Seckford Trial (Eastern Counties MC)
- 18th January Roger Holmes Memorial Trial (Cambridge CC)
- 22nd February Holbecks Trial (West Suffolk MC)
- 15th March Wattisfield Trial (West Suffolk MC)
- 19th April Ivinghoe Trial (Falcon MC)
(more details on the organizing clubs web sites)
To take part you need:-
- 1. A car and a passenger (though you can often borrow someone else's passenger on the day if you don’t have your own)
- 2. You join one of the clubs (about £10 for a year)
- 3. Fill in an entry form and pay your entry fee – one entry per driver (most clubs will allow you to join and enter on the day of the event)
It is quite common for both the driver and passenger to enter using the same car (one drives and the other passengers and then they swap over and do the test again……..husband/wife and father/sibling teams teams are very common.
If you need any more detail each club has a Competitions Secretary who will be happy to talk you through it or you can turn-up to an event and watch and chat to other competitors or marshal for a day – you will pick up a lot watching others!