A tough event, with steep sections but it's not a rough
one.
The Organisers Say:-
Since the early years of Camel Vale the club has run
traditional road-going trials.
One of the main events was the Octo Trial which covered the Bodmin
andEast Cornwall area.
A general decline of
these events took place in the late seventies and the
Octo fell victim, mainly because no organisers could be found.
In 1983, having recently joined the club committee, two new trialers
were keen to see the event revived. The aim was to
enter, but both of them rapidly came to the
conclusion that unless they actually ran it themselves
the event simply would not happen.
Furthermore, they would not be missing an event
because if they did not run it there was no event to enter
anyway!
In their first year
they put together a challenging event in the true Camel
Vale spirit using many of the Octo's sections
plus a few new finds of their own.
The event ran as the Octo Trial for two years before it became the more
appropriately named Camel Classic as by then it was not even running in
October.
Having first gained
status as a round of the Chester Motor Club's Trials
Championship it later became both ACTC and ASWMC Championship
rounds. The same core organisers exist in
place to this day who continue to provide a full
day's challenging array of sections. The flavour of
the event remains the same, although rarely are any of the
original sections used. This is largely due to the organisers desire to
produce at least one new section each year and the need to match the
increase in climbing performance of the
entries. However occasionally one or two of the old
hills are included in the interest of tradition.
Over the years we
have gained the reputation of being a tough trial but we
must stress this does not automatically imply that it is rough.
Two years ago we introduced a new scoring system whereby several hills
were re-marked before they were attempted by classes 1 to 5. We believe
this was successful in producing more even scores throughout the entry.
We will be doing the same this year.
We have also planned in 3 new sections in a wood more easterly than we
have been for a few years. Although this will add to the road miles, we
hope they will be enjoyed enough to make it worthwhile.