Gill Morrell Trial

Dave Smith scored a resounding overall victory at Falcon’s Brickhill Trial after Michael weeks retired with a broken diff. The dry conditions did place a strain on transmissions as there was grip a plenty but Cliff Morrell and his team put on a competitive trial at this famous old venue.

Dave Smith won the National B event in his Tempest	Peter and James Mountain gave their Dellow its Brickhill début
Colin Reid raises the dust	Looks like a nice MG!

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There were 34 entries at a very dry Brickhill for Falcons Gill Morrell Trial. However, Cliff Morrell and his team know the venue back, front and sideways and managed to lay out eight competitive hills, using camber, slippery bracken and moist conditions under the trees to provide the challenge.

The entry contained many of the usual suspects with a sprinkling of interesting “new” cars. Claire Norman and Glynn Bawden had a delightful Austin Seven. Edward Holloway had a nice little special, one of many interesting cars he has created over the years. Likewise Dave Nash never fails to surprise us. The Skeetle was amongst the entry, driven by Neil Bray. It’s architect was driving his latest creation, The Mgeetle, a Beetle floorpan and type one engine under an MGB GT body. Then there were a couple of cars that made their trial débuts on the Edinburgh the previous week. Ed Nikel had the ex Mike Pearson Buggy and Peter and James Mountain were driving their newly refurbished Dellow.

The early morning dew was still on the grass for the first round, catching out many of the entry. Two drivers managed to retain their clean sheets. Dave Smith in National B and Mike Pearson in Clubsport. They couldn’t be complacent though. Michael Weeks and Ross Nuten had both only dropped four. Dave and Mike were to maintain their clean sheets through the second round until lunch and Michel Weeks went clean as well. Things didn’t go so well for Ross. He dropped 10 on hill one and quite a few more on the other hills to drop down the order.

Chris Smith was going well in National B and was not far behind Dave Smith and Michael Weeks, with Ian Lawson and Davis Sheffield snapping at his heels. Mike Pearson had a bigger lead in Clubsport and his nearest challengers were Roger Dudley (16), Ian Davis (17) and Geoff Hodge (19).

Lunchtime provided the usual opportunity to socialise and look at all the interesting cars, competing and non-competing, with a tie here between the Austin 7, Mgeetle and Reg Taylor’s Anglia.

Dave Smith lost his clean sheet immediately after lunch on Hill 1where he dropped six and Hill 2 where he lost another three. Both were cleanable though as Colin Weeks and Dave Sheffield proved on Hill 1 and Ian Lawson on Hill 2. By Hill 2 Michael Weeks had crept up to Dave And was tying for the lead but that was to change in the sandpit on Hill 4 when the diff cried enough and Michael and Colin had to retire. David Sheffield took over the challenge to Dave’s Tempest but not for long as his diff went bang as well and he joined the bidding for the spare axle in Simon Robson’s garage!

In Clubsport Ian Davis was going well and started to creep up on Mike when Mike dropped a seven on Hill 7 on the third round. This was to be Mike’s un-lucky hill because he dropped eleven here on the last round. Ian cleaned the hill, tying with Mike on 25 marks lost. This gave Mike the award for Best Falcon and Ian Best Performance in Clubsport. Nigel Taylor just pipped Robin Howard for class 1. John and Simon Groves had the misfortune to loose their Escort’s clutch at the very end of the trial as did John Parsons in his VW Buggy.

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