Arnold Lane and his team tried out some new routes at this famous venue, which changes every time we visit. This year some of the traditional hills weren’t usable because of four-wheel drive damage, but the Land Rover boys had also opened up some new routes. The other issue was the lack of traditional Brickhill bracken which again opened up new possibilities.

Clubsport started on hill 5, at the far end of the second field. Peter Manning and Keith Pettit were in charge of a very muddy section up a shaded bank, which was to remain boggy all day. Keith Oakes, John Parsons and Mike Pearson were the only drivers to go clear. Eventual winner Steve Strutt dropped 5 here, driving Ross Nutens familiar Mk 2 Dellow while Ross himself marshalled. At the end of the first round John was the only one of the three to retain his clean sheet after Mike Pearson dropped eight in the bracken of hill 7 and Keith had a number of failures. All this left Geoff Hodge in second in Clubsport with only the one he dropped on hill five. Steve Strutt was getting to grips with Ross’s Dellow and cleaned everything after the first hill.

National B started on the grassy slopes of hill 1 before going onto two hills on the bomb hole. Most of the National B’s were clean until they reached Hill Five where they really struggled with their restricted tyre pressures and the best anyone could reach was the one. Michael Weeks was one of these, but he was the only one not to loose any more, to lead the category at the end of round one.

The first round had been easier than expected and with the conditions becoming dryer Arnold Lane and Michael Leete tightened up most of the sections for round two. It didn’t affect the leaders very much and going into lunch John Parsons had only dropped one mark with Steve Strutt and Michael weeks both on six. Geoff Hodge had been going well and it looked as if he would be the only driver to go clean on the second round until he dropped six in the bracken of hill seven.

With the fine weather the ground had really dried out and Arnold and Michael made a number of changes for the afternoon, including two new hills. It produced the required result and most competitors started to drop a lot more marks. Steve Strutt was really getting the hang f the Dellow and dropped only five marks in the afternoon to win the day with ten. Colin Weeks went very well in National B, despite restricted pressures, and came second overall and won National B with 13 marks lost.