Local man Ian Moss won a closely fought Cotswold Clouds on special test times, tying on three with Andrew Martin and Bill Bennet Behind came Dave Haizelden, Simon Groves and Bryan Phipps all on four. The class 8’s were well out of things with their tough start line on Highwood 2. To many the moral victor was Kelly Thomas who cleaned all the hills but failed to complete the second special test properly.

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Stroud’s long running Cotswold Clouds rejoined the ACTC championship this year and was well and truly over-subscribed. Some of the reserves came to the start but were turned away, notably Harvey Waters who spent the day spectating after his long journey up from Cornwall.

The route followed a well-trodden path, via a nice easy Crawley Wood, through Dursley to Crooked Mustard, or Breakhart as it was once appropriately known. The dry conditions meant there was plenty of grip and it wasn’t until Roland Panes came along at number 10 that the usual big crowd of spectators saw their first failure.

As Andrew Brown said last year the hill is more a triumph of engineering over driving for the nimbler class eights with their high power to weight ratios and ability to chop and change direction at will. For the rest it was very important to get the line right as there is a big step on the inside off the final right-hander. For any except the class eights going that way meant certain failure. Even if you did avoid the step Crooked Mustard still demands a good power to weight ratio and Giles Greenslade was the only Beetle to go clean. In class four both Ian Moss and Bill Rosten mastered the conditions. The question was would the fragile Imps hang together? In class one the amazing Dave Haizelden humbled many “more suitable” cars as he flew up in his VW Golf.

There was plenty of entertainment for the spectators. Harry Butcher was definitely the star of the show, getting near to vertical as he “wall of deathed” around the left hander, losing speed and nearly toppling over as he tried to repeat the performance on the following right hander, oh so nearly stopping before getting it all back together and clearing the section.

Some of the Escorts were spectacular, throwing themselves at the section but with very little control, getting a bad line and failing in the process. Well done to Richard Hayward, Kelly Thomas, Tristan White and Simon Groves for using their brains, driving fast but smoothly, taking a good line and going clean.

A rather dry Axe didn’t present any problems but Nailsworth Ladder certainly did. The lower classes were allowed to blast straight through so the step didn’t present any problems, apart from Stuart Deacon who broke a half-shaft, couldn’t get the end out and ended up having to change the diff, missing a couple of sections in the process.

The yellows and reds had a restart right on the step. Giles was the only big Beetle to get away and two thirds of the sevens and eights failed. Amongst the Falcon contingent Ian Davis was the only one to succeed as neither Geoff Hodge, Keith Oakes or Peter Mountain succeeded. Talking of Peter it was nice to see Mike Young, the builder of Martin Allen’s Racecorp, in the passengers seat.

At Ham Mill the deviation was used again, with a cunningly positioned restart, right on a sharp corner where the ruts dragged the inside wheel up against a bank. This caught out even the experienced Simon Woodhall and Adrian Dommett amongst others.

After a dry wicked Juniper came Freds Folly with another restart to catch the unwary yellows and reds.

Merves Swerve attracted the usual hoard of spectators and with differential start lines and restarts presented a real challenge. Just getting to the restarts was a problem. As ever the start lines were such cars couldn’t really get a run at the hill. If they got away from the start OK non restarters could throw their machinery at the steep bank, leaping in the air and hoping to regain some sort of control on landing. It was all very hairy. Passengers had to hang on for dear life and Sara hit her head very hard in the back Simon Groves Escort.

It was here some of the class 8 challengers fell by the wayside. They had a very tough re-start, positioned right on the bank and Paul Bartleman and Ian Davis lost their clean sheet. Eric Wall may have failed Nailsworth Ladder but here he was master of intelligent positioning. Stopping his Mk1 Dellow well over to the left, minimising the rise up the bank and pulling away without any wheel spin.

The Highwood complex lay just up the road. There were two sections and two special tests and this is where the trial would be decided. The fearsome Highwood Two was where it all happened. All but one competitor lost their clean sheet. Only Kelly Thomas came out of the top to go into the overall lead of the trial. Simon Woodall was the only car to come close, dropping one in his buggy now repaired after its Clee Hills engine problems., with his Clee Hills enging problems repaired.

Kellys lead was to be short lived as tragedy befell her on the second special test where she stalled, couldn’t restart and had to be pushed over the line, incurring a penalty of six marks and costing her overall victory. This put Ian Moss, Andrew Martin and Bill Bennet into a joint lead, all on three marks with Dave Haizelden, Simon Groves and Bryan Phipps just behind on four. It ended this way as they all cleaned an easy Climperwell and the tricky Bulls Bank restarts. It all came down to special tests times and victory went to Ian by less than a second. Kelly’s problems pushed her down into 3rd place in class three. Class honours going to Simon Groves, making a hat trick of ACTC wins for the hard charging Ely driver.

Page added 18 February 2006