Report: Kia Cars Twin-shock Trials Championship - Round 1
By John Dickinson on 23rd Mar 16
THE 2016 KIA National Twin-shock Championship series got away to an unbelievable start last Sunday when the Congleton club played host to an entry of 150 at their excellent hillside venue at Mow Cop, just outside the Cheshire town.
And with bright, sunny, spring weather it was a day to remember with machines ranging from 80cc screamers to rasping 500 Triumphs and riders from eager teenagers to grizzled veterans and all points in between.
And they travelled from all over the country including Scotland and Wales. If you were a rider, tick where applicable!
With four machine classes and two routes through the sections –A and B for Expert and Clubman – it was a day for everyone to enjoy and that is just what they did.
The all off-road course looped round Mow Cop, taking in 20 sections which were lapped twice.
Hazards included twisty bankings, tight, rocky streambeds and even some good old-fashioned mud which allowed all manner of skills to surface.
And in order to reduce queueing riders could start at either section one or six and this worked absolutely perfectly.
Proving that the course was absolutely spot-on is the fact that there was just a single clean ride in all classes and that was by Consett farmer Colin Ward who achieved that feat on his TY250 Yamaha in the Air-cooled mono class.
But this was only just enough to take maximum championship points from reigning champ Steve Bird who dropped just a single mark, in the tricky section 12 on the second lap.
There were three single figure scores in the Historic Spanish, class 2.
Paul Mollet circulated the Hard course for just three marks on his Montesa 247, his rides having attracted the attention of local series instigator Peter Salt who commented on the day: "I never saw him lose a mark.”
Steve Bisby on his old faithful Ossa Gripper and North Lancs man Robert Taylor on his well used 349 Montesa had to be split on a tie-break while North East contender Gary Younghusband was guilty of trying a bit too hard on his well-prepped Bultaco.
Largest group on the Expert routes was the Open Twin-shock with around 40 hopefuls and again the variety of machinery was astounding.
Top of the pile though was Roy ‘Pushrod' Palmer on his home-built – 34 years ago – four-stroke Kawasaki KL250. Mark Vaughan on his 240 Fantic matched Pushrod's score of five but lost out on a tie-break, 38 cleans against 36.
Chris Gascoigne was third with his 250 Bultaco, freshened-up with a new carburettor suggested by none other than three times World Champion Yrjo Vesterinen.
Hillsborough Clubman Darren Wasley turned out for the first time on a very tidy 200 Fantic – that sadly expired dramatically in the sixth section with expensive sounding bottom-end noises.
That's the Fantic, not Daz.
It was a very tight finish in the British Bike class as well with Rob Bowyer just holding off Mark Stokes in a battle of the rasping triumph twins, Nick Paxton thumping his BSA round to third also in single figures.
On the Clubman route Colin Ward Jr made it a family double as he took Air-cooled mono on his TY Yam, just like dad.
In a class that is only going to get bigger as time progresses, young Wardy held off Paul Whittaker's Fantic and Rockshock man Gary Fleckney.
It was good to see an excellent turnout of around 20 Historic Spanish and included early twinshocks on the Clubman route with excellent variety won by long-distance traveller Dave Shave on his standard TY twin-shock from the Bultaco of Anthony Sprinks and Gary Hawkins' Montesa.
There was a Honda four-stroke one-two in Class 3 Twin-shock with Dave Wilkinson's 250 having the edge on the TLR200 of Scot Jim Tennant and the 200 Fantic of east Yorks challenger Dave Wardell.
There was again a great variety of machinery on show with Dave Pengilley fourth on his lovely 330 Kawasaki.
Again there was a welcome turnout of British bikes and three different marques featuring on the podium.
Jonathan Souch took the points on his 250 Triumph Cub from Cumbrian Michael Batty's well used Villiers and Pete Edwards' BSA Bantam third.
Ossy Byers on the Villiers engine Cotton made it four bike names in the top four.
All-in-all it was a fantastic start to the nine event series and it is worth noting that there were very few non-starters or non-finishers considering the 150-strong entry.
The series takes a break now until the Golden Valley Classic's round on May 15.
Plenty of time for you to dig out that old bike that's been lurking at the back of the garage for years and lash it into action once more. It's time has come...
