Gasser and Dibs Scott it at last
By TMX Archives on 1st Nov 10
CONGRATULATIONS to James Dabill on winning his first Scott after several near-misses - and to Gas Gas of course who, surprisingly, had never triumphed in the time and observaton epic.
We all know that Dibs and Shirty were pretty confident of victory last year after James blitzed the fastest time and thought he had done a good job on observation. He had - but not as good as the incredible Graham Jarvis who nailed his ninth Scott win which is a record that will take some beating.
The win for James was actually a comfortable one in the end. He didn't set Standard TIme, that honour went to Michael Brown who looked comfortable leading the way once he got ahead. "I didn't even know I was leading the field until someone told me at a petrol check!” said Michael who was obviously concentrating hard. Dibs concentrated harder on his observation score this year and it paid-off in spades. He was no slouch but just taking that edge off the pace and keeping his feet-up in the sections was the difference between this year and last.
He wasn't counting his chickens this year though and said at the finish, "I think I've done all right on observation but, no, I'm not getting into that, look what happened last year!”
Gas Gas importer John Shirt never hides his feelings and he summed his up, once the win had sunk-in: "For me ‘winning is everything' so you can imagine how pleased I am to finally have a GG winning the Scott Trial! Hard to believe that in 22 years we have never won it. We've had numerous ‘nearlys' with Steve Colley, Wayne Braybrook and myself but second place is after all the first loser so to finally win it is special. I was pretty confident that Dibs had won last year but it wasn't to be so it just shows that you never can tell with the Scott. It's a special event and special things happen.”
He's not wrong there, ask Dougie Lampkin who simply couldn't believe it when his factory Beta stopped with an electrical fault at almost exactly the same place as two years ago. "Easy to say now”, said Doug, "but I should have run standard electrics and not my factory stuff. But the bike has run absolutely perfect since the Scottish so I just didn't see the need to.”
With the excitement of watching Browny and Dibs - the two favourites - the incredible Jarvis almost slipped under the radar on Saturday. Graham has not been riding trials at all, concentrating on his extreme enduro career and was hot from winning his first event on the two-stroke Husaberg after recently signing with the ‘Austrian' firm.
Graham had just two days practise on the 2011 Sherco before firing away from the start and despite not being on the real front-running pace for some reason he was stuill right in there at the end with experience nailing him second place.
As John Shirt so rightly says, the Scott is a special event and special things can happen.
As with all other trials it isn't just about the top riders, although that is always going to be the spectator focus.
Everyone has a story and it is great to see ‘vets' like Phil Alderson and Graham Tales scooting round, showing the youngsters just how to finish the Scott. And at the other end of the scale there are the teenagers like Best first-timer Richard Sadler, Ben Morphett and Will Brockbank giving it absolutely everything and enjoying themselves enormously.
Then there's T+MX tester Woody Hole. Encouraged to enter alongside friends Simon Sharp and Mark Jackson he saw both ‘pals' pull-out to leave him on his own. Woody, who genuinely needs a a hip replacement, finished 42nd - but paid with considerable pain at work on Monday.
And what about Chris Shorey? He's been driving up to Yorkshire every year for 30 years to compete in his favourite trial. He finished this year as well, 66th of the 73 official finishers. A truly tremendous performance. Around 20 more riders actually completed the course but unfortunately outside the two and a half hour time allowance after Standard Time. Still a fantastic feeling to have reached the finish though and congratulations to all who made it.