Dabill turns on the Gas
By TMX Archives on 17th Dec 09
THE 2009 ACU Events Ltd sponsored British Trials Championship took place over eight rounds with three classes catered for and James Dabill finally gave the young guns their first full British Championship, the Gas Gas rider putting together a confident and consistent series of rides to fully justify his title of 2009 British Trials Champion. Sam Connor blitzed the second tier A class series while Sam Ludgate beat off strong challenges from John Crinson ands Ricky Wiggins in a hard-fought B class.
Colin Bullock followed the series with keen interest as it traversed the country from Kinlochleven in Scotland, across into Wales and down to deepest Devon and Kent in England and brings you his account of the Championship year...
IT was all change for the 2009 ACU British Trials Championship. First there was a new title sponsor with ACU Events Limited taking over from long time associates Colin Appleyard.
Then there were three new clubs joining the organising fray with Scarborough hosting the opening round way back on March 1, Torridge in July and then Kent Youth and Wickham being responsible for the final event on September 27.
While all of these clubs have a long and successful history in holding trials events the pressure was on them to get things right at full British Championship level. As it turned out, ALL delivered what were, without question superb events.
Another alternative for the season was a change of classes, which was aimed at getting more riders along to the events and therefore more revenue to the organisers and better value to travelling spectators. This was done by adding an extra category, giving competitors a choice of The British Championship, Expert A and Expert B classes. The latter was aimed at being accessible to good Centre runners and as it turned out, this competition went right down to the wire on the very final day of the season.
FOR A FULL REVIEW OF THE YEAR, SEE T+MX NEWS, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2009
Alexz Wigg takes his Beta up a tricky climb at the Mitchell Trial