It was a Reeth good do for Dan and Nick
By TMX Archives on 26th Jul 07
DAN Thorpe won the incident-packed Reeth Three Day Trial on Sunday after a cliff-hanger final day of action with Yeadon-Guiseley club member Ben Hemingway taking second place ahead of Silsden house renovator James Lampkin.
This White Bros Motor-cycles sponsored event willgo down in history - for all the wrong reasons. It was, as usual, acracking trial, it was just the weather that threw a spanner, nay, acrowbar, in the works. In fact the weather was on the podium afterSaturday's course was axed after 17 sections, roughly half the trialroute, as the course vanished under rising water levels.
Carnforth's Nick Shield won the Clubman class fromRichard Allen and Kevin Hipwell but the shock result was Katy Sunter'samazing fourth place. Richard declin-ed the class award so Katy wasplaced third Clubman, out of 105 finishers.
If the 2006 Three Day was the next best thing to asunbed, the 2007 event, in Scott Trial country, threw up a crossbetween Riverdance and an Artic adventure last weekend. Friday openedup with coolish winds, but it was dry as 217 riders, 10 of which werebackmarkers picking up the route marking, headed to Underbanks wherejust one rider, Tom Hick, nailed the hard top section.
Only winner Thorpe, John Crinson, John Sunter andLiam Walker got over the limestone rocks on a dab but Phil Alderson wasnear on a very fleeting double prod. For the rest - three or five. Theopeners at the bottom of the ravine claimed slack marks as they werevirtually the same sections used in the C and D national.
Reels Head, on the east end of Fremington Edge,claimed marks on the limestone rocks where mud had carried up and madethem treacherous. John Crinson, Richard Timperley and Dan Hemingwaylost out on them. Ray Sayer was stationed at Cold Knuckles where thewater was average. Ben Hemmingway got his nose in front and by the timethe front runners hit Cold Bank, Carol Thorpe had a zero to add to hisfour total. Carol's number one son Dan was on three with John Sunterand Phil Alderson lurking on seven and eight.
But things would change rapidly. Little Hemmingwayadded three to his score at section 19 where the top 10 cleaned. Walkerand Timperley maxed this rocky horror as did Mark Sunter and Tom Hick.By this time the clouds were gathering and the temperature plummeted asthe riders hit Dry Ghyll, a misnomer if ever. This ‘dry' sectionclimbed through a foot of water for Hard and Clubmen but the hard routewas straight up the rock face and swing left, back into the beck. JohnSunter had gone up about three gears and he hit the big step androcketed up, and out, clean. Only Timperley, Andrew Carter and 2006winner, James Lampkin, copied.
Reeth Three Day Trial
Reeth, Yorkshire (Richmond MC Ltd)
Hard course: 1 Dan Thorpe (JST Gas Gas) 20, 2 BenHemingway (Repsol Beta) 25, 3 James Lampkin (Repsol Beta) 31, 4 DanHemingway (Repsol Beta) 35, 5 John R Sunter (Sandiford Montesa) 54, 6Phillip Alderson (MRS Sherco) 55, 7 Craig Robinson (JST Gas Gas) 60, 8John Crinson (MRS Sherco) 63, 9 Aran Drachenberg (Repsol Beta) 72, 10Mark Sunter (Scorpa) 84, 11 Roger Williams (WB Gas Gas) 91. 12 JamesNoble (Gas Gas) 92, 13 Paul Dixon (Montesa) 97, 14 Boyd Webster(Montesa) 98, 15 Graham Tales (Gas Gas) 100, 16 Thomas Hick (Beta) 105,17 Paul Bennett (Sherco) 110, 18 Ian Hopley (Scorpa) 114, 19 GavinBlack (Beta) 116, 20 Jonathan White (WB Gas Gas) 117.
Clubmen: 1 Nick Shield (Beta) 41, 2 Richard Allen(Montesa) 46, 3 Kevin Hipwell (JST Gas Gas) 58, 4 Katy Sunter (JST GasGas) 63, 5 Andy Hipwell (JST Gas Gas) 65, 6 Andy Kearton ( Montesa) 68,7 Nick Eagleton (Beta) 68, 8 Colin Bailey (Gas Gas) 69, 9 Kevin Chapman(Gas Gas) 73, 10 Nev Pybus (Scorpa) 74, 11 John Holdsworth (Beta) 75,12 David Braithwaite (Montesa) 76, 13 Joe Nicholas (Beta) 76, 14 IanStephen (Sherco) 77, 15 David Clinkard (Beta) 78, 16 Mark Buckworth(Sherco) 81, 17 Kean Millward (Gas Gas) 81, 18 Scott Rowland (Gas Gas)82, 19 Grant Harding (Montesa) 83, 20 Tobjorn Eyre (JST Gas Gas) 85.
For full report, results and pictures see T+MX NEWS, Friday, July 27, 2007.