The Kent Trial Final Round BTC
By TMX Archives on 29th Sep 09
The 2009 ACU Events sponsored Trials Championships came to a close on Sunday 27th September after seven months of great competition.
It opened up on the 1st March at Scarborough and finished in great style at the Kent Trial organised by the Wickham and Kent Youth Clubs who where new to events at this level. They did a great job, the set-up looked fantastic and the organisers were rewarded by a first rate spectator attendance with the crowd staying on right up to and including the presentation.
Coming into the event James Dabill was the clear favourite to take the main Championship but he would still need points to keep Michael Brown in second place, so it was not a forgone conclusion.
In the Expert A group Sam Connor had already taken the title and he made a step up to ride the Championship course, something he has looked more than capable of all season.
The Expert B class was the one where anything could still happen between Sam Ludgate and John Crinson. John needed the win with fellow Scorpa rider preferably third. It would be the B group that got the event under way at 10am on a perfect day for riding and spectating. Ludgate got off to a flier with three straight cleans before he needed a dab at the loose banks of section four. Crinson by comparison took dabs on the second, third and fourth subs which was not the ideal start he wanted.
There was however to be a third party who wanted to spoil this private battle and that turned out to be in the shape of Ricky Wiggins who had already won two rounds this season. Ricky went clean through the first ten sections and had it not been for one bad result at Lochaber this Championship would have been a three way battle. At the end of lap one Sam and John were locked together on five marks lost whilst Wiggins was clear with just that one dab.
Behind this battle came Buster Regan and Zac Sherwin on 13 but both would need to ride out of their skins to catch the leading trio. By the middle of lap two John Crinson gained ground on Sam Ludgate as the Yorkshire man had a three on the banks and climbs of Section five but Ricky Wiggins was just superb and lost only two on his second circuit. With one lap to go Ricky was looking good for the win and John had a lead on Sam but unless Ludgate was going to slip to fourth place on the day the Championship would go by just one point to the latter and that was how it turned out.
With Sam Connor as mentioned having a crack at the top class it was a case of the young guns verses the experience of the not-so-old Gary Macdonald in Experts A and Youth 125cc Groups. Gary started with a good clean but dabbed the next two hazards where very loose sandy soil made grip disappear very quickly. Lee Sampson, Ben Morphett and Jonathan Richardson who was out on a 250 got to section four before they had any problems on sections akin to Hawkstone Park type hazards. Both Richardson and Morphett had maximums over on the far side of Sandfields Farm at Section ten. Macdonald took a great clean as did Sampson so these two had the advantage at the end of lap one.
On the second circuit it was Jonathan Richardson who looked to be making the running until two five's on the last two hazards spoilt a superb run. The father and son combo settled down to a great last lap, however loosing just a dab on the ninth to make sure of second overall to Gary Mac who had a very consistent trial. He well deserved the win on the day and the ten hour drive back home was well rewarded. Top youth rider Jack Sheppard once again showed what a great prospect he is with a score of 29 on the same course and he will be right up there in 2010.
The Championship was also shaping up well. Michael Brown rode the early hazards before his main rivals, James Dabill was towards the back of the entry. He got off to a flyer with six straight cleans which ‘Dibs' would match. By comparison Alexz Wigg started badly taking maximums on section one and two when he lost grip on the loose banking. By comparison Sam Connor had a dream start up to section six which had two mega steps which were less of a problem than the grip-less part when you got on top. It certainly turned out that the hazards on the far side were creating more of a problem than those in the main spectator area as both James and Michael lost most of there marks there on lap one.
At the first punch card change the two main rivals were on nine marks apiece which put them well in front of the chasing pack led by Sam Connor who would have been well pleased with his efforts at what was a home event for him. Ross Danby was also going pretty well and the Midlander would end up with his best result of the season.
On to lap two and if JD was feeling any pressure he was not outwardly showing it and the team with Jack Lee and Shirty Jnr were looking pretty confident. The only blip for them came at section eight where five of the seven marks were lost. The same could also have been said for Michael as he and minder Shaun went around for a six mark loss including a miraculous recovery at the man made hazard number 12. Despite getting completely off line on the hardest part over the tree stump he dropped the back of the Sherco around and set of from the trickiest of angles to get a good round of applause from the big crowd.
Alexz Wigg had also got his act together and he went from fifth to third place in the course of the lap.The final lap of the Championship was started with the two main contenders out in front. Both cleaned sections one and two then Michael had an unexpected failure on hazard three another of the ‘Hawkstone' look-a-like subs which swung the advantage James' way.
Dibs obviously wanted to finish in style and win with a flourish and that is just what he did. A lap of just two marks lost meant the crown was his and he rode that man made hazard with total style and conviction to take his first British Championship and well deserved it was too.
There were congratulations all round and Michael had to concede the Championship which he did with total graciousness although he must have been really disappointed to finish runner up for the second year in succession.
In amongst all the celebrations Alexz Wigg rode through the final section to claim a fine third place and confirm his Championship status behind the top two.