Thunder Bolts & Super Stars
By TMX Archives on 24th Jun 15
WHEN the Yeadon Guiseley club failed to get a British Championship date for 2015, club members wanted to come up with an event that would be worthy of their magnificent MacKenzie Trophy, and Danny Cockshott came up with the idea of a Super Stars Trial.
Given the go-ahead by the club, Danny went ahead and made a superb job of staging an ambitious event on Addingham Moorside, high on the hillside above Silsden in West Yorks. And, despite an incredibly packed calendar of trials on the day, both nationally and locally, the trial proved a huge success when staged last Sunday.
Danny and co put on a dozen sections, 11 on the steep rocky escarpment, plus a man-made hazard comprising tree trunks right by the finish which added some variety to the expected Addingham hardware, to be lapped three times with a generous five hour time limit.
The Championship class comprised a select talented bunch with the experienced Gas Gas mounted duo of Alexz Wigg and Sam Haslam up against the young guns of Jack Price, Billy Bolt, Jack Challoner, Andy Chilton and Dec Bullock.
And it was the exciting, free-riding style of Billy the Bolt that proved best on the day with Scorpa-mounted Billy taking a hugely popular win and and equally huge £550 cash prize. Billy actually posted the lowest score on each of the three laps with only the final log section causing him problems.
Billy dropped a dozen marks on his opening circuit, including a five on section seven which first time round was conquered only by Jack Price with Challoner making it through for a dab and a five for everyone else.
Super steady Sam Haslam was just a mark behind on 13 and Price 14, Wiggy 16 and Andy Chilton 17 in what was proving to be a hard-fought event even at this early stage.
The most spectacular hazard was the ninth, featuring a jaw-dropping uphill leap from a natural rock slab ramp across a gaping chasm.
Billy was in his element here styling it for the spectators. The only disaster was from the unfortunate Dec Bullock who gave it a real shot but just fell short, Dec thankfully dropping down out of harm's way but the Beta looped and crashed a long way back down the hillside, casting levers and plastics asunder.
Despite reckoning that after which it didn't go where the handlebars were pointing, Dec continued to give it his all.
Billy hit top form on lap two to part with just a couple of single marks, at the end of the lap in the 10th and final subs. The last section threw-up a strange statistic. It took a maximum from the Championship runners on the opening lap, then Haslam, Challoner, Wigg and Chilts cleaned on lap two before everyone failed on the final lap.
But after two laps it was Billy on 14 from Hazzer who was right on the case just two marks in arrears while the two Jacks, Price and Challoner, were only separated by a single mark.
FOR FUL REPORT & PICTURES SEE TMX NEWS, JUNE 25, (ISSUE 1977)
