KIA Twinshock Championship gets in the Tong groove
By John Dickinson on 21st Jun 18
The 2018 KIA National Twinshock Championship roared back into action after a months hiatus with an excellent event courtesy of the Spen Valley club which staged the trial, as last year, at Tong, Bradford.
Parkwood Offroad Centre hadnt seen rain for many weeks and the terrain was, in the main, dry and dusty and had Nigel Scott scratching his head as he sought to make the sections challenging without getting too difficult on the steep slopes. In the end, despite an early morning panic when it looked like rain finally might arrive, he got it spot-on for both the Expert and Clubman routes.
Many riders were getting into their second day of trials having already tackled the Westmorland clubs Bultaco Revival trial in neighbouring Cumbria and most were happy to swap the downpours of Saturday for the more desert-like conditions.
Having said that, series originator Gerry Minshall managed to find a mud-hole just large enough to accept both himself and his lovely Mecatecno, horizontally, luckily without damage to either party. To their credit, onlookers managed, somehow, not to laugh!
Among those on their second day was John Reynolds, making his first appearance for many years, mounted on a Robin Luscombe Bultaco. And despite being placed in the Twinshock class not Historic Spanish because of oversize front forks, JR showed all his old skill to take a classy second place behind Phil Disney on his Nigel Land-built pristine Honda.
KIA Twin-shock - Expert Britshock winner Ian Peberdy
Diz was on cracking form to drop just a single mark but JRs ride can be put in context when he took the Bulto round for just 11, less than half that of third-placed Darren Wasley, who can certainly ride his Fantic.
Scotty was able to test his own handiwork and topped the Expert Air-cooled Monos on his RTL Honda with Steve Bird on the Yamaha just getting the better of Dean Devereux, whose TLM260 Honda two-stroke made it three very different bikes on the podium.
There was an all Bultaco podium in the Expert Historic Spanish with Cumbrian Chris Myers taking maximum points, despite a spectacular off on section 14 on the first lap.
But even that effort was topped shortly after when reigning KIA champ Steve Bisby spectacularly looped his Ossa in the same place.
Experienced Midlander Dave Wood claimed second on his very standard 1970s Bult and Hillsborough stalwart Dave Haggis Knaggs was third on his ex Martin Lampkin red Bult despite the handicap of having Daz Wasley as minder!
Expert Britshock only attracted two contenders and Ian Peberdy had the matching of the course on his Bantam, while Danny Cockshott attempted to get to terms with dad Hedleys Cub in a rare classic outing.
Scores were, quite rightly, much lower on the Clubman route, where the Britshocks were more prevelant with a trio of Bantams on the podium thanks to Owen Hardisty, Paul Howells and Mick Grant the latter having had a cracking weekend as he also enjoyed a great ride the previous day .
Theres just no stopping Robin Oliphant in the Twinshock class, the Cumbrian again taking the win and the points on his 1970s Suzuki, a bike that he aquired as a burnt-out wreck.
He was followed home by Fantic-mounted David Wilkinson and the Honda of Colin Stubbs, all three keeping their scores in single figures.
Air-cooled Monos was also tightly fought with Dave Wardell just shading victory by a single mark on his Honda RTL from the Fantic of Paul Whittaker and Graham Teasdale, Robin Oliphants travelling pal, also in single figures on the TY Yam.
And there was yet another winner by a single mark in Historic Spanish as Butch Robson nabbed the points maximum on his well-used 247 Mont from Chris Burgin who campaigned an immaculate Montesa 348.
Russell Walker made it a Montesa 1-2-3 as they turned the tables on the Historic Spanish Expert results, first Bultaco home being David Matthews in fourth.
Results
Experts
Pre-72 Britshock: Ian Peberdy (Bantam) 29, Danny Cockshott (Cub) 66.
Twinshock: Phil Disney (Honda) 1, John Reynolds (Bultaco) 11, Darren Wasley (Fantic) 23, Chris Forshaw (Honda) 31, Olly Wareing (Fantic) 31, Roman Kyrnyckyc (SWM) 38, Paul Jackson (Honda) 44, Phil Daley (Yamaha) 55, Steve Hitchcock (Honda) 57, Glyn Ridley (Fantic) 66.
Air-cooled Monoshock: Nigel Scott (Honda) 3, Steve Bird (Yamaha) 12, Dean Devereux (Honda) 14, Rob Faulkner (Yamaha) 19, Nigel Earnshaw (Yamaha) 53, Terence Musgrave (Beta) 137.
Historic Spanish/ Pre-78 Twinshock: Chris Myers (Bultaco) 53, Dave Wood (Bultaco) 61, Dave Knaggs (Bultaco) 66, Steve Bisby (Ossa) 91, Donna Fox (Honda) 94.
Clubman
Pre-72 Britshock: Owen Hardisty (Bantam) 3, Paul Howells (Bantam) 6, Mick Grant (Bantam) 6, Ossy Byers (Dot) 14, Leeroy Granby (Ariel) 17, Steve Gossop (Bantam) 21, Paul Robinson (BSA) 22, Peter Rank (Bantam) 102.
Twinshock: Robin Oliphant (Suzuki) 3, David Wilkinson (Fantic) 5, Colin Stubbs (Honda) 8, Jim Williams (SWM) 10, Nigel Greenwood (Honda) 10, Charlotte Kimber (Fantic) 18, Anthony Charles (Fantic) 19, Paul Cook (SWM) 19, Darren Walker (Aprilia) 21, Stephen Wilde (Honda) 27.
Monoshock: Dave Wardell (Honda) 4, Paul Whittaker (Fantic) 5, Graham Teasdale (Yamaha) 7, Paul Hobson (Honda) 12, Robin Foulkes (Honda) 13, Lee Sagar (Fantic) 15, Nick Boxall (Fantic) 15, Jim Waters (Yamaha) 22, Graham Dukes (Fantic) 34, Dane Smith (Honda) 28.
Historic Spanish: Stephen Robson (Montesa) 8, Chris Burgin (Montesa) 9, Russell Walker (Montesa) 12, David Matthews (Bultaco) 17, John Fox (Honda) 27, Peter Cook (Yamaha) 34.
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