Tough ride for Dougie at the Scott Trial
By John Dickinson on 28th Oct 16
IT was a disappointing Scott for four-times winner Dougie Lampkin, who joined the list of retirals.
Doug had not been able to carry out his usual intense pre-Scott preparations as he was tied-up with training for his epic Isle of Man TT course wheelie but as ever on the morning Doug was 100 per cent committed.
Normally relatively steady off the mark, building to a strong finish, last year's third-place man was pushing right from the start.
And by Surrender, around a third of the way into the course, was a couple of minutes up on the main contenders and looking ominously strong.
But a crash out on the Grouse Moor saw his kill-switch damaged and after stopping at the fuel check his Vertigo wouldn't re-start and so around 10 minutes was lost while it was given a quick hotwire.
Doug never gives up and he ploughed onwards, looking for a repeat of his best observation score from last year (just 25 marks) when an argument with a piece of solid Yorkshire scenery saw the Vertigo's gearchange shaft come off second best and the 12-times World champ and four-time Scott winner was out of the trial.
