The 1986 Lands End Trial
24 HOURS TO HOME
reported by Jenny Vowden
8.30pm Friday 28th. Everything stowed in place. Tools, spares, sandwiches etc, Donn warm clothing. Wet & Windy. Depart Torquay via Newton Abbot, Ashburton to Tavistock. Hail squalls across moors.
10.15pm Arrive Lewdown. Fill, up with petrol. Sign on at control. Scrutineering. Manage quick cup of coffee and chat with fellow trialists.
11.23pm Depart lewdown to navigate the 100 miles to Tintinhull.
02.43am Time Check depart Tintinhull to drive 12 miles to 1st section Sug Lane. Its raining.
04.53am After a 52 mile drive arrive at 2nd section Wills. Stop and restart test. Still raining.
06.03am 16 miles further and arrive at Minehead Rugby Club for quick bacon sandwich and coffee. So far all well and running to time. (hood comes down on Midget – to help keep us awake -)
Shortly, on departure from Rugby Club, arrive at Hindon Section 3. Tricky section in farm catches out quite a few competitors, including the Rolls Royce running in front of us! Porlock. Lynmouth. Barbrook Mill
07.23 Beggars Roost. After a drive across open moor in torrential rain/sleet/hail but with sun in between. The scenery along this part of the route is magnificent. ‘Beggars’ this year was not the challenge of previous years, most of the notorious ruts and hollows having been filled in after a succession of broken diffs aand half shafts last year.
Simonsbath, South Molton, Torrington .At one stage driving across the moors and following behind the old Rolls Royce we could imagine we were back in the 1920’s
08.43am Orange Section 5. Stop and Go Test. Meet up with Bob Ray and Gary who have broken a half shaft on their Midget. Rumour has it the hill has been ‘doctored’ by locals with pig slurry! It was!
09.28am Sutcombe Hill Section – Stop & Go test.
Bradworthy Village so far 163 miles
Hobbs Choice. Special Test No.1 Dean & Andy were very quick 15.8sec. Arthur and myself 19.8sec.
10.13am Darracott 1 Section No. 8. Min. tyre pressures 12psi
Darracott 2 Stop & Go. Quite Tricky. Steep and woody, Restart presented quite a few problems
Roly Poly. Section No.10 min, tyre pressure 15psi. New section. Steep loose surfaced lane.
11.28am Widemouth Bay Time Control. I hour compulsory stop. Both very tired. Arthur sleeps in car but feels worse afterwards’. Both cars check out o.k.
12.28pm Depart Widemouth to drive to Crackington. For those of you who have not visited this area of N. Cornwall coastline I strongly recommend you to do so. The scenery is just amazing. Crackington and our first ‘hold up’. Notorious’ for its demanding mud and ruts as usual the spectators are out in force and the roads are choc-a-bloc for miles around. Arthur who has been driving with great care and consideration for our old Midget could not help but ‘play to the crowd’ and tried for FTD up the section which promoted great cheers of approval from the crowds – but not from me- who was having great difficulty on hanging on!
After leaving Crackington we were running about half and hour late. Davidstowe, Five Lanes, Jamaica Inn. Travelling across the Bodmin Moor area it started to Hail/sleet/snow very heavily. The windscreen wipers packed up. Navigating became impossible. It was extremely cold. We got lost! 3.00pm finally made it to Section 12 Hoskin Hill Very slippery. Lots of failures here.
Rocky Thomas. Section 13. Very Rocky.
Milltown Section 14, Fairly easy.
4.15pm Trevollack Section 15. Special Test No 2 Richard Penhale in his Buggy was very quick (16.9) Arthur (18.6) Dean (18.3)
5.15pm Arrive at Blue Hills Mine. The sun is now out but it is bitterly cold and very windy, the sea is very rough large waves sending spray right over the cars. As usual there is a vast crowd of spectators, Blue Hills 1. Restart. Usual little tricky section at foot of hill. Drive up the cliff to start of Blue Hills 2. Very rocky and rutted and with the thought of that 200ft, drop to the rocks below so close to the edge of the track! To our disappointment we were not allowed to attempt the ‘ramp’ at the end this was only to be attempted by the ‘specials’ which included Dean & Andy in the Buggy, which they cleaned much to their delight.
6.00pm Finish King Mark Hotel Newquay. Sign off. Relax. Quick chat with other competitors and then the long drive home. Arthur could not stay awake so I had to drive and I was not much better. Dean managed to drive all the way.
9.00pm Arrive Home. Very tired but happy after a very successful Lands End Trial.
Total Mileage 530 miles.
Photos Bluehills 2 and us in our Midget and Dean/Andy in Buggy at Crackington
Click on image to enlarge
