This hardy annual attracted 235 competitors this year, Friday 9th January. They set out from Launceston, London and Kenilworth to converge on Pinhill near Honiton (approx. 150 miles), for the first of the observed sections – the approach to which proved more difficult than the hill itself. The event is widely written up by the motoring journals, and your scribe wishes that King Boddy himself of MOTOR SPORT could have been here to see a Renault Frogate firmly stuck in the ditch after trying to avoid a sadly misfiring VW. This year the Torbay and Exeter Motor Clubs were represented by a team “The Dumplings” consisting of W. G. Westlake in a blown MGA, S. G. Davey’s mottled Zephyr, kept awake by Syd Reed and Ian Bulpin with Bob Benson bringing his heart up beside him. Also competing was new member Ted Wilcox (TR2), and we all went to breakfast at Dellers, Exeter, with a clean sheet. The first hill at Tillerton, Tedburn St. Mary, proved disastrous to the team, as the MGA was lacking revs, and Sid Davey was the only one to get up this vertical mud-bath. On to Fingle Bridge with a long face and a long queue but by careful throttle we got over the top and set out for “Sims” to hear the mournful news that only the odd special and an old Frazer Nash BMW had got up. By this time Bill Westlake had dropped out and we are left wondering whether his blower ballast and his ‘X’ tyre combination would have worked. • Even a confident Sid Davey, so successful last year, hardly got half way, and the Sprite did little better. The trip to the top on the rope gave us chance to chat with some club members before setting off for hot soup supplied by Mrs. 393BAF. There were tests at Strete and Harcombe with special tests at Ottery St. Mary and Waterloo. This hill gained itself a reputation last year, thus the journalists congregated here this year.
The Zephyr set out on its rocket-like trip to the top under critical eyes; followed by the Sprite, whose driver like many others, amazed at getting round four hairpins, was suddenly confronted with a sharp double bend, where it promptly ran out of power, or it may have been grip since we stopped suddenly. And so on through the late afternoon to Meerhay, easier this year, and then Knowle Lane – a straight blind on frozen mud. This easily accounted for, we set out for the finish at Weymouth where with 300 miles on the clock we signed off and adjourned to a cafe, where a hospitable welcome was given to four characters resembling tired transport drivers.
CONGRATULATIONS to ..
Syd Davey on gaining a 2nd Class award in the Exeter Trial
Ian Bulpin on gaining a 3rd Class award in the same event (“Bouncers” were Syd Reed and Bob Benson respectively)
