NEWS
VSCC Trials End of Season Celebrations in the Cotswolds this weekend!
Friday 22 November 2013
The final Vintage Sports-Car Club Trial of 2013, the Cotswold Trial, takes place tomorrow Saturday 23 November, with Event HQ again based at Prescott Hill Climb. A full entry of 110 Pre-war Cars will descend on the Gloucestershire countryside to tackle a total of 12 sections in the vicinity, with the final four of which situated in the grounds of the famous Hill Climb venue itself. There, we anticipate a bumper crowd of spectators to come and watch our members in action as the day’s competition comes to a conclusion and the final standings are decided.
The Spectator Hills at Prescott will open at 12 Noon when competitors will arrive back to the venue having completed the day’s other sections. Here we encourage people to come to watch the action (absolutely no dogs); the Spectator areas will be clearly marked with plenty of Marshals on-hand – for your safety, please heed any and all instructions! There will be plenty of parking available in the Orchard from 1100hrs (£3 will be charged per car to cover costs which will include an Event Programme) whilst a mobile catering unit will be open adjacent to the Orchard sections and Prescott Clubhouse will be open throughout the day providing breakfast, lunches and hot and cold drinks. Here you will also be able to purchase/order VSCC Christmas Cards and other items from the Club’s Regalia range whilst at the conclusion of the event, competitors, marshals and officials will gather here for the announcing of the day’s Results.
The event concludes the Club’s year-long Trials season of seven events around the UK, from Scotland to Exmoor, with the year’s ‘Champions’ to be crowned at the end of the day. We thank Club Member and Trials Marshal, Peter Livesey for again collating scores throughout the season and here gives his review of our last round a fortnight ago – the Lakeland Trial – and provides an update on the latest overall standings going into this final round:
The Lakeland took place in quite appalling weather (or, if you are a mud freak, ideal conditions). With the relegation of Nanny’s’ Peep and Ullister Mill, difficult and exciting sections and often tie deciders, only Wood End View and Grizedale offered any serious challenge and both of these were impassable beyond markers 16 and 19 respectively. In fact, the top half of the short chassis entry was differentiated by performances on these two sections and the top twenty finishers were only 9 points apart. Louise Bunting in the GN Touring (which, in GN folklore means ‘sporting’) won by a single point from the four following cars that also included Mark Powley’s Frazer Nash and three Austins (Matt Johnson, Welsh winner Richard Houlgate, and Donald Skelton. Class 2 was similarly affected by the conditions and Paul Jeavons (Vauxhall 30/98) narrowly won over Robert Hodgkinson (Ford Model A) and Jonathan Miller (Chrysler).
(CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD FULL RESULTS FROM OUR LAKELAND TRIAL)
Leaders in both Classes for the annual Trials trophies have now completed six events and will be forced to drop the scores for one event if they enter the final trial, the Cotswold. As this tends to be one of the lower scoring events, it is odds-on that Don Skelton will hold on to the Routen Chaplin Trophy.
In the Frost Trophy, Jonathan Miller (Chrysler) leads John Higgs (Morris) by 194 points. John has, however, competed in one fewer events. Both are entered in the Cotswold and it is still possible, given a very good run, for John to pip Jonathan for the top award.
In the Standard classes, no one approaches Charles Gillett in his high-performing Brescia efforts and he keeps top place in the short chassis cars. Dennis Bingham (Model A) wins the long chassis class as his nearest competitor, Andrew Craven (Riley Kestrel), is more than the maximum score of a single event behind.
Numbers in brackets indicate events counting. Trials competed are: Exmoor, Derbyshire, Herefordshire, Scottish, Welsh and Lakeland.
The event concludes the Club’s year-long Trials season of seven events around the UK, from Scotland to Exmoor, with the year’s ‘Champions’ to be crowned at the end of the day. We thank Club Member and Trials Marshal, Peter Livesey for again collating scores throughout the season and here gives his review of our last round a fortnight ago – the Lakeland Trial – and provides an update on the latest overall standings going into this final round:
The Lakeland took place in quite appalling weather (or, if you are a mud freak, ideal conditions). With the relegation of Nanny’s’ Peep and Ullister Mill, difficult and exciting sections and often tie deciders, only Wood End View and Grizedale offered any serious challenge and both of these were impassable beyond markers 16 and 19 respectively. In fact, the top half of the short chassis entry was differentiated by performances on these two sections and the top twenty finishers were only 9 points apart. Louise Bunting in the GN Touring (which, in GN folklore means ‘sporting’) won by a single point from the four following cars that also included Mark Powley’s Frazer Nash and three Austins (Matt Johnson, Welsh winner Richard Houlgate, and Donald Skelton. Class 2 was similarly affected by the conditions and Paul Jeavons (Vauxhall 30/98) narrowly won over Robert Hodgkinson (Ford Model A) and Jonathan Miller (Chrysler).
(CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD FULL RESULTS FROM OUR LAKELAND TRIAL)
Leaders in both Classes for the annual Trials trophies have now completed six events and will be forced to drop the scores for one event if they enter the final trial, the Cotswold. As this tends to be one of the lower scoring events, it is odds-on that Don Skelton will hold on to the Routen Chaplin Trophy.
In the Frost Trophy, Jonathan Miller (Chrysler) leads John Higgs (Morris) by 194 points. John has, however, competed in one fewer events. Both are entered in the Cotswold and it is still possible, given a very good run, for John to pip Jonathan for the top award.
| TRIALS TROPHIES 2013 – Scores to Date | |||||
The Routen Chaplin Trophy |
The Frost Trophy |
||||
| 1 | Donald Skelton (6) | 1838 | 1 | Jonathan Miller (6) | 1553 |
| 2 | David Golightly (6) | 1753 | 2 | John Higgs (5) | 1359 |
| 3 | Stewart Rich (6) | 1680 | 3 | Tim Kemp (6) | 1272 |
| 4 | Kraig Mycock (6) | 1680 | 4 | Paul Jeavons (5) | 1253 |
| 5 | Alan Bee (6) | 1659 | 5 | Jonathan Rose (5) | 1249 |
| 6 | Stephen Jones (6) | 1634 | 6 | John Chilman (5) | 1211 |
| 7 | Clive Press (6) | 1586 | 7 | Simon Bowyer (5) | 1187 |
| 8 | Mark Powley (6) | 1556 | 8 | Dennis Bingham (5) | 1163 |
| 9 | Richard Houlgate (5) | 1498 | 9 | Michael Power (4) | 978 |
| 10 | Keith Hill (6) | 1490 | 10 | Andrew Craven (4) | 772 |
| 11 | Keith Dobinson (5) | 1423 | 11 | Gaynor White (3) | 750 |
| 12 | Simon Price (5) | 1405 | 12 | Roy Newton (3) | 703 |
| 13 | Peter Kite (5) | 1394 | 13 | David Knight (3) | 699 |
| 14 | Phil Longhurst (5) | 1392 | 14 | Paul Cassidy (3) | 689 |
| 15 | Andrew Fox (5) | 1369 | 15 | Ben Shepperd (3) | 657 |
In the Standard classes, no one approaches Charles Gillett in his high-performing Brescia efforts and he keeps top place in the short chassis cars. Dennis Bingham (Model A) wins the long chassis class as his nearest competitor, Andrew Craven (Riley Kestrel), is more than the maximum score of a single event behind.
| TRIALS SCORES 2012 – Standard Classes | |||||
| Class 1a | Class 2a | ||||
| 1 | Charles Gillett (4) | 1115 | 1 | Dennis Bingham (5) | 1163 |
| 2 | Tom Walker (3) | 627 | 2 | Andrew Craven (4) | 772 |
| 3 | Nick Topliss (3) | 596 | 3 | Roy Newton (3) | 703 |
| 4 | David Johnson (3) | 519 | 4 | Steven Smith (3) | 637 |
| 5 | Trevor Corner (3) | 377 | 5 | Robert Frankcom (3) | 598 |
| 6 | Graham Carr (2) | 342 | 6 | Marcus Creaser (2) | 526 |
Numbers in brackets indicate events counting. Trials competed are: Exmoor, Derbyshire, Herefordshire, Scottish, Welsh and Lakeland.
