Billy’s the boy in the Lakes
First held in 1976 and every year since, bar Foot and Mouth and Covid years, the Lakes Two Day trial is the best attended of the four national trials regularly held in the Centre.
This year’s trial was no different with a strong 180 full house entry scheduled to take place, though inevitably there were (and always will be) a few non-starters.
Over the years there have been many top names who have won this classic national, in fact the list of past winners is much like a who’s who of British trials riders over the last 45 years from Nigel Birkett (3 wins), Martin Lampkin and Malcolm Rathmell (1 win each), Steve Colley (4 wins), Graham Jarvis (8 wins), James Dabill (5 wins) to the winners of the last three events who were Jack Sheppard, Jack Peace and Richard Sadler.
However, this year there is a new name to be added to the list, that of Billy Green who went through the 76 sections with the loss of just 5 marks, a result which emphasised just how good the West Country rider, sponsored by Scorpa, has become due to contesting world championship events. (Our lead picture by Eric Kitchen is of Billy Green losing one of his marks)
He beat the 2019 winner Jack Peace by the healthy margin of seven marks, with wins on both days of 3 and 2 marks, compared to Peace who lost 9 and 3. Last year’s winner Richard Sadler finished third on 24, double Peace’s second place total, with regular national runners Andy Chilton, Dan Thorpe and Tom Minta finalising the top 6 placings.
Particularly good results came from Scotsmen Duncan McColl and Jamie Galloway whilst the best of the Northern Centre riders was the ever-improving Cameron Brice in 13th place.
One of the problems that many national trial organisers face is attracting enough hard course riders to make the class viable, but in the case of this year’s Lakes, 32 took on the challenge with only one retirement amongst the group.
Richard Gaskell
A rider making a name for himself this year with this event being his third national class win of the year is Richard Gaskell. The Keswick resident won the Milnthorpe Trial back in March, then took the Travers three weeks ago and now the Lakes Clubman class has been added to his successes this year. Gaskell has been one of the top Experts in the Centre for many years, but having turned 50, moving back into the Clubman class is only reasonable for a rider seeking an easier ride.
Losing 25 marks, (12 and 13) over the two days, he finished the trial three marks ahead of Shaun Fox with former Clubman winner Craig Seward in third. And much credit has to go to Alice Minta who took fourth place, truly a fine effort amongst a whole host of top lads and, again a sponsored Scorpa rider who has been riding the Ladies World Championship.
Alice Minta
Organised by the local enthusiasts from the Broughton in Furness area on behalf of the Lakes Motorcycle Trials Association, the event was blessed with two decent days with regard to the weather. Much of the action on Saturday was over the wild, windy and boggy Corney Fell, which is always going to be a tough prospect, but life gets a bit easier on day two with the less arduous hazards situated between Broughton and Torver. This year retirements were fewer than in past years with only 17 pulling out for a variety of reasons and once again most riders were only too happy to think about plans for their return in 2023.
Full results in two files, Clubman and Expert, are on the results page and Eric Kitchen’s pictures are now available in the Gallery.