Brice holds off the Crinson attack
The weather news for January 28 claimed that it was the warmest day ever for January. That may well have been the case in Scotland from where the news story surfaced, but it also meant that generally mild weather was a feature in the Lake District where the Westmorland Club ran the Lonsdale Trial, the first Northern Centre Championship round that has been able to run in 2024. The start was at Firbank on the Westmorland Club’s own land where there were five sections followed by several groups to complete the 33 section total.
Despite a chill breeze early on, the wind dropped and the massive entry was able to set off for their 18 mile road based lap of 33 sections in the Firbank and Lambrigg areas either side of the M6 motorway. Having been deprived of rides recently due to the weather which enforced numerous cancellations, the club enjoyed a class entry in all categories of which the individual winners were Darren Brice over the hard course from John Crinson with Will Brockbank in third, having lost out to the North Easterner on the tie break.
Paul Hayward
Cheshire centre based Sam Atherton topped the Green course riders from John Bannister, a result again decided on the tie decider with regular Green course winner Stuart Gaskell in third this time whilst the best of ther Clubman course riders who made up the bulk of the 125 starters was last year’s winner of the same event, Paddy Edwards in the Over 50 category. He had a five mark advantage over two other riders with Paul Hayward on his EM winning the Under 40 class and Jack Butterworth on his roaring Triumph Twin topping the Twinshock category and with Bretton King attending all the way from Malmsbury in Wiltshire, his round trip of 500 miles was worth doing for the Over 60 win. Paul Bennet topped the Over 40 class to complete four of the five class wins for machines out of the ordinary, an EM electric bike, a 500 Twin and Bennett’s four stroke Sherco of around 15 years ago that never found favour with riders.
Paul Bennett
Rather surprisingly four riders failed to make the start with machine problems before they even reached the first section, and Alistair Dalton punctured before he could leave the first group. Most riders had a trouble free day but Steve Dixon got a shock when his chain snapped on the penultimate section of the trial as he tried to ascend a steep bank. He certainly reversed a lot faster than was ever intended.
Paddy Edwards
Full results from the Home page link and Eric Kitchen’s portfolio will appear Tuesday.