It’s all sunny for the Founder Members
Take a brilliant sunny day overlooking Morecambe Bay and the estuaries joining the Irish Sea, early Spring warmth, a decent trial on a great trialing farm and four laps of 12 sections, and you have the very best multi-class trial that could be available.
That was the offering by the Barrow Club for their Founder Members trial at Stribers Farm near Haverthwaite where 47 riders tackled a much revised course set out by the two Peters – Pete Mawson at the helm and his pal Pete Huddleston assisting.
Many moons previously, Peter Mawson used to set out trials at this venue with Tommy Addison, a well-know name in Cumbrian trials, and now, in semi-retirement, Peter Mawson offered to take up the reins again and plot a trial at this venue used just a couple of times a year. The entry spoke almost as one to say that it had been a great trial – and the weather was certainly a rare blessing after this cold winter.
Offering 12 sections was possibly a risk, for if the weather looked like it was going to be wet, the sections would have been very difficult, but the weather over the previous days had been dry, and with a drying wind at this top of the fells venue, the sections for the Clubmen were perfect. Winner Ben Hanson (lead picture) lost just three marks, all on the final section of the lap whilst runner up Mark Quinn was double that score but still another three ahead of Simon Brice and Aaron Athersmith who shared the third place on score sof nine.
The trial for the Green course (50/50 mix of the hard and clubman sections) had a more difficult time than the Clubman riders, particularly at section ten and twelve. Ethan Johnson from Broughton-in-Furness had the rest of the entry well covered with a great ride to lose only 24 with Nigel Birkett second on 42 as he continues his preparations for another SSDT . Sam Metcalfe and Ethan King were not so far away for third and fourth place.
Ethan Johnson
Darren Brice
Darren Brice was in a class of his own to win the hard course on 12 from Tom Middleton on 27 who was desperate to keep is new Vertigo scratch free despite crashing heavily for a five on the challenging final section.
Full results are on the link from the Home page and Eric Kitchen was out in the sunshine so his pictures will appear soon in the gallery.