Richmond Motor Club national Mintex Trophy Trial, Hurst, Sunday

APPRENTICE plumber Ryan Brown, 16, won the National Mintex Trophy trial on Sunday at Hurst and matched the result achieved by last year's winner Duncan MacColl exactly with a best on time and observation result.

The Bellerby winner rode his C.J.T Offroad sponsored Beta round the twenty mile thirty section two lap course two minutes faster the runner up Ben Dignan who lost out with a fifty nine score on observation. MacColl’s time last year was three hours and six minutes. The winner took home the Mintex Cup and the NLS Contracts Trophy plus three tyres donated by Michelin who continue to support the trial after several years. Ryan’s father Peter, a former Scott Trial competitors, was very happy with £300 of tyres.

Lincolnshire’s Daniel Slack was right in the frame on his MRS Sherco until disaster struck, The Sherco rear chain was dislodged and jammed by the gearbox sprocket. Commented Daniel “I struggled to get the chain free and lost fifteen minutes in the process before I got moving”. Despite the mental stress of trying to repair his machine Slack was threatening with a second best observation score. Bradford’s Joe Faunthorpe was also riding a fast pace and his time of 2:48.07 was a third fastest and also third on observation. The trial course is no mild ride round the splendid Swaledale country side. In essence those forty five finishers can boast that they competed and completed in what was half of a Scott Trial. The terrain was pure Scott country and many of the thirty sections were straight out of Scott Trial folklore. Dry Gill, Braithwaites Gill, Cold Bank, Whiskey Gill, Moresdale and Ridleys all played a part in the trial. The Waterfall at Ridleys unseated a few riders on lap one. Mention must be made of Buxton’s Harry Turner who was probably the youngest and smallest in physique who got round in style as did Scorton’s Elliot Laws. For Telford’s Alice Minta it was just another Day in the Dales. Miss Minta was placed seventeenth overall and her score on observation was a splendid sixteenth overall. Richmond Motor Club President Paul Terry presented all the awards after the results team calculated all scores and time in record time. Paul Turner, Harry’s father, summed up the event “Harry was definitely the smallest and possibly the youngest in the trial. Absolutely loved it said it was the best trial he has ever ridden” The boy will be back.

Yeadon-Guiseley Motor Club, 5th Club Championship, Ramsgill, Sunday

THE Yeadon-Guiseley club’s trial at Ramsgill on Sunday was an all-star event with exactly eighty competitors contesting the fifth club championship trial at the popular Nidderdale venue.

The numbers also soared in the small wheel classes with thirty one youngsters from the age of six years competing in three classes overseen by class expert Chris Fannon and Sean Fletcher. In the main class national S3 Championship leader Richard Sadler won the championship class from Danny Gamble and Thomas Housecroft. Newcastle star John Crinson also dropped to sample some Yorkshire Dales trialling and took fourth place overall and third expert.