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Summer Trial

HERO-ERA

19th-21st July 2024


Summer Trial 2024
Winners: Dick Baines/Harry Baines (Mini Cooper S)
Photograph: © Paul Freeman Photography

Organiser: HERO-ERA

Date: 19th-21st July 2024

Clerk of the Course: Guy Woodcock

Deputy Clerk of the Course: Andy Darlington

Route: 366 Miles - 9 tests, 14 regularities

Base: Village Hotel, Chester

Starters: 85


HERO-ERA had attracted an over-subscribed entry for its three day Summer Trial, with 85 cars taking the start. For 2024 the event was based at Chester, with a 366 route, there were 14 regularities and nine tests to contest.

Day One, Friday, ran down through the Welsh Border to the Oswestry area and back to Chester. With a lunch time start, Scrutineering and Documentation taking place during the morning.

The opening regularity started near Farndon, skirted Bangor-on-Dee, before finishing at Dudleston Heath. There was then a short link section to take the route through Ellesmere, before crews embarked on the second regularity, which continued the southward run and ended at the entrance to the Rednal Kart Circuit, the venue for the first two tests of the event.

Dick Baines/Harry Baines (Mini Cooper S), Ed Linton/John Youd (Hillman Imp) and Malcolm Dunderdale/Anita Wickins (Mercedes Benz 190) shared top honours on the first reg, all dropping just one second. The latter crew had planned to contest the Summer Trial in a newly built Triumph TR8, but difficulties in obtaining the correct parts meant that the debut of the US version of the British sports car would have to wait.

Best on Reg 2 was the Triumph TR6 of Ken Binstead/Sarah Binstead. They were in the top ten when, later in the afternoon, they encountered fuel pump problems; as a result they had to cut the final section of the day.

As competitors arrived at the first test, Colin Newbold/Tony Brooks (Lotus Elan +2) held a once second lead over Paul Mills/Nick Cooper (Mini Cooper S).

Many crews complaining of being held up by non-rally traffic, in all varieties in the lanes. The Joker System was being used to ameliorate this problem, reducing a crew's largest lateness penalty to 15 seconds.

Novice Trial winners, Christopher Day/Claire Day (Mini Cooper S) were fastest on both Rednal tests, sharing the honours on the second with the first time paring of James Holt/Pete Johnson (BMW 325i).

The class improvement scoring system was being used for the tests and, having been fastest in their class on both tests, David Ward/Sally Ward (Lancia Fulvia 1600HF) now took the lead, two seconds ahead of Newbold/Brooks. However, there were many low scores at this point, with 22 crews being on fewer than 30 seconds total penalties.

The route then headed back north to Chester, taking in two regularities, the second of these being over the infamous World's End, west of Wrexham.

By the time that competitors arrived back at the Village Hotel, Newbold/Brooks had regained the lead, but were only one second ahead of Baines/Baines, while Holt/Johnson were four seconds further back.

Day Two made up over half of the rally, taking in 169 miles of North Walian lanes. There were six regularities and four tests, with lunch being taken at the Lake Vrynwy Hotel. All 85 cars took the restart at 08:00 on Saturday morning.

On the opening regularity Binstead/Binstead made up for their travails of the previous afternoon by cleaning all four timing points. This performance was matched by Dunderdale/Wickins and David Roberts/Melanie Roberts (VW Golf GTi). Baines/Baines took the lead for the first time at this point; they dropped one second against Newbold/Brooks' six seconds.

Two tests at Ruthin Cattle Market were then tackled. Day/Day were fastest once again on the first, but were one second slower than Holt/Johnson on the second.

At the following Coffee Halt Baines/Baines had extended their lead to six seconds; their nearest challengers were now Rob Robinson/Matt Outhwaite (Mazda MX5), who were six seconds ahead of Newbold/Brooks and David Westaway/Ben Westaway (Austin Healey 100M), who were tied for third.

Three regularities were then undertaken as the route moved south-west to Lake Vyrnwy and then back, via Bala to Denbigh. The first of these sections saw the first retirement of the event; the Mini of Mills/Cooper succumbing to clutch failure. A similar issue also caused the withdrawal of David Hemstock/Colin Readwin (Austin Allegro) at the Lunch Halt.

Baines/Baines maintained their lead through the three regularities, although Robinson/Outhwaite had narrowed the gap between them to three seconds. Westaway/Westaway had fallen back to sixth place having been penalised ten seconds for a line fault at a timing point on Regularity Four.

There were then two tests on the fields at Rikki Proffitt's farm. These were extremely tricky for the later runners as a torrential downpour hit the area as the end of the field, running in reverse position order, tackled the sodden tests.

Running at the head of the field, the only Masters crew in the event, Stephen Owens/Iain Tullie, took the fastest combined time over the two tests. As Masters they weren't eligible for overall awards, but, after being badly held up by non-rally traffic on Day One, would have been classified in fourth overall, if they'd qualified for classification.

A linear five timing point regularity completed the day's competition, where Binstead/Binstead took best time once again. However, after a tight day it was Robinson/Outhwaite who led the crews back into Chester; they were now one second ahead of Baines/Baines. Holt/Johnson were in third, 13 seconds off first place. These three crews were well ahead of the remainder of the field.

Summer Trial 2024
car 2: Peter Moore/Joss Moore (Riley Special)
Photograph: © HERO-ERA

The Day Three route was 97 miles long and took in the lanes of Cheshire and North Shropshire. There were four regularities and three tests to complete the contest.

Baines/Baines retook the lead on the opening regularity, but were demoted back to second by Robinson/Outhwaite on the second, as the Mini was held up by a local motorist. A large number of crew were caught out by the first timing point on Reg 3/2, which was located in a farmyard, although all the top contenders found the control without much time loss.

Two tests were then held at Market Drayton Livestock Market. Day/Day took fastest time on both. This was critical in two ways: firstly, it put Day back in the lead of the Test Pilot competition, having lost it in the soggy Saturday evening tests, and, secondly, they were in the same class as Baines/Baines, pushing that crew into second place on both tests, adding four seconds to the Baines' total. This meant that Robinson/Outhwaite now held a lead of six seconds.

After the tests Holt/Johnson, who had been fastest in their class on both, were two seconds off the runner up spot; meaning that the top three cars were within eight seconds of each other.

The penultimate regularity had two timing points and ran from Market Drayton to Whitchurch. Penalties were minimal here, with Duncan Hopkinson/Kay Hopkinson (MG C GT) cleaning both TPs. Baines/Baines dropped one second, Robinson/Outhwaite two and Holt/Johnson three.

On the final regularity, which used the lanes between Malpas and Farndon, Robinson/Outhwaite extended their lead as they were four seconds better than Baines/Baines and five in front of Holt/Johnson. This left them with an advantage of eight seconds as they headed for the final test.

This test was a Jacob's Ladder, where competitors could choose their own route through two lines of five cones, the two lines were parallel to each other. Cars had to pass between all cones, but only once between each pair of cones. It was timed on scratch, rather than on Class Improvement.

Baines/Baines and Holt/Johnson matched the bogey time of 20 seconds, while Robinson/Outhwaite were one second over bogey. The times would have given the Mazda crew a win by eight seconds, however, they had clipped a cone on the test and this added ten seconds to their total. This dropped them two seconds behind Baines/Baines in the final standings.

Thus, the father and son Mini pairing took their second win of the summer, adding the Summer Trial to their Challenge Two victory of the previous month.

Robinson/Outhwaite finished in second, five seconds in front of third placed Holt/Johnson. Outhwaite had the consolation of winning the Clock Watchers for the least penalties dropped over the event's 14 regularities. Christopher Day was the winner of the Test Pilot Award.


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