Disciplines

Clubs

The Sporting Trials Car Club (STCC) 2018/19 Championship is now well under way and

the 5th round took place on Saturday 17th November. The venue was Herron’s Farm at

Leitrim Co Down courtesy of landowner Eleanor Hilland.

Clerk of the Course (CoC) Tom McKinney had set up 5 hills but, on the day, decided to

use 4 because a number of cars were either being double driven or sharing passengers.

The weather was fine and dry and with good ground conditions, trickling was going to be

the order of the day. Tom as always introduced some tricky variations to hills used

previously on this site and every driver, including the experienced ones, were to get caught

out at some stage.

Round 1 was to prove the undoing for many and only Harry Barr and Michael McBratney

escaped with modest scores and were the only ones to clean hill 1. Harry was on 12,

Michael on 13 and the rest in the 20s. For Round 2, the CoC did some tweaking at hill 2

and drivers were now getting to the 6 gate but no one bettered it. The final climb on hill 3

proved too much for anyone and on hill 4 most drivers were getting zeros. At the end of

the round, Harry was leading Class A on 21 from Andrew McKinney on 32, while

Michael had a firm grip in Class B on an impressive 23 from Graeme Jennings and Geoff

McKay on 40. In the novice Class C, Alistair Morrison was level with newcomer Percy

Pennyfather on 40. Percy and his passenger Morgan Evans had travelled all the way from

Wicklow, South of Dublin and were sharing the driving of their smart looking Concord

recently acquired from England. They each compete in their own cars in the Irish version

of 4-wheel trialling but they were finding the skill of ‘trickling’ a new but enjoyable

challenge.

For round 3, Tom ‘played his joker’ and introduced hill 5 to replace hill 4 which he

deemed too easy! This was certainly a ‘game changer for Harry as he could not better 8 at

in each of the remaining 3 rounds. By contrast Brian Edgar showed why he is champion

by recording 0, 1 and 1. Runaway Class B leader David Webster was having an unusually

bad day with some uncharacteristic mistakes. He still managed to show his class and

experience when he managed to clean hill 3 in round 3. To prove it wasn’t a fluke he did it

again in the last round! Unfortunately, he also suffered at the hill 5 challenge with three 8s

and conceded the Class B victory to Michael McBratney. Michael and his relatively

novice passenger Brian McClay were in great form all day and they had overall victory

within their grasp but for an uncharacteristic 7 at hill 2. In Class A, Brian Edgar aided and

abetted by passenger Peter Flack continued their fight back after a poor start and with the

best scores in the final 2 rounds, had victory within their grasp when a disastrous 9 at hill 3

ruined their chances. This left Harry Barr and stand-in passenger for the day Lawrence

Knox overall victors thanks mainly to recording the most zeros and the fewest mistakes.

Meanwhile in Class C, Percy had prevailed in the battle of the Wicklow Men and he also

succeeded in overtaking Alistair for class honours.

Thanks to CoC Tom McKinney for overseeing a very enjoyable trial and to the land owner

for allowing us to use the site.

Posted by PMcCollum on 11/12/2019; Last updated by PMcCollum on 11/12/2019