Staffordshire & Shropshire Land Rover Club May Day Interclub Event 2009
This is a site that we as a club have never used before, and as it was a 'virgin' site, a great deal of work had to be done, in a very short time, in order to have the site ready to run our May Day event there. Old silted streams had to be dug out, and five stream crossings were built, either by bridging, or by laying concrete pipes and covering them in earth. Elsewhere, drains were laid in deep trenches to drain boggy areas of the fields, field gates had to be put in to access the camping field, and water supply dug in. Work was completed just in time for May Day.
The weather forecast for the weekend was not great, and we all hoped and prayed it would at least stay dry, we wanted our first event at Red Hall to be a good one! Our prayers were answered, and what little rain there was, mostly fell overnight on Saturday and Sunday, and was not enough to spoil anyone's fun!
The RTV was set out by Andy Foster and Darryl Key, and by Saturday had 33 entries, including a 101 bravely entered by Carl Wilkes. 12 sections were set out across the site and the motors were divided into three groups, each to start at a different place. All the sections ran well, the drivers faced a good range of types of ground, from the tricky technical, to mud runs. Overall first place was won by S&S's own Matt Bennett on 11 pts, closely followed by S&W's Gary Bull (12), Philip Hillman (16), and Jemma Freeman (18), well done to you all.
Sunday's CCV started after an overnight shower had made the early sections quite slippy, but as the sun shone, and the wind blew all day, the ground conditions changed quite quickly for the 43 drivers who started. 12 sections were set out, but sections 6&7 were cancelled when a baby owl, which had fallen from its nest, was found close to where both sections started. A few cars retired due to the usual diffs and cooling problems, but everyone agreed Bob Whetton and Mick Dobbs had put on a really good trial, which was reflected in the results scored. Overall 3rd was MROC's Adrian Gregory on 20pts, 2nd was L&C's Neal Mellish with a very good 15pts, the winner was P&D's Dave Naylor with an incredible score of 2 points, over very challenging sections, driving his 88inch motor !! Well done Dave !
Ian Roberts laid out a terrific comp safari course for the 50 drivers booked in, running over 3.75 miles, it varied between hilly farm land, and technical areas through undulating, wooded old spoil heaps. One of the most popular features on the course, for both the drivers and spectators, was the jump, which had been carefully built including a landing ramp, to provide excitement, with minimal danger. The ramp and all other heavy ground work was done by C&S Construction, whose 13 ton digger made an unusual feature for the start gate. Over the course of the 5 runs there were eight retirements, and three cars enjoyed gentle rolls with little damage and no-one hurt, the rest of the field enjoyed a good days racing. 3rd placed was Kevin Stubbs (S&S), 2nd Pete Roberts (S&S), and the winner was Warren Roper (P&D), congratulations to them all.
The club would like to thank the drivers who waited patiently for the results to be posted, as there was a delay caused by the software that assembles the results. The full results to all the events can be found on our website www.saslrc.co.uk
A special thank you must go Rob Siddall of RS Racing, for coordinating the land development team, and to Sean Boulton of S&C Building Services Ltd for providing the large digger, the site would not have been ready without their dedication, and that of the rest of the land team, and everyone who played a part, from the Comp Sec, scrutineers, signers-on, timekeepers and marshals.
Doug Laird
