Newsletter No 29 - VMCC - Isle of Man

The May trial is now established as the Geoff Cannell Memorial, held at
Bim's field, by kind permission of owner Mark Bimson. Phil Ward (Yamaha)
has won on more than one occasion, I think this was his third. It's nice that,
though younger than Geoff, he competed with him for many years. On the B
route it was Andy Sykes just holding off youngster Thomas Cairns (Beta).
June and July are usually months of rest, but not this year in making up for
no January event, June saw a trial in Kings Forest. At last Kevin Whiteway
got a win over Shaun Huxley and it was a treat to see Stephen Franklin get
the win on his old James over the Japanese in the B class! In the Youth
classes Daniel Smith (Beta) and Thomas Cairns were starting to dominate in
the A and B classes respectively.
Just before the Two Day Trials, Pooil Vaaish was the venue for August . It
was Shaun getting it over Kevin to keep things tight at the top of the
Championship, Richard Bairstow on a little 175 Yamaha winning the B route.
Ties are so common at Vintage trials, it's no surprise that we had one again
in September, in round 5. Phil Ward (Yamaha) who used to live round the
Stoney Mountain location, lost the tie decider by two cleans to Shaun Huxley
with Kevin Whiteway third. Mike Ellis (Yamaha) had his first win in the B
class.
The Southern club were generous in allowing their land at Carnagrie to be
used for the October trial, it was fairly wet but it's been a lot muddier in the
past. Kevin Whiteway had a comfortable win from Jim Davidson with
Shaun Huxley third. After missing a couple of events Ashley Gardner
brought his big shiney BSA out and won the B class, while Ashley junior
(Gas Gas) put one over Daniel Smith (Beta) in the Youth A to make it a
family double.
At the Dhoon Quarry in November for the penultimate round the sections
were a bit easy, but it's the same for all. One dab for Kevin Whiteway was
to prove his undoing, while Shaun Huxley went clean to win the day and go
two points ahead in the A championship. Graham Thomas on his immaculate
Honda was third today and good enough to eventualy finish third in the A
championship. Ashley Gardner again won the B route but Mike Harding
(Suzuki) had already sewn up their championship. Thomas Cairns was to be
the only rider in any class to maintain a 100% record and duly win the youth
B, while Daniel Smith had to go to the last round to secure A youth honours.
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