Club of the Month
When it comes to the monthly trials of the Pennine Land Rover Club, it’s always a close fight for the win. Dave Billing report on the last two events
Read all about the Pennine Land Rover Club and its trials
THE PENNINES monthly trial, set by clerk of the course Mark Barnes, saw competitors heading to Haggate Quarry near Burnley. As expected it was Tim Dilworth and Dave Billings who were in contention for top honours, and it’s a battle that started 17 years ago when they first raced against one other in comp safaris – competition is everything to this pair.
Dilworth was determined to beat Billings, after disaster on the last section of the previous trial cost him the win. A betting man on the previous rounds would have put money on Billings or another regular competitor, Phil Rigg, for the win. But this is Pennine Land Rover Club and things don’t always go as you would predict. The club try to make everything as fair as possible and to make sure you decide your own fate, as sections do vary throughout the running order.
Twenty cars entered, split into two groups. The day started for group two straight in the deep end with a section round a pond, which caught a few out with a sharp corner on the edge of the drop into the water. A few more sections in, Billings and Dave Bolland were running equal, then Bolland powered up the hill and got a clear on the section. Billings only managed to score two points. On the last section of the day, despite taking some questionable lines and under pressure, he managed to clear the section and win group two.
Meanwhile, in group one, Dilworth and Matt Russell had been enjoying a good morning with impressive scores. After dinner Dilworth was leading the group but then disaster struck and after an argument with a stone gatepost he got 11 points. With two sections to go Dilworth heard what Billings had finished the day on, and decided enough was enough, and aced the last two sections, finishing on 19 points, only to find that Billings had 18 – beating him by one point. Their battle for championship points would continue at the next event.
The next trail was at Whitworth Quarry, set out by clerks of the course James Bolland and James Pate. Whitworth is always one of the more challenging trials site that Pennine visit and it didn’t disappoint. Mark Barnes started the day well and arrived to dinner with a smug look on his face because he was leading the group by one point, ahead of Billings and Phil Rigg, to mention a few.
As the day went on the sections got tougher, with one including a peat bog, a vertical decent and a rock face climb for the second and first gate. Billings went first and used a lot of speed to get round and clear the section; the best of the rest got to the fourth gate. After dinner Barnes’ day seemed to go downhill with eight points lost straight away after getting hooked on a rock. Then on the next section a loose bolder got in the way and gradually rolled further into the section, catching a few drivers out. By the time Billings started the section the rock had been flipped onto its end, right between the finish gate with no way of driving round it. The only option for Billings was to hit it at speed and bounce the Land Rover over it. This worked but sheered the steering rod off and his Land Rover hit the next gate with no steering. Despite this misadventure on this section Billings took the overall lead, and held on to his hard-fought first place on the final section.
The continuing battle between Billing, Dilworth and others is set to continue at the next trial, and no doubt for the remainder of the year’s trials.
Pennine LRC runs a trials event for both CCV and RTV motors every month, full details can be found on its website.