Classic Highland

As sporting life battles to return to normal CDB headed to Aviemore for the postponed Inverness & District MCC’S 2020 Highland Classic Two Day Trial – Fantic Edition.

Scottish motorcycle sport made a welcome return when Inverness DMC met the Covid requirements and ran their 2020 Highland Classic Two Day Trial.

All seemed well in the Highlands of Scotland as 2019's Highland Classic Two Day Trial celebrated the Italian SWM marque with guest of honour Bernie Schreiber in action on a stunning SWM provided by Martin Matthews at MOTOSWM. The chat at Telford's CDB show was all about 2020's Fantic Edition of the trial – then up popped this pandemic and the world was shut for months as the virus was tackled. With signs of life returning to normal, governing bodies in our sport issued directives to help organisers actually run events; understandably these directives changed almost daily but somehow sport happened in 2021.

One thing which couldn't happen though was bringing in an overseas guest. At the time of writing foreign travel is still fraught with difficulty, so for the 2021 running of 2020's Fantic Edition, former British Champion and Fantic works rider Steve Saunders trekked up to the Alvie Estate near Aviemore from his Gloucestershire home, taking with him his 300 Fantic.

Terrain in the Highlands is ideal for trials; there are rocky streams, moorland crossings, banks, drops and so forth – not a great deal of mud but enough to make the odd section slippery.

Inverness & District MCC has a mutually beneficial relationship with the Alvie Estate and works hard to ensure this continues.

After some trepidation in the early years the estate realised the passage of trials bikes around parts of their estate actually benefits the land.

The estate – in the person of the laird, Jamie Williamson – welcomes the event each year.

Recognising there are a number of different levels of ability and classes of motorcycle making up the entry, the club has two routes through sections. Riders tackling the easy course miss the odd supertough section as they aim to complete two laps each day of the five- or six-mile course.

Normally there is a presentation immediately after the trial finishes as punch cards are used to record a rider's score. With social distancing regulations being in place the punch card system wasn't used for 2021; instead, the old-fashioned observer's card was in place. The upside is no social distancing problems when recording a score; the downside is it wasn't possible to rapidly tot up the marks and declare a provisional winner. So there was no presentation – however we are assured things will return to normal for the OSSA Edition on June 11-12, 2022.

Entries for the trial will be online, opening on February 1 next year and closing on April 14.

Below right: Gary Macdonald took Dave Stewart's Cub to the top of the four-stroke unit class.

Below: Guest of honour Steve Saunders looking stylish on a borrowed Fantic. The TRS importer's own Fantic melted its stator… so far away from the start he was on the way back.

Above left: Alan Crayk is a former winner of the event, a solitary dab on Saturday saw him drop down the list a long way.

Right: “I know, let's build a trials bike out of a Norton Navigator…” Kevin White claims only to be the rider, his dad did the build.

Right: Time constraints meant the podium, supplied by Ricky Mair at Highland Temporary Works, wasn't used for podium stuff. Laird Jamie Williamson – without whom the trial couldn't happen – chats with John Moffat (right) in front of the podium. Left: In the world of trials there are rarities; the Fraser Honda is just such a machine. Jack Roe spotted the bike in a neighbour's garage in the late Seventies and he's had it ever since.

Left: As this year's event was to celebrate Fantic, in the holding pen were several Fantics. Right: North East Centre lad Colin Ward was making his first trip to the event. Below right: Derrick Edmondson's trial got off to a great start… pulling the clutch in resulted in the nipple parting from the cable…