Classic Racer

Talking of classic racer De Feu, another former classic racer turned trials ace is Eddie Aitken. Having at one time finished as high as 8th in the Manx – the Classic Grand Prix that is not the Classic trial – he was another who suffered a problem before his two-day excursion around the Highlands above Kinlochleven came to an end. Producing a snapped-off foot rest, Aitken explained that he had to ride much of the difficult Blackwater Dam loop without a foot rest, which caused him some losses in sections that he would normally have hoped to clean. “You could think it’s easy to ride with only one footrest, but believe me it’s not,” said the ever-smiling north-eastern motorcycle dealer.

James Noble, a former winner of the trial in 2015, came after breaking his leg a year earlier in the last section of the trial while he was leading. He felt that his confident loss of just one single mark on each of the two days would be enough for him to grab his second win of this amazing event. The rumour mill soon produces a potential result as the riders in contention reveal the marks they consider they have lost. But as trials riders around the world know only too well it’s not the mark that each thinks they have lost is what counts. It’s the score the observer has put down, and in Noble’s case his expected dab turned out to be a five on the results card, so he was understandably disappointed at the evening presentation when he learned that he was runner-up, on six marks to Macdonald’s winning score of four.

Ben Butterworth benefitted another way. His first-day score was down as ten marks as he questioned the score, and it transpired that it was an inputting error to the first-day results sheet so on Saturday morning his score of ten was reduced to five which considerably improved his overall result.

Yrjo Vesterinen (BSA-FIN): The three-time World Trials Champion was also the first foreign winner of the Scottish Six Day Trial in 1980. He still looks as stylish as he did back in the day.

Tony Calvert (Triumph): Would you believe that ‘Sam’ is now the winner of the Best Over 60 Award. He had a really tough first day with many machine problems.

Sam Clarke (Triumph): Riding in his first pre-65 SSDT on this nice 350cc Triumph twin.

Russell Rooksby (Ariel): Note the rear wheel is airborne as he goes for his chosen line.

Michael Irving (Ariel): It needs some strength to ride the big four-stroke singles as seen here as he fires the Ariel over the rock at Upper Mamore.

Eddie Aitkin (Triumph): Producing a snapped-off foot rest he explained that he had to ride much of the difficult Blackwater Dam loop without a foot rest, which caused him some losses in sections that he would normally have hoped to clean.