2021 NATIONAL ROCKSHOCKS CLASSIC TRIALS CHAMPIONSHIP IS GO!
What more can you say? Super venue, super day and super event, blessed even with a scorching summer’s day! The two single laps, including 27 sections, some ridden only by the Expert and Clubman, meaning that the riders all rode 21 sections in total, worked very well for such a huge entry, with very little queuing at the sections.
This excellent venue offers a wide range of challenging and traditional hazards, including long winding narrow streams and muddy gullies. Maybe a touch on the more difficult side, but such is the competitive nature of the National Rockshocks Classic Trials Championship that it needs to have the severity to separate the winners. As it turned out, the event deserves a huge thank you to the organising Sheffield & Hallamshire MCC for getting the series underway with such an excellent event; well done!
CLUBMAN ROUTE CLASS 1
It was two-stroke versus four-stroke in the fight for the win, going in favour of the two-stroke-mounted Stephen Burgess on the mono-shock Yamaha. The deciding factor was the stop for Russell Walker, just one section from home on his second lap. It was once again a good sight to see the series title sponsor Gary Fleckney from Rockshocks coming home in seventh position, winning out on the tie-decider.
RESULTS 1: Stephen Burgess (Yamaha) 18; 2: Russell Walker (Honda) 19; 3: Ian Cheetham (Yamaha) 23; 4: Michael Clarke (Montesa) 23; 5: Paul Cook (Montesa) 26; 6: Keith Burgess (Yamaha) 27; 7: Gary Fleckney (Honda) 35; 8: Thomas Austin (Yamaha) 35; 9: James Brooker (Yamaha) 35; 10: John Byers (Honda) 36; 11: Martin Peirson (Aprilia) 44; 12: Mike Jones (Fantic) 46; 13: Neil Hebdon (Yamaha) 46; 14: Paul Young (Gas Gas) 46; 15: Steve Ransom (Yamaha) 48.
CLASS 2
Entering into the spirit of the Rockshocks championship, Carl Braddock turned out on his very nice Majesty featuring a four-stroke engine to take the class win. Along with John Dyson, they finished well ahead of the rest of the field. RESULTS 1: Carl Braddock (Majesty Four-Stroke) 28; 3: John Dyson (Bultaco) 31; 4: Stefan Walters (Fantic) 52; 5: Gary Hawkins (Montesa) 53; 6: Ben Ashton (Yamaha) 56; 7: Joshua Atkinson (Bultaco) 79.
CLASS 3
With a class entry of over 60 riders, would you believe that the final result would go to a tie-break decider in favour of Mark Butler? Both he and Steve Hitchcock finished on 13 marks lost as neither parted with a five-mark penalty through the 21 sections. All the way down the results, every mark counted in the fight for the top 15 and the championship points.
RESULTS 1: Mark Butler (Fantic) 13; 2: Steve Hitchcock (Honda) 13; 3: Martin Gilbert (Fantic) 18; 4: Andrew Williams (Honda) 21; 5: Andrew Walters (Honda) 22; 6: Chris Tolson (Fantic) 25; 7: Andrew Cope (Fantic) 25; 8: William Wood (Fantic) 25; 9: Simon Slater (Fantic) 26; 10: John Long (Honda) 27; 11: Michael Platts (Fantic) 29; 12: Stephen Wilde (Honda) 29; 13: Nick Hammerton (Honda)29; 14: Darren Walker (Majesty) 31; 15: Nigel Greenwood (Honda) 32.
CLASS 4: PRE-75
A good ride spoilt by a single five-mark penalty at the close of the second lap gave Alistair Haigh the win. Would you believe that you could find an ex-Italjet works rider and world trials championship points scorer and a TT winner in the top five? Well, that is what happened in this class! Chris Myers was four-stroke mounted and not on an Italjet, on his way to second as the many-times road racing TT winner Mick Grant finished just two marks behind Dave Wardle. RESULTS 1: Alistair Haigh (James) 20; 2: Chris Myers (Triumph) 22; 3: Dave Wardle (BSA) 24; 4: Michael Grant (BSA) 26; 5: Ian Ainsworth (Fantic) 30; 6: Ian Myers (Triumph) 33; 7: Simon Bown (BSA) 36; 8: Michael Batty (Villiers) 39; 9: Alan Brown (Triumph) 41; 10: Joseph Wills (BSA) 43; 11: Nigel Crapper (BSA) 46; 12: Kevin Witting (BSA) 47; 13: Brian Bayes (BSA) 49; 14: Nick Atha (DOT) 52; 15: Paul Stephen (DOT) 52.
EXPERT ROUTE CLASS 1
Look for this class, of the air-cooled mono-shock machines produced before 2000, to grow in the future. On this occasion, it was a Japanese manufacturer one-two as Stuart Morewood (Yamaha) edged out Peter Ruscoe (Honda) in the fight for the win. Keeping the European flag flying, John Bannister came home third on the Beta we tested in an earlier edition of Classic Trial Magazine.
RESULTS 1: Stuart Morewood (Yamaha) 31; 2: Peter Ruscoe (Honda) 38; 3: John Bannister (Beta) 40; 4: David Carter 44; 5: Andrew Paxton (Beta) 48; 6: Nicholas Paxton (Yamaha) 49; 7: Andrew Longden (Yamaha) 55; 8: Benjamin Earnshaw (Yamaha) 58; 9: Reece Morewood (Yamaha) 60; 10: Thomas Mills (Yamaha) 74; 11: Liam Atkinson (Beta) 80; 12: Luke Hora (Fantic) 85; 13: Daniel Cole (Fantic) 92; 14: Nigel Allen (Yamaha) 108.
CLASS 2
With only two riders entered in this class, Dave Knaggs (Bultaco) took the win, but please see, at the end of this report, changes that will be implemented very soon.
RESULTS 1: Dave Knaggs (Bultaco) 80; 2: Dave Wood (Ossa) 100.
CLASS 3
It appears that the Italian-manufactured Fantic machines are the ones to have in this class as they filled the top six positions. On the red machines, Darren Wasley and Scott Cameron fought hard for the win all day. On the first lap, they both stopped in the very tough section 9, and Wasley had just another stop in section 19, leaving him in the lead on 12 compared to Cameron’s 16.
On the second lap, it was all to play for, and despite an excellent lap of nine marks lost, Cameron had to play second fiddle to Wasley on the tie-break decider. It was another well-supported class with an entry of over 50.
RESULTS 1: Darren Wasley (Fantic) 25; 2: Scott Cameron (Fantic) 25; 3: Andrew Tales (Fantic) 29; 4: Thomas Jackson (Fantic) 33; 5: Mathew Jones (Fantic) 33; 6: William Tolson (Fantic) 35; 7: Sam Clarke (Bultaco) 35; 8: Graham Tales (Fantic) 39; 9: Stuart Blythe (Bultaco) 39; 10: Chris Garlick (Fantic) 40; 11: Chris Greenwood (Honda) 42; 12: Peter Ashmore (Yamaha) 45; 13: Simon Hartley (Bultaco) 50; 14: Paul Jackson (Honda) 52; 15: Paul Gravestock (Fantic) 52.
CLASS 4: PRE-75 BRITISH
A very well-prepared Triumph Tiger Cub in the right hands still proves to be the most successful of the Pre-65 and Pre-75 machines, as young Miles Jones showed. His loss of 24 marks was the best of the trial and the hard route. In a small, condensed class of just 12 starters, it was left to Liam Robinson to uphold two-stroke honour as he came second on his Greeves, winning yet another tie-break decider with Carl Batty.
RESULTS 1: Miles Jones (Triumph) 24; 2: Liam Robinson (Greeves) 46; 3: Carl Batty (Villiers) 46; 4: Ian Peberdy (BSA) 48; 5: Paul Dennis (Triumph) 48; 6: Robin Luscombe (BSA) 52; 7: Joel Gowan (BSA) 54; 8: Martin Stanistreet (James) 55; 9: Paul Bennett (Francis Barnett) 66; 10: James Hough (Ariel) 68; 11: Ian Smart (Triumph) 77.
2021 CHAMPIONSHIP UPDATE
Now that the series is finally underway and with a new class structure in place for twin-shocks, the organisers were keen to gauge the take-up by riders competing on older twin-shocks in the new class two. With round one completed and the final entry lists available for rounds two and three, it evident that there is little interest in anyone riding the older machines.
Out of 200-plus entries for round one, only ten had entered class two, and of those ten, only half were in the correct class. The entry lists for rounds two and three show the same trend with class two entries in single figures, and probably not all correct. It can only be assumed that this trend will continue throughout the season, with the vast majority of riders wanting to compete on the latest twin-shock machines. As it isn’t feasible to run a championship class for so few riders, the two twin-shock classes will now be merged, and there will just be a single class for all twin-shock machines. Obviously, this doesn’t prevent anyone from riding an older machine that will still be perfectly capable of tackling the sections and competing with later machines on the clubman route.
As the entry lists have already been finalised for rounds two and three, class two riders will be moved into class three, and the entry lists amended accordingly. However, as round one has already taken place with a class two entry, the results will still show class two.
Class two scores will be compared against class three riders for championship standings and incorporated into the single twin-shock championship standings if appropriate. There will be just the three championship classes from round four, with a revised structure of class one – air-cooled mono-shock, class two – twinshock, and class three – British motorcycle.