U GLOW FINALLY WINS GOLD
Organiser: BTRDA/ Bristol Motor Club When: January 12 Where: Frocester, Stroud Starters: 42.
Roland Uglow and long-term passenger Laura Wilks finally won the coveted BTRDA Gold Star, an accolade which stretches back over 70 years, for the first time.
Uglow and Wilks are multiple British champions but hadn’t won the one-off ‘cup final’ event before and they have had a quiet year from competing while Wilks recovered from a knee issue. Uglow dropped just two points over the 30 dry sections overlooking the Severn Estuary and held it together despite the pressure over the closing section.
John Fack took the early lead and was the only person to climb section eight, where Uglow dropped his two points. However, two hills later, Uglow snatched these back while three others equalled the zero score. Uglow led after the first round, from Fack and Richard Sharp.
Conditions dried over the second round and there were six clean rounds from John Mckinney, BTRDA chairman Stuart Beare, Andrew Woodhead (who had borrowed Martin Grimwood’s car), Ross Bruce, Ian Veale and leader Uglow.
Tyre pressures were increased by organisers in the hope of extracting some more marks, but a quarter of the entry didn’t add to their scores. Therefore, Uglow won from previous multiple champion Fack and 2015 champion Veale.
NPTCC champion Bryan Walker, an expected challenger, dropped six of his seven points on hill eight to finish in fourth overall, just ahead of Boyd Webster and Sharp who slipped back dropping two points on the afternoon round.
Outgoing BTRDA champion Ian Wright could only muster ninth overall just ahead of Bruce, who has excelled stepping up to BTRDA level this year and netted the Silver Star title in a fabulous 10th overall on his debut at the event.
Alan Baker finished agonisingly close, a point behind Bruce and second in the Silver after lunchtime leader John Cole slipped back with a number of small points dropped. Both Bruce and Baker campaigned live-axle cars proving their worth still. In his HSTA Post Historic-eligible X-factor Mark Howse was driving superbly but a costly error late on dropped him from the fringes of the top 10 overall.
Simon Kingsley surprised a few with his old Kincraft instead of his Crossle and won best live-axle in the Gold Star just ahead of double previous champion Josh Veale.
Results
1 Roland Uglow/ Laura Wilks (Crossle) 2 marks; 2 John Fack/andy Gowen (MSR); 3 Ian Veale/ Sandy Veale (Sherpa); 4 Bryan Walker/ Mark Simpson (Jedi); 5 Boyd Webster/andy Gains (Crossle); 6 Richard/jo Sharp (Cartwright); 7 Jerome Fack/tristan Veale (MSR); 8 Paul Price/ Kate Kirk (CAP); 9 Ian/ Kiel Wright (Sherpa Indy); 10 Ross Bruce/jarrod Goodwin (Concord) (Silver Star winner).