
Rockshocks Classic Trials Championship Round 3: Castleside 20/21 July 2024
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Report by John Dickinson
The 2024 Champs staged the third event of the five round series with a unique Two Day trial staged by the Castleside club at The Baa, Edmundbyers in County Durham on the weekend July 20/21 where Championship points were awarded for the overall result after two days.
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A total of 89 entries was heavily Clubman biased with a total of 80 Clubmen against just 10 Experts. Saturday's course comprised 15 sections lapped twice and a 12 noon start to allow travelling time for the long distance entrants. There were eight subs up the beck at the foot of the start field then a run out to a group of five and two more to finish off the lap.
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Sunday's course was a much longer challenge with an 11 mile off-road loop taking in 20 sections and this was also lapped twice. Some found this a bit too much and there were 30 retirals in total to give 59 finishers, all rightly proud of their weekend's work. There was a surprising amount of water in the becks, containing some deep pools that it was wise to steer clear of!
In the Experts, Philip Baxter on his SWM took a crushing Twinshock victory dropping just 13 marks through the 70 sections, a super ride, which proved 43 less than runner-up, Fantic mounted James Black with Lancashire's Rob Taylor third on his 1970s Honda TL250.
And there was an even bigger victory margin in Air-cool Mono as series leader, Welsh ace Miles Jones, enjoyed a 41 mark margin over trials used parts king Richard Allen who enjoyed a gallop on a Montesa. Roman Kyrnyckyj took third on the Honda TLM260 two-stroke while clearly not on his usual top form.
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Clubman Britshock and Twinshock boasted 23 and 47 entries respectively and while keenly contested, still produced clear class winners. Devon's ever present Martin Gilbert nailed Britshock on his 'spare' Bantam and enjoyed the sole clean ride on Saturday before dropping the eight marks on Sunday that saw him bag maximum Championship points.
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Duncan McDonald enjoyed a cracking ride and conspired, along with fellow Cub rider Kevin Ellis, to both drop the same marks each day for a total of 21, Duncan just shading second place on a tie-break. Chris Myers on the little 250 Tribsa held second place on Saturday but a poor opening lap on Sunday dropped the Cumbrian down to seventh behind Ian Myers, Darren Walker and Andrew Black.
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Reigning Twinshock Champ Derrick Edmondson was on top form to keep his scores in single figures all weekend as Honda TLR four-strokes filled the podium. Mark Barrow kept Derrick in his sights on Saturday, just one mark adrift but couldn't match his rival's excellent four mark effort and had to settle for second. James Lamin made a late charge on Sunday, the only other rider to post a single figure class score on the day, but just came up one mark short of the runner-up berth. Ian Haigh was the first Fantic home in fourth while David Braithwaite stuck his lone Suzuki 325 into fifth place.
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And there was another dominant winner in the surprisingly small Air-cooled Mono as Pete Ruscoe helped himself to max points on a score of 13. Runner-up Eric McMeekin posted best score on Sunday, just five against the six of Ruscoe but the Scorpa four-stroke rider (not eligible for championship points) had an expensive opening day in the sections. Third was Pete Blowers from Barrow in Furness, not enjoying his best weekend in the sections as he normally performs well on the Montesa 309.​​
It was a super weekend thanks to the efforts of Ossy Byers and his Castleside chums much appreciated by all
present.
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