ANCC ROUND 1 CROFTON

Saturday as usual spent in the garage doing those last minute
checks and adjustments, you know the ones, complete re-wire,
gearbox strip and tyre pressures. Finally at 11 o'clock Dave and
myself had his motor ready for the Sunday event. Off to bed then,
not that I slept much due to being excited about competing

06.30 Sunday morning, up and ready to meet Dave at his house for the drive

through to Crofton. To save time we decided to leave the door tops
off, a decision we were later to regret. After meeting up with Greg
and Ady off we went. Arriving at the site at about 08.00 we were not
the first, so joined the queue for scrutineering , through with flying
colours and below the 100db limit.

Greg and Ady had trouble with their washers but managed to
remedy the problem and were passed by the scrutineers.
Meanwhile more and more vehicles had been arriving , a great
many of these were 'Warriors' and more still were sporting Hill-Rally
98 stickers, it was obvious that we were up against the big boys.

It was time to go and walk the course, our first impression was, it's
going to be a bone shaker, the ground was rock hard and full of
ruts. The first third of the course was straight forward, long straights
and a hairpin, nothing untoward here. The next part of the course
looked familiar, (worried glances at each other) remember our CCV
Trial? Included in the track was the climb up the embankment along
the side of the railway tracks, the climb and the side slope with the
large hole at the bottom. Also those nice axle twisters that stopped
many of the leafers and the big drop into the gully. The rest of the
course was designed around the lake with various other hazards
and hairpins. The other interesting obstacle was the water splash
near the end.

10.15, the first motors in the red class were lining up for the off. we
watched in anticipation. This was no mean feat as trying to stand in
the ridiculously strong winds was not easy. Already our backs were
aching, "them there motors was a bouncing and a bucking !" We
opted to run in the green class with the slower of the motors.
Although the class system was later to become something of a
farce, causing Ady to lodge a complaint. The reason being although
we were setting off in the slower group, we had Warriors and
buggies setting off behind us, catching us up , forcing us to move
over to let them pass and causing us to lose time in doing so. This
was the only down side to the day , apart from the worsening
weather.

Finally we were on the start line, adrenalin pumping needing to go
to the too. Oh welt it'll have to wait. RED....AMBER....GREEN we're
off to a flying start following Greg and Ady hoping to catch them. A
sweeping right hander onto a long straight, the course wasn't as
rough as we had anticipated, by now the other motors had knocked
the top off the ruts. Left hairpin... long straight, were intercoms
designed so you could communicate with the other person or just to
hear how much pain each other are in. left hander ...small
drop... hard right at the bottom, keeping tight to the right to avoid the
ruts. Climb at the top... left along the top... drop down left ...climb
right ...double back on ourselves into a tight left hander... straight
along the top hazard to the left deep gully. So far so good. Drop
down and turn right, a climb with a side slope , if we messed this up
we would end up in a deep water filled crater. Up on to the top
section with various straights and hairpins then onto the axle twister
section, we hit it far too fast. The bonnet went sky-wards and we
went "URGHH !!" But Dave kept it going. On exiting here was a
steep drop into a gully and then a sharp right. A climb... straight on
...then a descent down into the lake section. By this point we had
caught Greg and Ady , a quick blast of the air horns and we are
past them, into a long fast straight .suddenly we have to brake hard

as we notice a jump in the course, round a right hand hairpin and
then a navigational error on my part sends us to the waters edge,
giving Greg and Ady the chance to pass us. Dave executes a
perfect three point turn and we're back in the race. A drop to the
lake side... a straight ...left hand hairpin... up to the water
splash... skirt round the edge of the water, this was due to the ever
increasing number of motors that were getting stuck in there,
eventually resulting in the course being re-routed to miss out the
water section altogether. Two long straights connected by a hairpin
and we had finished the first lap. Already competitors were having
to carry out repairs and very shortly the first retirements would come
about. Unfortunately for us we too were about to become one of
these.

The second tap was uneventful, nothing unexpected happened.
We slowed for the axle twisters and managed to knock nearly a
minute off our previous time , things were going well.

The third run went well except on finishing we noticed that a tyre
had punctured. By now the weather had worsened with high winds
and pouring rain, all the fun of off reading. We now had the problem
of trying to keep the inside of the screen clear as well as the outside.
Greg and Ady solved this by removing their screen completely.
Greg had had trouble in the axle twister section, due to the fact that
they'd only had 2-wheel drive up to now.

Fourth lap and our visibility problems were getting worse. It was a
case of trying to remember as much of the course as we could and
the bits we couldn't, we drove blind. Exiting the axle twisters and
over the steep drop we went too fast, landing heavily we bent the
front bumper. The bumper needed straightening as it was fouling on
the tyre, so out we gotto do it. Panicking too much I'd become
tangled in my harness straps, a little help from Dave and we were
on our way again.

Lap five and damage to the steering guard meant it had to be
removed at the end of the lap.

The sixth lap and what proved to be our final lap due to us bellying
out on the course and ripping off the exhaust at the front silencer. It
sounded good but with no back pressure our comp was over. We
were given a placing though because we had completed six out of
the eight laps and accepted two maximums for the two runs we
missed.

Cold, wet and very noisily we made our way back to South Elmsall,
It didn't help that we didn't have the door tops on, so the rain
continued to blow in all the way home.

All said and done I thoroughly enjoyed myseif as I always do.

I'd like to thank Dave once again for letting me navigate for him and

to those Pennine members who came and gave their support.

Anyway I must dash to help Dave to repair his motor for round two
on the 21^st March

'MUTT' Matthew Barber

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