THE LONDON - GLOUCESTER TRIAL
THE LONDON GLOUCESTER TRIAL
A SPLENDIDLY ORGANISED AFFAIR WITH JUNIPER AND NAILSWORTH AS THE PRINCIPAL STOPPERS
Twenty-five ” Gloucesters ” have gone by, and with the passing of each has gone the thought—” Well, that was the best ever,” but surely the 1935 Jubilee event must represent all that is best in the grand sport of trials driving.
One-hundred-and-twenty-five entries, eleven observed sections, thick fog and only an hour’s total delay—this means real organisation together with a tremendous amount of hard work, and credit deservedly goes to R. C. Porter, C. V. ‘Wells and the tireless marshals for bringing about such a happy state of affairs.
A surprise hill in the shape of Juniper had been included this year, not the J uniper by-pass as formerly used, but a new and mtich more difficult slope, the first half of which is formed from the steepest part of last year’s hill. In this instance it continued straight up from the main road, over the side of a hill, with plenty of width at the start but becoming narrower and steeper near the top. It proved to be the main stopping element of the trial, only twenty-five cars making clean ascents against forty-six clean climbs of Nailsworth Ladder and sixty of Mutton. As previously mentioned, fog played a prominent part in the proceedings, particularly in the first fifty miles of main road work after the start at the Spider’s Web restaurant on the Watford ByPass. Here, visibility had been reduced to a few feet, but near Aylesbury it began to thin, and the time check at Chipping Norton was reached by most with a little in hand. But the night had not been without incident. J. 0. F. Peters’
Frazer-Nash and K. N. Hutchison’s Jensen Ford V8 had both been delayed bY mechanical trouble while G. J. Rae had the misfortune to turn his M.G. over in the course of making up time. A short distance before the first night hill,
Kineton, Miss Barbara Marshall was also observed retrieving her Anzani-N ash from the top of a steep bank bordering a bend, luckily with only a badly-buckled wheel.
Kineton, with its water-splash and hairpin bend is not very difficult even by night but, strangely enough, proved too much for C. G. Fitt, and his V8 Ford. The other Fords, especially Allard’s exT.T. car showed tremendous speed here, and at the re-start test on Guiting Wood a few miles further on. The `,1 Three Musketeers ” team of 1,408 c.c.’ M.G. Magnettes with short chassis and lowpressure superchargers were naturally very quick too, and in the standing
twenty yards, Langley’s car tied with Allard and Fitt for the fastest time, 4 secs. Guiting Wood disposed of, competitors next stop was at the Plough Hotel, Chel
tenham, where an excellent breakfast was provided after which they were sent off from 6.30 onwards to tackle the second special test which was to be held on Bismore. This was a timed manoauvre, cars having to start on the hill itself, stop, re-start and continue to the top. R. A. Macdermid’s M.G. Magnette was easily the fastest with a time of 21.4 secs. beating S. H. Allard, the second man by 1.6 secs. Third and fourth respectively were, A. B. Langley (23 1/5 secs.) and J. A. Bastock (23 2/5 sees.). Miss P. Goodban, handling a FrazerNash-B.M.W., performed very well in• deed, likewise H. G. Symmons on a similar car, but Lord Avebury was having a lot of trouble with his Alta, and found it impossible to get away, from the. line at all. G. H. C. Goodban also got stuck here with his Singer Le Mans and Montague Johnstone had the misfortune to break an axle-shaft as a result of his efforts on the Ballila Fiat. Total failures here numbered eight, and activity was transferred to Mutton which stopped twenty-five cars. This hill rises up between trees and has a simple rightangle turn a couple of hundred yards from the start which is on the main road itself. Besides the ” Musketeers ” and Allard, the B.M.W. team consisting of H. G. Symmons, J. Tweedale and L. Maxwell were notably good performers and ” individuals ” who went well were C. M. Anthony (Aston-Martin), Miss P. Goodban (B.M.W.), Miss Joan Richmond (Triumph) and F. E. Elgood (3-litre Bentley). Most failures were caused through using too much power on the hard, shelving stone surface, just above the corner.