The Ilkley Motor Club’s Sammy Miller trials championship series ran smoothly over a thirty eight mile course centering in Nidderdale on Sunday where seventy five competitors, plus five sidecar passengers, contested round four in the eight event championship series.
The sun came out for a change over the thirty eight mile thirty one section course which took in eleven section groups ranging as far as Dallowgill and Winksley after visiting initially Watergate and it’s grassy banks then rugged Cockhill Mines and the rocky climbs and narrow stream beds. The narrow twisting road alongside the giant Ramsgill reservoir brought in West Wood, Rayner’s Fields and Covill Farm with a lunch halt in Lofthouse village.
The sting was in the tale with three subs in Wards Farm, where Class 2 winner Jim Jardine was getting wound up after a fruitless ride to Masham after getting lost. The Jimmy was running out of fuel. High Ray Carr at Skelding and Winksley Moor ended the lap with just four subs opposite the Holly Tree at KIngstone Farm where the entire Shepherd clan were a wheel, on tractors hauling in silage. “That is why I did not start” added Norman Shepherd. Watergate was slippery, as usual, and Paul Fishlock and Debbie Merrill wrong sided a flag which cost them maximum.
Lee ‘Onslow’ Granby and passenger –get this- Rupert ‘Pogger’ Kimber, yes the British sidecar championship challenger, rode to the final sub at Wards before foundering on the first rock step. The Chapel en le Frith HGV driver had bought a job lot of white sunglasses for the Sammy Miller day in the Dales. As far as the classes it was a lonely ride for Didcot title chaser Graham Howes and his 350 Goldie who closed down class leader Mike Holloway who now has a two point cushion over Howes.
Despite his fuel problems Jim Jardine kept his head to win Class 2 where the good ride of Prestbury’s John Jacka on his sweet sounding Matchless climbed the standings to close on the absent Hannam. A fourth in Class 3 for Mick Whitehouse behind rival Duncan Trickett creates a sixteen point bridge to close for Trickett. Kendal’s Carl Batty dipped his toes in the Miller waters for the first time riding the Triumph Trophy on three dabs, all lost in Sheps rocks in the East Meadow where title chaser Tim Blackmore lost a third of his fifteen marks. Peter Salt’s fourth place edged up the standings.
Martyn Wilmore’s Yamaha was the ideal tool for the Ilkley sections and again a maximum at Shepherds was the only loss for the Swindon rider who closed on fourth placed Mark Stokes who has a six point buffer over Wilmore.
It was a day of variables. Some sections were on the easy side, all well marked. Some were tight for the chairs while section twenty two in Wards was harder on the easy course and a straight liner on the hard course. Merit award on the day went to Judy MacDonald who finished seventh in class fresh back after a leg breaking crash six weeks ago.