21 Years Of SROC Team Trials
The Southern Rover Owners Club CCV Team Trial, held over the first weekend of August, celebrated its 21st birthday this year. Over the past four or five years, word seems to have got out about it and it has been gathering more and more competitors. This year we filled our maximum of 24 teams and 48 drivers.
The two day CCV Team Trial was originally devised by Ron Baker back in the early 90s. The main difference between this event and other trials is that the drivers are in teams of two and can guide/advise their team mate on the way round.
This means that, if there are only two drivers, they will need to plan where guidance is needed – or they’ll need to be fit enough to run round the whole course pointing and cajoling. It is an advantage to have a passenger signed on so there are two people running around guiding!
It’s also handy for each driver to have their own car, so that if one gets damaged the trial can be finished by double driving the other one. Unlike Mick and George Chick who share their car; when one of them drives it through an untested area and demolishes the radiator, they’re both out. I’ll let the brothers keep the issue of who did what to themselves!
It is quite entertaining watching the team members running around the woodland, trying not to trip over roots or slip up in the mud holes, especially if there are cameras poised to capture it. Also, over the past couple of years, the amount of small video cameras mounted to the cars has increased the opportunity to make a fool of yourself!
There are teams from the Somerset and Wilts, Peak and Dukeries, Chiltern Vale, Lancashire and Cheshire, Midlands, Lincolnshire, Anglian and Breckland clubs, many of them having been attending for several years.
All involved would like to thank Dawn Davis, who does all the organising of the entries into groups, allocating marshals and sorting out the scores at the end, along with many other hidden but essential paperwork tasks. Thanks also go to Bramble 4x4 for sponsoring the event and making it possible to have door numbers.
This year, the sections were laid out by Terry Buss and Dave Green to give Ron Baker and Greg Willig the chance to compete and try to beat four-time winners Dave Naylor and Keith Lynam. Unfortunately it didn’t work out that way and once again Dave and Keith took our silverware away with them! Well done, guys.
