The first motorsport event I ever competed on was a Car Trial, and it’s a discipline I don’t do enough of now but still love. It was an early start to head to Suffolk but after a night of heavy rain, a bright and crisp December day greeted us.
I made a couple of mistakes on early hills which proved costly against Matt, and was frustrating. Matt had worked hard to fix the car after breaking the driveshaft on the Rushmoor Targa, and everything seemed ok. There was a hill that I managed to get to a 1 where Matt got stuck at the 11 with a tricky ditch (the line was everything and millimetres mattered!) but then on my second attempt, I was ever so slightly to the left and got stuck as Matt did. I was also the only one of us to clear a hill (meaning a zero score) but apparently I brushed the 4 on the way up which was a shame.
We were first car on a number of hills, and this meant that when a route was changed in the afternoon we were the first to find for a road car, it was almost certainly not passable in one section. It was extremely soft and boggy and perhaps the specials would have made it through, but not us! The car dug down and we were lucky not to do too much damage with a damaged bumper, and the radiator and crossmember pushed back which required some post event fixing.
We really enjoyed our day and with a jet wash located on the way home, made it home with a little less mud on the car than we finished the day with.
