On May 6th, Telford hosted the Summer Trial, a retro-rally organized by HERO Events. The event was attended by 65 crews, divided into seven classes.
In the main standings, the battle was between Angus McQueen / Mike Cochrane in a 1982 BMW 323i and Paul Bloxidge / Oli Waldock in a 1985 VW Golf GTi. Fifteen-year-old Oli showed amazing ability in reading a road book and almost won the Summer Trial on his first try. At the finish, the winners and runner-ups were divided by only 0.85 points.
After the victory, Angus and Mike shared their impressions with the press service of HERO Events:
Angus: «Our level of confidence on the tests has grown, a new limited slip differential has helped too, but the more you do the better it gets, and I am loving the loose at the moment. What’s next? More wins and no tractors we hope!” I have to compliment Mike, he has been really consistent. If we have gone wrong we’ve been able to get back on track pretty quickly».
Mike added: «We are very, very pleased. I went a bit wrong on the last regularity although luckily we had some spare in there, but it’s all down to Angus’ driving on the tests he has been fantastic. It’s been tremendous, a lovely, lovely weekend.»
At the same time, Oli Waldock stressed that the road book was not easy from the very beginning, but they were able to get together. They (with Grandpa Paul) are very happy and he is glad to have won the third podium and another second place in his career.
Polishing the top three was car No. 51 of Andy Simpson and Roger Bricknel, who was driving the Mini Clubman GT for 1980 release.
Roger: «We’ve had some good times, no wrong slots, we did all we could but there is always the possibility of getting fowled up by traffic».
Andy: «The Mini seemed to go well, lots of marshals on the tests said we were quick, in short the car was brilliant».