The 3rd and 4th rounds of the RT Keedwell Ltd British Trials Championship took place last weekend at Kelly Farm, Lustleigh in South Devon.
The organising West of England Club ran both days of the Anthony Rew trial at the same venue but with many different sections for each event which counted separately for Championship points.
There were plenty of points of interest as Spanish rider Jorge Casales took his first British win on Saturday with a great performance on the Beta beating James Dabill into second with Michael Brown third. Jorge had looked very much happier on the dry grippy Devon rocks and on the day the current British Champion had no answer to his continental challenger. Fourth place went to Sherco's James Fry who put in a really solid performance
The Expert class was won by the experienced campaigner Dan Thorpe. Thorpey had won the previous round at Butser Limeworks and it looks like the series will be a challenge between that experience and youth with Tom Hooper who is putting in some great rides.
Toby Martyn had a comfortable 20 mark margin over nearest rival Jack Peace in the Youth A class.
Day 2
We now have 3 winners from four events with Michael Brown this time taking the honours in the Championship class. He led the way through every lap and even two zero laps (2 & 3) from James Dabill on the vertigo could not stop the popular Gas Gas rider from his first victory this year. Casales could not quite match Saturdays ride with the final section over some tricky uphill boulders being his downfall. There was a great fourth place for Billy Bolt on the Ossa, the young rider getting really into his stride after a slowish start.
Local Nick Baker made a huge improvement on his day 1 ride to take victory in the experts. He would beat Tom Hooper by two marks but Hooper moved to the top of the points following his very steady weekend. James Stones came in third and moved up to fourth in the series just behind Jonny Starmer.
Once again Toby Martyn took the youth class from Jack Peace, these two are so far having things their own way.