The weekend will see the opening round of the 2019 Keedwell ACU Trial GB championship take place at Hookwood on Saturday. The weather forecast is overcast, but dry, so the twelve sections are expected to be in prime condition for the sixty-three riders entered. Section Inspection for riders opens at 2pm on Friday afternoon, whilst Technical Control, ballot and Signing On commences at 8am on Saturday morning, ready for a 9.30am start on Saturday.
Hookwood is a Trials paradise, owned and maintained by Jim Connor who has developed the wooded area since 1983, Hookwood has everything. Many tons of rocks have been imported over the years and carefully placed in amongst the pine trees.
For spectators, it is one of the best on the calendar with all sections near the start area and all can be visited on foot with ease.
In the Trial GB class, we can confirm that except for Jack Sheppard, who is still in Australia, all of the ten seeded ACU Trial GB class riders have entered including current Champion, James Dabill. However, "Dibs" is likely to face his strongest challenge to date as the Start List is full of other World Championship contenders led by 2017 Champion, Jack Price. Whilst Toby Martyn, Dan and Jack Peace, who finished 3rd, 4th and 5th in 2018 will be looking to improve their positions.
The rest of the class are all capable of podium finishes with no less than current FIM Trial 125 Champion, Billy Green, Ex Trial 2 Champion Iwan Roberts, Andrew Chilton and Tom Minta and for this round the wildcard spot has been given to Hugo Jervis.
Whilst it is recognised that the ACU Trial GB is the premier class, there is much focus on the ACU Trial 2 category for 2019 with fourteen riders entered for the opening round.
Carrying the red number 21 plate will be current Masters Champion, Ross Danby (pictured courtesy of Trial Mag), who will have a much tougher job defending his title this year.
Finishing third in 2018, Sam Haslam must be a strong challenger but it maybe that the movement of some riders down from the old Championship Class, coupled with upgraded riders from the 2018 Expert Championship could prove to be the strongest challengers when the season ends in September.
Sam Connor and Alexz Wigg are sure to be podium contenders at every opportunity and Ben Hemingway, making a return after several years’ absence from the championship, is on top form in his native Yorkshire, will also have Joe Baker as a sparring partner.
Current Expert Champion, Richard Sadler is joined by Luke Walker and James Fry whilst Dec Bullock will be hoping for a stable year in this class. Then added into the mix is 2018 Youth Elite Champion Mitchell Brightmore, who has taken the bold step to skip over the Expert ranks. Duncan MacColl, Gwynedd Jones and Oliver Smith complete the fourteen contenders.
Unfortunately for the ACU Trial 125 Class it seems to be that at the midpoint of the year this class as many riders will be "aged out" and moved into ACU Trial Expert and some younger talent are too young to be included.
That leaves us with just three riders in the class with Brett Harbud being the single rider who will have the experience of having competed in 2018. He is joined by Ben Dignan who travels all the way from Roy Bridge in Scotland, but of course will benefit in the second half of the series when the rounds move further North. These two are joined by Adam Harris who has been granted dispensation from the ACU to ride in this class. Adam makes the long trip from Dublin but having finished third in the ACU Youth class last year will have his eye on the top step of the podium.
Although the class has only three riders, the fact that they will ride all the ACU Trial Expert sections, will give them massive experience going forward and of course, one of them will be crowned a British Champion at the end of the year.
Our final group to look at is the ACU Trial Expert class with a massive thirty-six riders entered for the opening round. This class is sure to be wide open with the top four from last year moving up into the ACU Trial 2 class, (Guy Kendrew is taking a year out) which on paper leaves evergreen Dan Thorpe as the main contender. However, with the Sheffield rider now at the age of 40, it will open the chances for riders like Chris Stay, who regularly makes the journey from the Isle of Wight and Sam Yeomans to step up to podium places whilst Ben Morphett, who won this round in 2018 will hopefully contest the whole series this year.
Talented Gus Oblein moves up from the old Youth Elite Class to make his challenge whilst there are a host of other riders -too many to mention here - who could stand on a step of the podium at some stage during the season.
Could this be the year we see a lady challenge for the top spot? On paper, from last year's results, our own multi World and British Champion Emma Bristow is seeded fourth and has the talent, confidence and stamina to be right up there at the sharp end.
In the first round the ballot could prove quite important as it is just one single ballot for starting positions for all 36 riders. In subsequent rounds the top eight will be seeded into a secondary ballot, but in round one the playing field is completely level.
The action takes place at Hookwood in Surrey is easily reached via the Motorway network from either the M3 or M25 Motorways and starts at 9.30am