Sidcup 30 Trial - 2004

Sunday 25th April 2004

The 3rd Sidcup 30 Trial : A super-tough trial for the best solo Trials riders and the top Schoolboy riders. Regional Restricted.

Results

By Class (HTML) here.

Mark by mark breakdown (PDF) here

You will need Adobe Acrobat Viewer to view these files

Photos

Jamie Clarke - Page 1

Jamie Clarke - Page 2

Jamie Clarke - Page 3

Jamie Clarke - Page 4

Jamie Clarke - Page 5

Coulbert.com has photos here

Trialsinfo.com report, photos, etc are here

Peter Burrell, and other people/sites will have photos soon.

Reports

Report 1 - By Jamie Clarke

The third Sidcup 30 trial saw another spectacular clash across all classes over a greater field of riders than ever before. Last year's second place man, Alexz Wigg stole the show, winning on just 5, ahead of second place Sam Haslam on 10. Ashley Newbury and Ian Johnston both equal number of marks lost and cleans, so it went down to ones - and Ashley got third spot by one. It wasn't the year for last year's other podium finishers - Stephen Foord in 6th and Adam Farley in 13th. Another spark of unusual interest was Steve Monk, who rode the "super expert" route on a Fantic and did not disgrace himself at all. In the expert class, Sidcup's very own Michael Nutbrown pipped Dave Shave to the premier award. The youth class, riding the same route as the experts was won by Craig Moir on 12, putting him well ahead of Michael Nutbrown who was ridding the same route. The new class for 2004, the twinshocks, was won by Jon Sands on 23.

Report 2 - By Cliff Barnett (Motorbiketrials.com and Trialsinfo.com)

Temperatures soared high at this weekend's Canada Heights trial, and a tough course awaited the riders. The trial had three routes, one of which (Super Expert) being very unique. A Super Expert rider was permitted to bounce his/her bike sideways whilst stationary, reverse, and will only lose marks whilst footing. The trial consisted of 3 laps of 10 sections - hence the name Sidcup 30.

JST Gas Gas ace Alex Wigg was my tip to win the coveted Sidcup 30 trophy and with it the top prize money. Wigg, having been pipped at the post last year by Freestyle Sherco rider Stephen Foord set to work from section 1charging hard to take the eventual win.

Wigg's winning performance was totally amazing; clean at the end of lap one with only his teammate JST rider Sam Haslam second on a 4 mark lose. No one was going to come close to Wigg when he's riding like this, and no one did in the early stages of the trial. Haslam, fighting hard to challenge Wigg's lead narrowly missed out to Wigg on Lap 2 when both riders lost marks on sections 7 and 9, but Haslam taking a few more on sections 4 and 10 - this allowed Wigg to extend his lead by another full 3 marks. Haslam was to play his trump card on lap 3 pulling out all the stops for a spectacular clean lap putting Wigg under some serious Haslam pressure. Had the pair maintained this pace relative to each other over a fourth lap the final result may have looked very different. Wigg's control of the trial from the outset was his key to winning and the 5 mark difference between himself and Haslam was the clear indicator. The trial was close enough for Ashley Newbery and MRS Sherco rider Ian Johnston to move up the order on the slightest slip from the two leaders.

Newbery and Johnston now embroiled in a section-by-section battle for the third place fought tooth and nail to see who would take first blood. A battle wits and nerve went down to the wire with both riders locking horns on the final lap and both 'checked' each other's rides. A twist of fate was to hand the Beta star Newbery the final podium position with both riders equal on final scores, equal on cleans, but Newbery having 8 ones to Johnston's 7 - how unlucky was Johnston… Foord, last years winner appeared to be having a mechanical problem with the bike when I passed him in the car park. A deficit of 28 marks from Wigg at the end on lap one was not what I envisaged from last years winner, and I expect neither did he. Third place man last year Adam Farley had a hard day finishing in lonely 13th place today.

The Expert route win went to Michael Nutbrown on 27 marks. Dave Shave runner up finished on 31 marks and myself riding the same route finished on a whooping 91. I spent most of the day going one log forward and two logs back, but still found the route very rideable even though I was a little out of my league. The Youth class rode the Expert route aswell, with winner Craig Moir having a fantastic ride with a lose of only 12 marks. Runner up position went to Jamie Jones on 40 marks and third place went to Alex Bayne-Powell.

The Twin Shock route was won by Jon Sands, a brilliant ride with a lose of only 23 marks. Clint Leggett was level on marks by the end of lap one, but Sands pulled 2 marks clear on the second lap and added further distance between himself and Leggett to the tune on Leggett's final score of 33 marks, to Sands 23.

Wigg, when asked if he would be attending next years Sidcup 30 replied: "I'll be back next year". Wigg will certainly have his work cut out if he's to retain the trophy next year, and I suspect his win will have thrown down the challenge to his fellow competitors. Next years contest looks set to be even bigger and better with the arrival of the new high tech 4-strokes machines, progress and development by the big 5 manufacturers to outfit their top riders is set to make next years event even bigger and better.

My thanks goes to all the observers for doing a terrific job, and Sidcup DMCC for this excellent trial.

Sposors

This year the club would like to thank the following companies for sponsoring the event;

Bultaco UK - website

Inta Trialsport - website

Stevens Trials - website

Preview Article

"Have free day at Canada Heights"

IF you are looking for something free, exciting and different to do this Sunday, you might like to consider visiting the International Canada Heights Motocross course, situated in Button Street, Swanley, to watch amazing riders as they tackle the incredible sections of the Sidcup 30 Trial.

The event features the very best trials' riders in the south of England, who will attempt to negotiate ten extremely difficult obstacles three times, hence the title Sidcup 30.

During the day you will be amazed at the skill of these young men as they attempt the incredibly difficult obstacles and find it hard to believe that a motorcycle can be ridden over them without stopping or putting their feet down and losing marks.

There is no admission charge to this event and you will find plenty of parking space where you can then access the sections laid out around the land, also toilets and refreshments.

The first rider sets off to tackle the course at 10am sharp and it will finish with a presentation at around 3.30pm to the winners.

Classes

"Super" Expert, Expert, Youth A, and "Expert" Twinshock.