Ross & District Motor Sports Club held the 20th running of the Pete Fear Pinford Sporting Trial on Sunday, October 9th in the driest conditions for many years. As usual the trial was held at Pinford Farm, Linton by kind permission of Shirley Harper.

The trial was once again a round of both the Motor Sports Association and the British Trial and Rally Drivers Association national championships and was also selected as the Regional Associations Team Trial. The championships attracted an entry of 33 of the best trials drivers from all over the UK.

Up until the date of the trial the Ross area seemed to have avoided all rainfall for many days and this presented the organisers with the driest conditions ever experienced. Thus the sections set out were very tight and technical and a high minimum tyre pressure was set. These factors ensured that marks were lost by all the competitors over the 32 sections attempted.

The eventual winner, Roland Uglow from Cornwall led the trial after each of the four rounds and eventually dropped only 7 marks to take the overall trophy. The first three Expert drivers were all closely matched on 11, 13 and 17 marks lost, Ian Veal being the winning expert driver. Paul Faulkner, an ex-rally driver from Waterlooville in Hampshire was the best Intermediate driver with 23 marks lost.

The Novice class was won by Josh Veale with a very respectable 44 marks lost. Josh is the son of winning Expert Ian Veale, so is following in his fathers footsteps. The winning team was the West Midland Association No 2 team.

The trial was well marshalled by members and friends of the organising club and as usual many compliments were made on the good marshalling. Clerk of the Course, Stuart Harrold, said:? "It was a great event and we found a good winner but I do hope for damper conditions next year".

The Club would like to thank all those people who helped with the event.