West Leeds Motor Club. TrialsUk White Rose Trial

Tom Minta gave the 2019 Scorpa its first airing on the British trials scene on Sunday when he won the national White Rose Trial at Hawes. The brainchild of Reg Roberts way back in 1958 is became the White Rose national in 1976 having run as a Group and Yorkshire Centre event up to that date. For winner Tom Minta and Scorpa it was a case of first time in competition and victory in what was a real traditional one day trial with a loss of a mere four marks, nothing short of sensational, and heading 2015 and last year's winner Richard Sadler by one penalty. No danger of moorland fires on Sunday at Cam Head where the West Leeds Motor Club launched yet another brilliant albeit wet national White Rose Trial. Torrential rain aided by a strong almost gale force south westerly wind blanketed the Hawes regions. The dry stream beds on Saturday became raging torrents by start time on Sunday morning when one hundred and fifty five competitors headed out from Cam Fell to ride forty traditional sections. The legendary Ribblehead Viaduct was hidden in dense hill mist as were the opening nine sections on Widdale Allotments. A misnomer if ever as the ‘Allotments' are miles of heather and bracken covered moorland. In amongst the opening sections is Gritstones which carries a long history of hard luck stories over the years. Renee's Gorge is also a memorable section with the national Red Squirrel Sanctuary its immediate neighbour. Sadly Renee Smith has left us but her name lives on. Nigel Crowther and his team plotted the section, tenth in order, on Saturday. “It was dry yesterday” commented Nigel as he viewed the torrent flowing down the moor. . A stop at Fleet Moss took Guy Kendrew out of the equation but he was still a very strong third. Triple winner Dan Thorpe dropped ten in treacherous Snaizeholme where nine remote sections always punish. Andy Chilton was riding the second 2019 Scorpa and impressed at Renee's Gorge where the stream turned into a full blown waterfall. His fifth place emphasised just how good the new Scorpa is. Only downside for Andy was he missed section sixteen in the Snaizholme group as did twenty nine others. Notables Kieran Child and Joe Faunthorpe were among that number and also riding together. The course marking was correct and it is believed that riders were tracking the wrong flags to the wrong section. Philip Alderson put his 280 Gas Gas Racing at the top of the 50/50 results, just, from Roger Williams who appeared on a new Vertigo, but only by virtue of farthest clean with Falcon front runner Andrew Jackson hanging in for third place. A three on the tenth to get up the final step cost Andrew marks but not a class place. Interesting point was as the rain eased by early afternoon the debit columns took a dive. From Dodd Fell over the top and down into Wharfedale and the Outershaw group of sections and back to Knokanee appeared to be different task. The last three sections were cleaned in all three classes. After that amount of water that washed the rocks in the morning they were almost glowing. Top marks to the West Leeds organisers. A proper traditional national. All it wants now is to be part of a British Trials Championship series, like it was thirty years ago.