Vesty 2024 report
THE MUDDY 4th VESTERINEN CHARITY TRIAL
Red Rose Classic Trials club have the honour of having a 3 time world champion as an active club member, and celebrate the fact with an annual charity trial.
This year’s 4th edition of the Vesty Trial returned to its original venue at Lee Dell where Vesty and the Red Rose team laid out 2 routes through 15 sections to be covered 3 times, with a 50/50 option for some sections. Whilst no rain fell during the event the ground was wet and very slippery.
With nearly 120 riders the start was split with clubmen going to the stream at section 1, 50/50 riders to section 3 in the ruins and the experts to section 8 by the chimney. First challenge for the experts was finding the section as some friendly passer-by had removed the flags. A quick look in the nearby stream found them all, and Vesty did a quick re flag to get us going.
16 pre 70 under 250 riders took on the experts route, and Chris Gascoigne was on a mission to beat Vesty in a battle of the Bantams, and he succeeded dropping a mere 5 marks to Vesty’s 8. Robin Luscombe matched Chris’s 5 mark loss, but only got 40 cleans compared to Chris’s 41 – a 2 on the double slab and rooted climbing turn of section 7 spoilt Robin’s day, and a 5 by Vesty in the gully of section 6 knocking him out of contention.
The expert twinshock class was won by 2 clean sheets, Kieran Hankin and Ben Butterworth achieving the ultimate goal. Strangely, Ben started the trial on a Bultaco but after some chain issues 4 sections in, he stole Jacob Joyce’s Fantic out of Mick Joyce’s van to complete the trial. I don’t think he’s been reported for the theft yet! Next best was Chris Greenwood on 4.
Only 2 riders tackled the 50/50 route on pre 70 machines, with North East visitor Paul Norman beating local lad Pete Clibburn with a score of 7 against 13, section 8 being Pete’s downfall.
Michael Platts also achieved the ultimate goal of a clean sheet to win the 50/50 twinshock class on his Honda. Similarly mounted Howard Gulley came in on 2 marks lost, dabs in sections 7 and 8 in the ruins, with Andy Dawson following up on 4.
The trend to smaller, modern bikes were reflected in the entry, with only 1 pre 70 over 250 entry. Barry Jones tackled the clubman route on his B40, dropping a very respectable 14 marks.
Pre 70 under 250 clubmen was topped by Carl Winstanley out on his Bantam dropping 2, followed by Nigel Greenwood, also on a Bantam, on 4, and then Peter Shone and Robin Boyd both on 8. Section 9 proved the decider, only Carl being able to clean it on every lap.
Over 1/3rd of the entry were in the Clubmen Twinshock class, with Lee Emerson taking victory only dropping 1 mark on the banks under the beech trees of section 12. He was closely followed by Paul Clowes on 2, the beech tress and the very slippery gully of section 9 taking his marks, then Chris Beech on 3, all lost on the slippery rocks of section 5.
Fundraising for the North West Air Ambulance and Prostate Cancer UK is the main aim of the trial, and with businesses and riders donating prizes for a raffle (ably manned by Diane Vesterinen and hi viz Liz Kenyon), sections and the program sponsored and Vesty contributing 10p for each of the 3,242 cleans achieved by the riders on the day, £8000 was raised for our chosen charities.