The 14th of May 2022 saw Round 3 of the Midlands Oset and Minichamps Junior Trials Championship get underway at the beautiful Clipstone Woods, Nr Mansfield, Nottinghamshire.
Clipstone is rich in history - with evidence dating back to the Bronze Age and Robin Hoods Sherwood Forest on the doorstep - but there were no old relics on display this weekend as 23 young hopefuls arrived blinking into the bright, Notts sunshine! The course setters faced a beautiful dry day to set out 8 sections on the steeply forested site. As always the team pulled out all the stops to set out an (almost) circular course of 8 sections with four routes, with the hardest ‘Blue’ route being easily capable of testing adult novice riders at a club trial.
Following the morning briefing presented by Clerk of the Course Tim Hudd, the riders set off from the two opposing sides of the venue to avoid queuing in the sun. The white route started at Sections 1 to 4 where the dry, loose ground caused a few grip issues. The key to this ground was to keep your feet up and keep the bike moving because if you stopped and unweighted the back wheel you could not get moving again. Toby Twigg again rode his Oset to a confident victory on the White Route overall and made light work of section 1 but section 2 took a quarter of his overall marks from him. A much more confident Fenella Wood took second overall for white route, beating Alfie Holmes into third position. The loose ground on section 2 & 7 taking lots of points from these determined young riders.
Yellow route once again proved to be the most hotly contested difficulty of the competition with 9 riders competing. The Dabill brothers showed that the skill and determination that took their dad to the world championships is still strong in the family, taking first and second overall with only seven marks separating them. Harry Craig put in a valiant effort to take third place in the electric class and looked comfortable in the tricky conditions.
Finley Dixon once again put on an outstanding performance on the electric red route, overcoming some seriously steep, loose climbs and techerous off camber conditions to finish the day on 104 marks. Danial Pursglove negotiated the same route aboard his Beta and managed to finish on 124 marks.
The elite Blue route saw a field of 6 evenly matched between petrols and electric machines. Beta mounted Daisy Craig finished the day on an incredible 53 marks after 6 laps of 8 sections and was the only rider to record two completley clean sections. Jack Owen and Joel Hurst battled each other and finished with only 3 marks seperating them on the day. The electric class saw Joshua Tate pulling out all the stops to take his Oset 20 to top spot on 68 marks, with Jack Holmes taking his 24” to second spot on the podium. Ellis Hurst made an incredible recovery after suffering a puncture early on, after some emergency repair work he was back out on track, lapping like a gazelle and finishing on a very respectable 120 for the day.
Mansfield Maun would like to thank everyone who gives up their time to help support these events and the generous landowners that give up their land for our use.
To watch all the seasons action search youtube for ‘Mansfield Maun Oset’
View a gallery of the days events here
