... A 75 minute trip down the M5 and A38 got me to the location for the 2nd round of this years Championship. Once again it was held in the rocky woodland at Lustleigh, Devon.
  Although a very good event each year they do seem to use many of the same sections each time I have been, but it is handy for me as having a bad knee it allowed me to know in advance where i wanted to sit and take photos without having to walk around the whole woodland several times!! The knee is the reason why most of the photos are of the Championship class, I found a few spots that I could get too easily and stayed put whilst the group of them came through before moving forward 5 or 6 sections to do the same again. The great thing about this piece of land is that it does lend itself to some spectacular step and jump photography. Just a shame that the tree cover and the up and down weather conditions make it so dark.
 It rained on and off during the event, but although it made some areas very slippery the sections had been well bed in before the heaviest downpour. The top guys made light work of the section on the last lap so it didn't ruin things at all.

 Almost from the start it was going to be a 2 man race again, James Dabill and Michael Brown were neck and neck, and this remained so until the final section almost. Alexz Wigg and Jack Challoner were a fair way back fighting for 3rd place, which Alexz took from a slightly out of sorts Jack. It was great to see Jack riding again over in the UK as he speds much of his time in Italy these days with the TopTrial Team. ....

 ... Time was very tight on many of the sections, many 5's were recorded for timing out and also many good rides made with just one or two seconds remaining on the clock. Sometimes I think it is a shame that we have these tight time limits as it can make the riders rush the last bit of the section and not show us all the skills we know they are capable of but then I think back to the old times when you could go and have lunch in the time it took some riders to complete a section!!

 For me it was the first time in seeing an Ossa in any competition, and very well they seemed to go as well. Also good to see Emma Bristow, also on an Ossa, out there challenging Becky Cook for the best ladies score of the day.

One final piece of entertainment was provided for us when the vans started to leave the event, after the rain the grass/mud climb up to the gate had become very slippery. We had bets on who was going to take out the ambulance parked new the exit!! My newly acquired Seat Freetrack actually switched into it's auto 4wd mode and exited without any drama's, possibly the one and only time it will be needed!

I have placed around 100 images I took during the day in a gallery on Photobucket if you fancy a peek.

Results can be found on Trial Magazine site here