Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Scott Time and Observation Trial By John Dickinson YORKSHIRE, ENGLAND, OCT. 22 he infamous Scott Time and Observation Trial, run as usual on the Yorkshire moors, has many traditio~One is that the weather has to be cold and wet - very wet. Bottomless peat bogs and swiftly £lowing creeks are everywhere, waiting to trap the riders and drown the bikes. But not this year. Riders at the 1995 running of the Scott were lucky like never before as England's amazing, record-breaking hot, hot summer evolved into a warm Indian summer. The moors were as dry as anyone has known them, water in the creek beds was no more than a trickle, and the pace of the trial was going to be fast. Very fast. Steve Colley, with two wins already in this classic event, was a hot favorite for a third win on his factory Gas Gas. Heading the challenge was Yamaha rider Rob Crawford, winner of a Beta back in 1990, with Montesa's Wayne Braybrook and Scorpa's Graham Jarvis as outsiders. Jarvis would be good in the sections - but would he be fast enough? In the Scott you have to be quick as well as accurate. Matt Chambers, riding his heavily modified Triumph Cub twin shock, was first away from the start at 9 a.m., and with riders getting away at 20-second intervals, it was 9:34 before Colley shot off the starting ramp and away towards the first section. Just one minute and 20 seconds after Colley came Crawford, and a few seconds later came Jarvis. CoUey set a cracking pace, and was slicing through earlier starters just 10 minutes into the trial as he cleaned the photographers' favorite Scott hazard, Orgate Falls, but unfortunately with so little water there was to be no magic in the shots as riders traversed the creek under a normally foaming waterfall. 'Crawford followed, just out of eyesight of Colley who was up ahead, losing the trial - although he didn't know it at the time! Such was the Gas Gas man's haste that he took a sneaky line and totally missed the fourth section. The resulting 50-mark penaI.ty was to drop the favorite right down to seventh in the end. That something was amiss was known at the first refueling check when knowledge of Colley's passing through surprised several riders. "He's in front of me, but he sure didn't come past me," said Braybrook. . On and on, throughout the morning, the trial sped, with warm weather bringing out hordes of spectators who tried hard to keep pace with the action, their cars and bikes snaking across the moorland roads to get to sections With names l that carry the character of the Scott Washfold, Bridge End, Whaw Bridge, Black Hills, Grand Canyon, Surrender, Rawcroft, Rock Garden and Goats Splash. All came and went under the spinning wheels of tortured bikes and sweating, heavy bodies of the riders. Because of the unusually dry conditions, the leaders were well up on the projected times and at 2 p.m. exactly four hours 27 minutes and 47 seconds after he started - Crawford blasted up the finishing 'straight to be the first man home and also to set the fastest time. For every two minutes everyone else took after Rob they would lose one time mark. Colley was just two minutes behind after having his chain come off just two miles from home. "No problems at all today, but we were going fast, and 1 mean quick," said Crawford. "1 really flew after the halfway check and could see Steve just ahead. 1 had to leave him." "1 missed a section, dido't I?" admitted Colley. "What a donkey. No bonus money today - all that effort for nothing!A"~ But even if Colley had not missed the . section - subtracting the 50 penalty points from his total - he still would have finished second to Crawford. Jarvis - best on observation on just 29 marks - came in with a face black with muck and swollen after a big crash. Great Scott! ~ its 7O-p1us miles of tough non-sIIOp IIlOOJ'Iand. going aDd 75 sections along the way, the Scott Trial is unique in the modem spotting caJeDdar. It is an event almost as old as the motuacyde itself, dating risht back to 1914, and the modem Scott Trial remains faitbfu1 to its origins. The trial was instigate-! by the Scott motorcycle company which built it famous twin-cyIindel'-two-stIo1es in Bradford, England. Scott management decided to stage a super-tough time and observation trial over the Yorkshire moors to test the reliability of ils products. in that first event there were 14 invited riders - and, big surprise, a Scott won! In the 199Os, of course, the event fJies ift the face of all current thinking. Trials has evolved into the slowest possible fonn of motorcycle sport where, at the World Championship level, riders would virtually spend 10 minutes traveling as many yards if it weren't for the two-minute rule. And modem courses are often just a c0uple of miles around. Thus the Scott, with its accent on speed around a 7O-mile, allmoorland course, taking in 75 different sections, is very much an anachronism. Yet it survives, and flourishes, with all the top British riders - Steve Colley, Doug Lampkin (out this year with an injury) and Steve Saunders - all joining in to take their punishment. And secretly, even those who claim to hate the trial gain incredible satisfaction in completing such a tough event. [ (Right) Irishman . Rob Crawford scored his second Scott Trial win. (Below) Event favorite SIeve Colley blew his chances for the win after missing the fourth section. (Above) The Scott Time and ObservatIon Trial _s Inventlld In order to l8St \he reliability of the old Scott motorcycle. "I pulled off the track into the heather to pass another rider, hit a rock and went over the bars," said Jarvis. "1 lost a lot of time straightening the bike out and later had to swap the front wheel." Stories of punctures in the dry conditions were everywhere -multi-time winner Phil Alderson managed no fewer than five flats, three rear and two front onhisTYZ. "[t was still the easiest Scott ever," stated Alderson, and this was echoed by twice winner Gerald Richardson, who has 15 consecutive Scotts under his wheels. . "Last year was much tougher, very wet, and longer" said Richardson. "This year was okay." Woody Hole, Tommi Ahvala's minder at World rounds, came home in eighth place, grinning as usual. "1 don't know why 1 do th.e sections. I just like blitzing along the moors," Hole said. "I've got black butt, though. 1 lost the rear fender in one of my crashes." The speed of Crawford and Colley (only four minutes down) can be judged against sixth finisher John Shirt, who was third best on observation, having lost 58 marks, but whose time was exactly one hour slower than Crawford, which added a further 30 points to his total. It may have been "easy" but it is all relative. Easier means faster; in the case of Crawford and Colley, it means insanely fast. For the clubman, desperate to be officially classed as a finisher, which means within two and a half hours of standard time (set by the fastest rider), it was every bit as hard to beat the clock. Just ask New Jersey nder Bob Howard, who competed in his fourth Scott Trial, and for the fourth time, failed to make the cut. fN Scott Time and Observation Trial Yorkshire, England • Results: October 21, 1995 OVERALL: 1. Robert Crawford (Yam) 0 time/37 observation/37 total; 2. Graham Jarvis (Sro) 23/29/52; 3. Wayne Braybrook (Mon) 10/65/73; 4. Adam Norris (Yam) 22/59/81; 5. Steve Saunders (G-G) 20/61/81; 6. John Shirt (G-G) 30/58/88; 7. Steve CoUey (G-G) 2/88/90; 8. Woody Hole (Fan) 13/81/94; 9. Phillip Alderson (Yam) 22/81/107; 10. Andy HOOdelston (Yam) 24/87/111.

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