I've been a bit quiet.

September 2nd 2017

I don't seem to have posted much recently. 

I suppose if I'm not in the garage, fettling, my mind isn't full of trials cars.

So following on from the last blog when I threatened to go to the Croglin event here is the low-down on how that went.

I've not been to either Croglin site before (Croglin 1 or Croglin 2) and had to do my usual print-out of a Google Map. Passenger John was equally uncertain of the location and so we arrived in convoy.
We got there fairly early and were ready for the start, but needed to follow the others as we had no idea where the Hills were from the pit area.

It's a compact little site  which is a bit tight on parking at the start of the Hills, but Mike Salton as Clerk of the Course had laid out some Hills which suited me very well. I suppose you could say it was a bit easy in overall terms, with many experts clearing all the Hills in the first rounds, but from a C class competitor's point of view it's very nice to clear a few Hills, and get used to seeing 3s and 4s when you don't manage a clear.
The conditions were pretty dry.

Rob Baxter described our ascent of his Hill as "almost artistic". I'm not actually sure what that means, but it was done very gently with the engine wavering between dragging us up and choking itself to a halt.

The engine seemed to be much happier than before with a healthy oil pressure and some great lugging power (it's only a pesky 1040cc, remember). 

On just one Hill I let myself get distracted by not spotting the bracken had become muddy and got a high score where I had thought I would breeze up.

The problem is, I keep re-learning these lessons. 

Like the one about walking every Hill - every time. I do have the excuse that my back is a bit feeble and it's sometimes easier to watch another car than to actually walk the Hill.

It didn't work for me where a major change at the bottom of a Hill (which I did walk, but not the top of the Hill) was complicated by a slight move of a blue pole higher up. I was first up and got a great run from the lower part, but crested the incline and found a blue pole right in front of me. The slight lift of the throttle to get my bearings meant that as I re-applied the gas the wheels spun. Game over.

It was probably only a couple of points loss, but it is the feeling that you threw away those points needlessly that irks you.

On another Hill we stormed up (relative term, this - I was trying to do each Hill with the minimum throttle).

At the top Barry Hogg seemed more surprised than us (just) that we had made it.

So, the outcome of Croglin was that we had a great day, with much better results than previously (so did many other crews at "our" end of the entry).

The car had run very well. Yes the oil pressure is still still a bit slow to pick up from starting, but then it remains pretty constant, in the 40/50 psi range. 

Next event is Eden Hall, which is another new one to me, although I have videoed there.