The Allen Classic Trial

The full final results are available for download. The organisers’ summary follows and is also available as a PDF.

The ALLEN  2018 – DRY, DRY, DRY & Mal Allen wins the Allen.

Once again the Bull was a hive of activity and the start team did a grand job marshalling the cars in the limited space. There were plenty of bacon and sausage baps and coffee and tea on tap to keep all happy as they chatted inside or outside whilst waiting for their start time.

The classic early Hills provided a gentle start but the restart on Bitton Lane once again caught out a few. Guy’s Hill however began to sort out the classes with a few more cleaning the restart than last year, some burning off whilst other took the slower gentler approach.

Traver’s rocky track with separate restarts for yellow and red had had to have some serious repair work to fill a major hole caused by torrential surface runoff early in November as well as the usual trimming and tree clearing. Car 7 unfortunately broke and Jammed his axle, making recovery very tricky and inevitably rather slow, many thanks to the Travers team for successfully clearing the car. To catch up some time, the yellow restart was cancelled. The trial continued to the misnamed Ubley Wood on the cold exposed hillside. Ubley 1 with its high restart for 8 caught out a quarter of the field mainly on the restart. Ubley Observed Test was a gentle. downhill drive from A to astride B. The fastest time was Emma Wall (Austin 7) in 6 seconds. Malt and Salt did well at Chew Valley as many competitors and marshals took advantage and enjoyed the fish and chips. Competitors were allowed to catch up time by heading onto Burledge, a long climb with a high restart for 8 and a much lower restart for the rest which was once again under control of the team from Falcon Motor Club.

The trial then continued into Fry’s Bottom. These wooded sections proved popular and once again ran efficiently although the hills could do with a little more challenge. The Observed Test which involved a reverse had a wide range of times but fastest were Mal Allen (Marlin), Dean Partington (Wasp) and Ryan Eamer (Cannon) all on 12.1 seconds. Fry’s 3 however caught out a large number high up notably class 8 who had a restart.

The trial then headed back through the outskirts of Bath to the infamous John Walker, a good blast to end the day but not to be taken too lightly as some found out. It once again went well and having two on the hill thanks to experienced marshals Stuart & Kieran meant that there was no real queue when course closing arrived. Once again the floodlights were not needed as the final cars climbed the section as the light failed. Those who followed the route card back to the finish arrived well ahead of those who stayed on the A46 and got held up in traffic heading towards the motorway !

Many thanks to all of you who help to make the trial such a success. Especially the marshals, many of whom come out year after year, and others that drive long distances just to help.

Carlie, Pete, Mark and Tim

                            Allen Trophy – Mal Allen, Marlin.  Bob Wood Trophy –Mike Forward

                            Redcliffe Cup 1^st Clubman – Dean Partington, Wasp

                            Woodbury-Chillcott – Emma Wall Austin 7

                            Rumsey Cup               Philip Buckle BMW Z3

                            Highland Circle           Adrian Tucker-Peake

                            Gilbert Best Trophy – (Best Bristol) Ryan Eamer, Cannon

Secretary of the Meeting, Carlie Hart 0117 9372611 or email

For general information about the Allen Trial please click here.