Story Sunday: 1960 Full Moon Cup
On this day in 1960, Chris Bigwood won the Full Moon Cup Trial in his VW. The event used many of the hills used today on the Allen Classic Trial. Here’s the review in Driving Mirror that year.
FULL MOON TRIAL
5th March, 1960
After many last-minute calamities, this event took place in beautiful weather and pleasant surroundings, although the rain of the preceding week had made the hills worthy of the more experienced competitors and caused some dismay to those not accustomed to this sort of trial.
Twenty-two entrants in very varied types of cars faced the starter at Lulsgate Airport. Little Elwell, appearing very harmless, caused alarm and despondency to twelve. Ubley, in difficult mood, stopped thirteen.
At this point, owing to over 30% of the promised “marshals” on the list not having turned up or reported absent, delay occurred. The unhappy trio, Messrs. Sims, Harris and Wessel, aided by Land Rover towing operator Harris, had to work a long difficult hill, involving much physical effort. However, their energetic persistance kept things moving.
Two special tests followed: the first being operated by Mr. Dunscombe caused Morrish (M.G.) with youthful exuberance to overshoot a line with penalty marks he could not subsequently retrieve. Mrs. Dunscombe and R. S. Ashford (M.G. Twin cam) were fastest at this point. In the second test. Morrish made no mistake and was considerably faster than anyone else.
Burledge one claimed ten failures and Burledge two caused eight to call upon Mr. Porter’s excellent towing service. The last test, a rolling brake test on a slippery surface. was performed to best advantage by F. P. Radford (Sprite). The finish was reached rather later than anticipated due to the hill conditions.
The marking on tests was fairly close, so that those obtaining awards had to perform at a consistently high level, as any mistake put potential cup winners right out of the running. The presence of Read’s Triumph saloon. a heavy car on standard tyres, Seward’s Ford saloon also in class 3, in the awards list, proves that good handling can balance up lack of ” built in ” grip. The energetic bouncing passengers were also a factor not to be overlooked.
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