by David Alderson

The ACTC Discretionary Award winners are decided on merit. Working from season long observations, results sheets, and official observer reports, a quorum of ACTC officers select the individual recipients from a short list of candidates. Here are the some congratulatory notes on the 2000 winners.

For the second successive year Emma Flay has proved to be our most competitive lady driver. Our 2000 series saw Emma really raising her game to regularly place her red Mk1 firmly amongst the top echelon of Escorteers. A strong contender for Crackington honours in the new season, mark my words.

Rest and Be Thankful

To have finished equal first overall on points at the end of a tough season, and then to lose the Wheelspin Trophy on the tiebreaker, must be one of the most difficult situations to come to terms with. In recognition of the massive efforts John Radford put in as Anthony Young's passenger we hope that John will take some pleasure from this well deserved award.

Wait until Next Year

Last year we were praising the efforts of a young Cornish VW driver who finally proved us right, breaking the 'kiss of death' reputation of this award and taking our premier Crackington Cup. During 2000 we saw another young Cornishman, this time Ford Escort/Pop mounted Harvey Waters cutting a dash on the hills as he ventured forth into England for the first time. There's no question about Harvey's ability in a trials car, expect much from him as he hones his craft in the coming season.

Tractor Tug

An unprecedented second consecutive win for John Cox! Last year I suggested that Julian Fack may take pity on John and offer him a 'Fack' diff at discount price. Well we had Julian as our guest presenter for the 2000 Awards ceremony but John didn't make it on the day. You guessed it; he'd broken his diff on the Exeter!!

Strictly speaking not a discretionary award, the Moore Trophy is awarded for the best performance throughout the season in a pre 1941 car. Once again throughout the 2000 season we were treated to the evocative and nostalgic sight of Bill Bennett hurling his diminutive MG J2 at the toughest trials hills on offer. Our Austin 7 boys have had to eat Bill's dirt for a second successive year but no doubt they are re-grouping and we can all look forward to another titanic battle of the pre-war gladiators during 2001.

The Premier Trophy

A new name on the FWD scene is Paul Allaway. Encouraged by none other than Dave Haizelden, Paul's forceful handling of the Astra GTE was the sensation of 2000 amongst the front wheelers. Our 1999 Crackington Cup winner has already found himself runner up to Paul on one occasion last season. I'm sure that we can look forward to fierce competition and high overall placings as Paul, Dave, Adrian T-P etc slug it out for FWD honours this season.

Mike Massey Memorial Trophy

When you are firing a trials iron hard at a section your concentration is focussed on the surface, looking for rocks, mud, tree roots, searching out the line that will lead you on to a clean. But always in your peripheral vision are often blurred but familiar faces, tireless enthusiasts whose pleasure is derived from officiating on as many events as they can manage. Amongst those faces for several seasons now we will all have recognised June Blakely an enthusiastic lady who forms the other half of the John and June Blakely trials marshalling team. We recognised John's input in 1997, now it is only fitting for us to acknowledge the enthusiastic support and tireless effort that June brings to classic trialling

As a regular class 8 competitor I always relished the Minehead MC Exmoor Clouds trial. A tough challenging event that gave both car and crew a real battering on some of the most demanding sections in our series. Much though it was fun to see the class 8 boys taking a beating, things were of course doubly difficult for the standard class drivers. Thankfully Minehead realised that they were perhaps pandering too much to only one sector of our championship contenders and in 2000 they took steps to tone down the severity of the sections on offer. The Exmoor Clouds still remains a superb traditional trial set in some of our best classic trials country. The award was given in recognition of the effort made by Minehead to broaden the appeal of their trial and ensure its place in our series for many more seasons to come.

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