The TALMAG is a very well known British Bike trial that always has a very strong and competitive entry. The sidecar class was again this year very well supported with an entry of 29 outfits from all over the UK. Rob and Andy always look forward to this event and felt confident of a good finish. The course was to be two laps of 15 tough sections plus a timed “SPECIAL TEST”.

 

The special test consists of each team being timed over a short 500yrd course and having to start with a dead engine. When a start signal is given the competitor has to start their machine and race off to complete the course in the quickest time possible. The course was through flood water, in and out of hollows, twisty taped off circuit, small jumps etc . Rob and Andy won this part of the event as their finished fastest out of the 20 sidecar teams with a time of 1.04sec, the team in second place were 5 seconds adrift.

 

The trial had been set out to be a tough event but with the Sunday morning came lots of rain!  This made for a course that was very demanding and tricky to ride. Even the first section of the day for sidecars was causing some serious “head scratching” as team made the decision on what route to take. Rob and Andy started off by taking a big gamble but managed to complete this with a perfect “clean”. The day got tougher and tougher but was a very well run event that sorted the men out from the boys.

 

They finished the event in 4^th place overall. Both felt this a little disappointing not to be in the top 3 but for only a couple of silly mistakes this could have been so different.