Isle of Man
The 2010 Manx National Two Day Trial gets underway at 8am from the legendary TT Grandstand this Saturday.
The solo entry is led by world championship contender Michael Brown, while the sidecars will have multiple British Champions Robin and Gill Morewood leading the way and providing the target for all their competitors.
Over 270 solos will set out on their 53 mile, 46 section, 9hr 30min tour of the southern half of the Island, which will be followed on Sunday by a 51 miles, 36 section, 8hrs 15min tour of the North.
The solo route has a different look this year and will start off in the middle of Douglas with the first section on ‘The Arches’, a venue used previously during the Trial Des Nations.
This will be followed by sections on Douglas Head and a new venue at Kewaigue, near to Douglas Golf Club. The day will finish with 2 sections at Knock Froy, where refreshments will be available.
Leading riders in the National Solo class will include debutant Michael Brown (MRS Sherco), who was last in competitive action on the Island as a member of the Great Britain team during the 2007 Trial Des Nations.
He will be challenged all the way by 2009 winner Sam Haslam (DJM JST Gas Gas) who after such a successful debut last year won’t want to give away his crown easily.
And hot on their heels will be Dan Thorpe (JST Gas Gas), a true National trial legend after recently achieving the unique feat of recording 100 National trial wins. The Manx is one of these victories, but Dan is well overdue to add to his previous success here.
The solo Clubman class is the usual lottery with any number of former national riders having dropped down making this class even more competitive.
Darren Wasley will probably start as favourite after registering victory for the past two years, but although they will be mounted on bikes around 20 years old, Juan Knight and Andy Cripps won’t be far away. Add to that many other leading clubman level riders and we should see a very close contest.
The sidecar class will start out as a battle between the two Robin’s, Morewood and Luscombe. Having been victorious a total of 21 times between them over the years they bring so much experience that it would take something special to beat them.
However there are a couple of crews who could provide that challenge, particularly a couple of crews from the victorious Isle of Man Inter Centre team. Jamie Teare/Jane Birchall are probably the main challengers alongside the father and son pairing of Adrian/Aaron Smith.
A mammoth sidecar route containing 99 sections over the two days should provide a real test for the crews, in what many consider to be the best event of the year.
