2024 Camel Classic

 

At the start of this year's Camel Classic, l to r, Simon Oates' Liege, Aaron Haizelden's John Deere Special, Emma Wall's Troll and the VW Special of Adrian and George Marfell

For this year’s Camel Classic, the lovely Sally was to have been my passenger. We have entered the forthcoming Exeter Trial and had thought of a gentle drive out in the country with the Arkley-MG to get used to things. Instead, we entered the Camel Classic, which is nothing like a gentle drive out. At least, she would be able to experience tree roots motorsport at first hand and see the sort of sections we could expect. The first hills on the Exeter would be hidden by darkness. Perhaps that might be helpful. The sections on the Camel Classic are spectacular to the point of intimidating and I knew there would be a lot of reversing back down again. 

Anyway, poor Sally developed a shocking cold a few days beforehand and had been in bed for three days before the Camel Classic. Even if she recovered, that sort of excitement in damp and cold conditions wouldn’t have helped her health. Fortunately, Michael, my bouncer/navigator from the Tamar Trial, was available.

We were too late to see the first cars off. The Escorts of James Vivian and Richard Heyward were under starters orders

I had hoped to arrive at the start in time to see the Nissan Micra of Oliver and Adrian Payne. I have a 3- door K11 as well but mine is strictly for the road. Theirs sports 1769cc instead of the 1275cc of my little bad boy so I have many questions to ask. Coincidentally, 1769cc is the capacity of my Peugeot 205, also represented in Class 1 by James Shallcross in his white 4-door but that one has grown to a full 2-litre and my little Pug is a turbo diesel.

The Lancia Volumex engine of  Nigel Dell and Matthew Cleave - I can remember Judith Hahn telling us about these superchargers on Tomorrow's World

Engines fascinate me. They’ve gotta be reciprocating piston engines, although Wankel rotary engines also intrigue me. As a close mate puts it, “Electric cars don’t have engines, they just have motors.” They don’t have souls.

We saw some beautiful pieces of engineering at the start of the Camel Classic, from Ian Moss’ immaculately prepared Imp-powered Lypiatt Special to the Lancia Volumex-powered blue Marlin of Nigel Dell and Matthew Cleave.

The Camel Classic doesn’t have the road miles of the Tamar but features a series of fiendishly chosen sections in four places, the woods near the old MCC hill called Hustyn, the forested valley running up from the viaduct at Clinnick just off the A38, Laneskin woods on the other side of the Glyn valley and finally the woods at Heligan near the upper reaches of the Camel Trail.

The Fugitives gather. Class 8 was especially well supported with 24 entrants

Apart from James Shallcross heading off the cars for Class 1, I think our starting order was in terms of past performance or standing in the ACTC championship, that is to say the best went last. We were the first off for Class 7.

First section was Hustyn and from 2023 I knew that grip would be at a premium. I went down to 10psi and we nearly got to the top. We bounced over the ruts for the Class 8 restart but just after the right-hand bend below the forestry track we bogged down and “failed to proceed.” We had to slither back down again despite earnest requests for a pull from the watching loafers at the top.

On Chestnut Rise, we got about half the way up but poor Paul Watson broke his brand new propshaft joint on the start line. He was entered in his V8 Skoda, which I remember from way back, but it needed its head gaskets replacing, so he’d borrowed his old Dutton back.

Mine Shaft was another that started at right angles to the forestry track, full of stones and clay and true roots. Previous owner Simon Riddell has told me the Arkley-MG felt out of place on these surfaces and I agree. Doesn’t stop us trying though.

Jab and Left Hook is a descriptive name for a blast up and then a restart on a lump of clay and roots. Just a jab for us today and the restart for us was another failure to proceed.  We felt we did much better on Pump House, which is very steep.

Last year, Pheasant Plucker’s Son was virtually impassable but this year – inexplicably and despite all the recent rains – we managed to actually reach to the higher start line for car classes 7 & 8 and went right up over the cross track and up through the trees to our restart box. That was it, though. It was too slippery. When I pulled up for the restart, we just slid backwards, over the polished roots.

Unfortunately, Norton Selwood was having some issues with his Beetle at the foot of Penkestle 1 and we only got as far as the left-hand turn.

In the jungle near Penkestle

John Turner was in control of traffic on Penkestle 2. When we arrived, Dan Staines and Ella-Jade Tozer-Cox had lost a tyre off their MX5 somewhere out of sight up the hill, which took some sorting out.

John told us about his Citroen 2CV hot-rodding project with a BMW oil head motorcycle engine. There are a few of these conversions around now but it was interesting to hear how his build is going. 

He had tested out an electronic ignition system in the inappropriately named Draynes Valley on the way to Penkestle. The road was flooded in three places. His 2CV became watercooled and the cooling fan a water wheel, splashing everything – but the sparks never failed. John was suitably impressed.

I was, too. That valley floods regularly and I have turned back when faced with similar conditions. My neighbour’s grandfather drove a steam roller along that road backalong and he said it was like rolling out pastry. It was just dry enough not to sink. The road has since claimed many a diesel engine with hydraulic locking and King Doniert’s stone is a memorial to a king who drowned there so…

Thank you marshals for just getting to our sections!

You approach on to Penkestle 2 from the side and have to go down the bottom of the section before turning round to come back up again, hence the need for a traffic controller. Seeing this part of the section gives you no advantage because it curves up into a rhododendron forest and becomes less kindly. We had a restart but couldn’t get any grip.

Nothing to see here but a blower in a Marlin (Photo : Michael Brooks)

Clinnick is probably the stand out hill on the Camel Classic. Competitors have to sign – either in blood or a red biro – that their vehicles have effective brakes. It’s so steep and long and bumpy you might get brake fade coming back down again. That is either an incentive to get out of the top or not get up very far to reduce the reversing shenanigans. If the section’s not kindly, the marshals are and Ryan and Ben Tonkin were on hand to guide us down to a turning point. This pull in was close to the London to Penzance main line, without being quite on it.

Next we crossed over to the other side of the Glyn Valley for some more tree roots motorsport in the woods around Laneskin, a favourite of mine from the Land’s End Trial. If you’re going well in here, the mud smells of burning wood. It must be all the pine needles we’re rubbing together.

Where there’s a Hedge was just a joke for us. We couldn’t get off the start line.

Despite the muddy conditions, we smoked the tyres when we got to the restart on Laneskin itself and even got across the cross track getting a 1.

Ant Hill was another non-starter for us last year so my expectations were low, start line low, but my little car dug in and succeeded to proceed, digging in and revving nicely all the way up. At last, we got out of the top!

Failures had to be careful of ant nests on the way out, hence the name.

The last two hills and another special test were close to the finish at the Borough Arms.

There was some congestion around the special test and the start lines for Heligan 1 and Zero. Dan Staines had another tyre off its bead, having changed a tube in the woods at Laneskin and many people went right down on tyre pressures.

First successful climb of the final hill by Thomas Jones and James Gibson

The ruts on Heligan 1 did a little wriggle to the left and back again. I kept straight hoping to find grip but reckon we’d’ve been better off following the ruts. We managed to get up to the second bend on Heligan Zero where we came to a halt on the tree roots and clay. It seemed everyone was bogging down there and we hung around after parking the car to see if any of the top-level crews could make it. We were delighted to see Tom Jones (no, not that one) clear the section with his 1600cc Ford Snipe Special, in no small part to heroic bouncing from James Gibson.

Keelan and Ross Hancock spray leaf litter

The Hancock brothers also cleared it in a similar fashion with their buggy, followed a little later by Ryan Eamer and Abbie Jeffrey in their Cannon. Olympic level bouncing seemed to be the trick but that didn’t work for Paul and Charlie Merson and their attempt was epic.

Ryan Eamer and Abbie Jeffrey have what it takes, too

While this event would have been a good introduction to the sport for Sally, Michael did a great job as my passenger, even if he ignored the word ignore a couple of times in the route book! There were many notable crews who had to retire this year so we escaped lightly with just one slow puncture.