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Corporal Readman Outclassed at Coventry
Page 120
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LAST year Cpl. D. M. Headman won Class S at the Coventry eliminator with a loss of 127 penalty. points and in the run off for the Coventry and District championship he came first with a penalty of 147 points. This year he was over-cautious in the width-judging and bay reversing test and was penalized a tOtal of 170 points, 20 points more than Cpl. J. B. E. Lyon, also of the R.A.F. Gaydort, who performed the bay test with the creditably low penalty of 10 points compared with Readman's 58 points.
Both driverswere, however, outclassed by a number of other: contestants, notably by E. Timerick, first in class B, who lost a total of 89 points at the wheel of an Austin and later drove a Leyland two-ton drop-sided vehicle to win the Coventry. and District championship with a penalty of 95 points. Driving vehicles in a similar category as the Class S trucks, the winner, runner-up and third man in class D came through the test with a loss in each ease of less than 135 points. R. Williams of Fisher and Ludlow (Morris) was first" and C. Jones, of Shell-Mex and B.P., second with 129 and 130 points. respectively. Jones and Williams quail-' fled for the final.
Although N. Andrews lost 246 points in the championship run-off he won Class Fl at the wheel of a Morris articulated outfit for the Fisher and Ludlow company with the remarkable total of 86 points. Andrews was penalized 71 points in the width-judging test and 15 in the bay reversing test after completing the route test, the highway code questionnaire and the kerb parking testing without penalty, whilst runner-up H. Heath, of the Stanton Company, lost 182 in a' Cornmer Artie vehicle. Even this relatively high penalty compared favourably with the performance of. drivers of box and tanker semi-trailers classes F2 and 11, the winners of which lost 438 and 434 points respectively.
The drivers of eight-wheeled tankers in class E2 also had great difficulty in avoiding the barriers in their approach to the bay on the blind side, whereas the. winner, F. Charlton of the Stanton Co., drove an Atkinson multi-wheeler to within a few inches of the rear barrier without a shunt and lost a nominal 20 points. This compared with a loss of 95 points by S. Bowen (second) and E. Kite (third), both of whom are employed by the Shell-MeX and B.P. company and drove A.E.C. tankers. Each of the leading drivers of the box van and tanker artics lost 202 points (in class F2) by hitting the barriers.
Most Consistent Performance
Fourthin the local championship with the loss of 136 points, Charlton was awarded the trophy for the most consistent performance over three years and should do well in the finals.
The 'change of venue to g Courtaulds work site was generally. welcomed by drivers, marshals and spectators because it enabled the three manoeuvring tests" to be held on parallel and adjacent line5 with the outstanding advantage that onlookers could keep an eye on all the tests from a central position and move from one to another without a long walk About 120 competitors took part in the event which was a welcome return tc normal after last year's drop to 3i competitors.
During some 20 minutes of fairly hale rain spectators were able to watch the tests in the dry from a convenient open sided shelter and all went well (with' the help of background music and regular announcements by Mr. Mervyn .1. Miles the organizing secretary) until the last class test had been completed and the run-off for the local championship wat due to start. There was then a delay ol more than an hour whilst objections from a number of drivers were considered They said they had been penalized 5C Points over the worst correct perfor. mance in the width-judging test for failing to stop astride the B.B. line at tlk conclusion of the run, instead of the penalty points stipulated in the regulations. Following a lengthy reappraisal ot class results, appropriate variations were made in the test markings; but this onl) affected the placings in class A: Awards were presented by the Lord Mayor of Coventry, Councillor T Whiteman, P. A .C.B.