With only just under 3 weeks to go until the 2022 Pre’65 Scottish Trial kicks off there are a number of changes that you need to be made aware of. They are:-
- The start time is 9am on both days, as announced in January, as the route will be a single lap rather than figure of eight.
- The start area for both days will be in the small KCT car park behind the post office.
- There is NO Parade of Bikes this year due to the earlier start time clashing with the school starting time and the fact that there is too big a span of start times to expect later riders to be in Kinlochleven for an 8.30am parade.
- There will NOT be a school canteen on Saturday this year as the PTA are experiencing difficulties. There are still plenty of other local businesses and organisations who offer refreshments, home baking and other food options in the village (see programme for other eating options) which will welcome your support.
- Presentation of Awards will be at the slightly later time of 9.30pm to allow a little extra time for results to be processed due to later finish time of the later riders. There will NOT be a bar available at the presentation this year due to circumstances beyond our control therefore the hall will not open up until 8.30pm for video/chat before the presentation itself.
The other big change is that the Parc Ferme parking area will no longer be free of charge. Initially we were told that there would be no overnight stays permitted and that a daily parking charge of £3 per vehicle was being introduced but following negotiation, we have managed to get permission to allow overnight stays for the 2022 event and at the time of the programme going to print we thought the overnight charge was £5 per night but the landowner has since requested that overnight vehicles will be required to pay £10 per night per vehicle. All riders have been sent an email with a booking form and accompanying notes to book and pay for their overnight stay in advance if possible and many thanks to those who have already done this. The booking form and notes will be available shortly on the website for everyone else to be able to pay for their space and, honesty is very much the key to us being able to be in a strong position to negotiate retention of this facility for the future.
Advance payment is preferred but you can come along to the Trial Office in the Leven Centre to pay for your parking on the day you arrive. Everyone will be issued with a ticket to display on their dashboard to show their registration number and number of nights they are staying and they can be bought and collected from the Trial Secretary. As we have not had a lot of notice for this, we are relying on your honesty to pay what you are due otherwise the future of the event hangs in the balance.
The landowner still wishes to charge £3 per day for daytime parking in this area and again, we would appreciate your honesty by putting a donation into the Parking Collection box which will be situated on the Merchandise Stand in the Start Area on both days.
The Official Programme will be available to purchase on the Merchandise stand and in various other locations within Kinlochleven. It is excellent value at £4.00 a copy and is packed with all the information you need to enjoy the event and great reading material as well. Please support the trial by buying a copy or two. Whilst you are at the Merchandise stand, why not treat yourself to some good quality and reasonably priced Pre’65 Scottish merchandise to refresh your wardrobe after our two year enforced break.
The Clerk of the Course and his team have another cracking event planned and it will be good to be back enjoying the sport we all love and meeting up in person with the many friends that we haven’t seen for a few years and to making new ones.
We have had a lot of withdrawals and have used up all those reserves who were carried forward from 2020. As we did not open entries up for 2022, we are now going through entries from the unsuccessful entrants from the 2020 trial and quite a few have already been successful in gaining a place. If you entered in 2020 and are interested in being on a last minute reserve list, can you please email sec@pre65scottish.co.uk as soon as possible. Unfortunately at this point in time, we can only consider those who entered in 2020.
We are very grateful to those who have volunteered to observe and officiate in whatever capacity and we thank you very much for giving your time to help us out as without you all it would not be possible to stage this event.
We hope everyone will bear with us as we deal with all the changes that have been thrown in our path during the organisation of the trial this year, as most have been outwith our control and thank you for your patience if things don’t go quite to plan.
Fingers crossed for some sunny, warm weather but if that is not possible, can we at least have dry please!!!