Former European Classic Scrambles champion, Jorgen Ahlstrom, made the long trip from Angelholm in Sweden to make his debut at the Red Marley hill climb on Easter Monday, a first for both rider and event – and Jorgen’s first ever hill climb. An outstanding competitor in the European championship and a regular member of Sweden’s very successful Classic Motocross des Nations team, he soon found that success straight up the hill is not as easy as it looks.

Riding two of Vic Vaughan’s bikes – a Faber BSA and an ex-Pat French MRD Jawa – Jorgen had what will have been a disappointing day for him and for Vic. Like a number of others using methanol in the very cold conditions, Jorgen experienced fuel starvation problems on the Jawa. Switching to the Faber got him as far as the fourth round in the Allcomers class but the combined force of Arthur Browning’s 600 BSA Metisse (on loan from Nigel Bower) and the 600cc Royal Enfield of Richard White proved a step too far for Jorgen and that was the end of his first visit to Red Marley.

In the heart of the Worcestershire hills at Great Witley, Red Marley is approx 500 yards long with a final gradient of one in two. There are several ‘undulations’ along the way and the famous ‘pimple’ – about 50 yards from the finish – marks the start of the steepest part of the hill. Only those who are prepared to open the throttle, and hold it open, succeed in achieving a fast enough time to win the day. Even then, a missed gear or the wrong gear over the ‘pimple’ spells failure.
One well-known pundit recently said that some types of rider will never win Red Marley because they lack a certain type of ‘killer’ instinct, while others invariably do well, year after year. Certainly this latter group have the same common attributes: as well as being highly skilled riders, they are good starters (essential), chose their lines very carefully in advance and then attack the hill courageously, flat out, with barely a pause from start to finish. Names that spring to mind immediately include Dave Bell, Arthur Browning, Terry Challinor, Piers Dowell, Leigh Owen, Carl Pope, Gerald Short, Richard Williams – and Tim Manton. Since Red Marley Mk II was started in 2000, these riders have been consistently successful – finalists and winners on many occasions. This year, however, was Tim Manton’s year.

He has been successful at Red Marley before, but this year was rather special for our Tim. A record entry of 191 meant the quality was greater than before and the results speak for themselves: second in the over 350cc class, 0.07 seconds behind hill record holder, Piers Dowell, followed by a spectacular win the prestigious Allcomers – all achieved on Paul Evans’ Cheney Jawa.

In both contests Tim locked horns with this long-standing rival, Dave Bell. Over the ‘pimple’ and on the steepest part of the course, Dave was ‘eased’ out of contention. From my vantage point behind the start (remember a quarter of a mile away) it looked like they were riding one bike. Dave avoided the ropes but it brought back memories of the Terry Challinor/Gerald Short duel at the inaugural Red Marley Mk II in 2000.

So man of the meeting was Tim Manton with Piers Dowell and Arthur Browning not far behind. Piers pipped Tim in the over 350cc class and, along the way, recorded second fastest time of the day in his semi-final – which included Dave Bell, Tim Manton and Gerald Short. However, Piers’ hopes of a double were dashed when he crashed heavily in the quarter-final after a huge leap over the ‘pimple.’

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