Past Trials

The first question on everyone's lips when they look at the past winners of the Scottish Six Days Trial is "Why are there no winners prior to 1932?". The automatic assumption is that records don't go back that far, but actually it's because there was no outright winner prior to 1932.

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The way that we score trials today bears no resemblance to those early years. When the SSDT began there were no sections at all. The Scottish road surfaces and hills were considered to be enough of a trial, and the only way that you incurred penalties was by falling away from the time schedule. The route was scheduled around an average speed of twenty miles per hour, and if you reached a time check more than ten minutes late or early, then you incurred penalties. Those who finished the trial with no time penalties won a gold medal, with silver and bronze medals being awarded to all other finishers based on the number of penalties incurred.

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In 1914, the rules were tightened up. Every entrant was given a time card and the leeway given at a time check was reduced from ten minutes down to five....and to think people complain about time nowadays! At the same time penalties were introduced for late starting and the route was built to include seven optional hills. The awards system worked in much the same way as before, but if you didn't complete at least five of the seven optional hills you couldn't win a gold medal.

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In 1926 four categories in which penalties could be incurred were established. Those were reliability, hill-climbs, daily condition of machine and a brake test. This was also the year that the awards changed. You no longer got a gold medal for completing the trial with no penalties, instead you won a silver cup. Gold medals were awarded to those with no more than three marks lost, silver medals to those with no more than fifteen marks lost and bronze medals to all other finishers, unless you were unfortunate enough to have list more than one hundred and fifty marks, in which case you were disqualified!

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1931 saw big changes. Observed hills were introduced with penalties incurred for putting your foot down, and awards were allocated on a percentage basis at the end of the trial, much as they are today. However, there was still no individual winner—it was only the following year in 1932 that the Edinburgh & District Motor Club decided to introduce an award for the best individual performance. The rest, as they say, is history!