Mintex Trophy Trial celebrates over 40 years of crowning British trials champions

Date: Friday 20 January 2023

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Braking friction specialist TMD Friction’s renowned brand Mintex, and Yorkshire-based Richmond Motor Club, are celebrating over 40 years of racing excellence in the Mintex Trophy Trial, a demanding motorcycle trial event sponsored by the legendary braking brand.

A chance family connection in 1978 gave birth to one the world’s greatest youth motorcycle events, the Mintex Trophy Trial, formed by Richmond Motor Club in Yorkshire. A motorcycle trial racing event for under 18s, it takes place on demanding off-road courses with severe obstacles and climbs. Riders in trial events aim to complete the course without the rider putting their feet down. Each time they do, a penalty point is applied, and the lowest score wins.

The original idea for a speed event over rough terrain came from Eric Clayton, attached to Richmond Motor Club at the time. Eric’s brother, Ken Clayton, was managing director of Mintex in the UK at the time and agreed a deal to sponsor the trial, and to this day the Mintex brand is still on one of the sport’s most coveted trophies.

What made the event so different was it was also based on speed. Under 18s would ride a course of over 30 miles, covering 40 ‘observed sections’ of severe obstacles over rocks, streams, and climbs, sometimes all three together.

Riders usually dismount to walk the sections first, so they can recce the obstacles they are about to ride. However, at the Mintex Trophy Trial no reconnaissance runs are completed, and with speed being an important factor most sections are ridden blind, raising the difficulty and risk dramatically.

The Mintex Trophy Trial sits alongside the Motor Club’s world-famous Scott Trial, which has run annually for 108 years but is strictly adults only, so The Mintex gives youth riders a real opportunity to emulate their heroes.

Motorcycle trial events are extremely popular globally, as the surgical precision required to navigate each course successfully teaches excellent motorcycle control, and the sport is popular with riders across various forms of motorsport thanks to the transferable skills gained.

Peter Clayton, Eric Clayton’s son and a rider in the original event said:

“It’s fantastic that the Mintex Trophy Trial continues after over 40 years. It remains one of the most popular and famous motorcycle trial events in the UK. Mintex has a place in the hearts of trial riders across the world, and many competitors in the Mintex Trophy Trial have gone on to become British and world champions in various motorcycle disciplines.”

“Mintex is synonymous in the world of youth trials, as it’s the only youth trial event based on speed. Trial riders are not considered a hardened rider if they have not done the Mintex Trophy Trial. It’s a real bucket list event!”

Richard Barton, category manager for Mintex Racing at TMD Friction, said:

“Mintex has an exceptional reputation when it comes to performance braking friction products. These are developed through uncompromising research and testing processes in some of the UK’s most demanding racing settings – the Mintex Trophy Trial is another great example of this!

“What started as a favour for a family member between ex-managing director Kenneth Clayton and his brother Eric, for the Richmond Motor Club, has turned into 40 years of the Mintex brand linked to motorcycle racing!”

More information on the Mintex Trophy Trial can be found here: https://www.acu.org.uk/news/2019/05/richmond-motor-club-the-mintex-trial 

To discover more about Mintex racing products, visit: https://mintex.com/mintex-racing/?lang=en-gbr 

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