WEYMOUTH Liege Sport driver Phil Hyde went to the top of his division and won the award for the best Woolbridge Motor Club member at the Southern Counties Hardy Classic Trial.

Hyde put in a steady performance in the Class O category for more standard machines but having won the Woolbridge award he was out of the running for the class win.

An epic battle raged right to the end between the Suzuki x90 of Paul Brooks and John Tite’s Ford Jago.

Tite dropped five points at Meerhay and lost a further three to his opponent on the penultimate section of the event to leave the scores level.

The class honours went to the Jago man by virtue of his faster performance on a timed test, the results of which were employed to determine a winner in such circumstances.

As in 2013, the motorcycle B2 class catered for solo motorcycles between 225cc and 450cc and it again provided the overall winner of the motorcycle event in the form of Gas Gas Pampera rider Geoff Walker.

With Walker elevated to the overall two-wheel win the class honours went to Dor-chester Husaberg TE250 rider Daniel Tinney.

He dropped scores on only two tests to end the event nine points clear of nearest challenger Ian Barton.

Dudley Sterry, a two-time Hardy Classic winner, was denied a third title in his supercharged MG J2.

A maximum 12-point penalty on the third test meant Sterry will have to wait another year to try for a third success.

Heavy rainfall during the week gave the event a completely different character to that of 12 months ago when conditions were considerably drier.

Last year’s winner Carl Talbot dropped 10 points on the fourth test of the day, situated just off the A37, and that handed the initiative to Ian Davis in his VW Buggy.

Davis, though, picked up nine penalty points by the time the event approached Bridport and Beaminster, leaving his advantage at a tenuous single point.

And, when Talbot went clear at Mike’s Mess, the victory was his.