By Barry Lindsay
Eleven drivers entered the final event of 2012. Ten tarmac testes lay ahead and after overnight rain thankfully the weather was mostly dry but the car park was slippery. The first test, manned by Ian Robinson, John Ross debuted his new car and was quickly setting the pace with 51sec, Barry Lindsay, Geoffrey Harkness & Neil Thomlinson all equalled on 53sec.
For the re-run Barry upped his pace stopping the clock on 48sec, Neil T on 50sec then Andrew Graham a newcomer to SMC autotests getting 52sec.

Andrew Graham
Test three manned by Michael Lindsay was a longer test with a tight slalom that some struggled on. Barry got 1m 04 ahead of John in the C1 on 1m13 the Neil T on 1m30.For the re-run Nigel Harkness despite not having power steering was quickest on 1m10. Barry slipped back with 1m12 just ahead of John on 1m13.

Nigel Harkness
Caroline Lodge was adding up on her fingers and toes to provide results.
After 4 tests
1 Barry Lindsay 3m57 7 Geoffrey Harkness 5m 01
2 John Ross 4m11 8 Neil Varah 5m 06
3= Nigel Harkness 9 Rob Hodgson 5m 55
3= Neil Thomlinson 4m 42 10 Pete Johnson 5m 51
5 Andrew Graham 4m 44
6 George Edminson 4m 56
Barry got 44sec ahead of John, Geoffrey and George Edminson (getting to grips with his first Autotest and throwing the Micra around) all on 48sec.

George Edminson
On the re-run Barry went quicker with 43sec, Neil T got 45 but had had a bad run on test before so had dropped down the leaderboard. Andrew and Rob Hodgson got 46sec, Rob now using Geoffrey’s Corsa after his Vectra engine cried enough on the previous run. John Ross was another to fail the Christmas tree test and with it 36sec down the leaderboard but stayed in 2nd position.

Rob Hodgson
Test 7 manned by Michael, Barry got 1m 24 just ahead of John on 1m25 the Neil T on 1m31.

Neil Thomlinson
Test 8 George showed his pace in the Micra with 1m18 the same as Barry, with Geoffrey on 1m23 and Andrew & Nigel on 1m26.

John Ross
The final two tests were run over the whole car park but still turned out quite tight. Test 9, Rob was getting used to the corsa on 54sec, Andrew on 55 then Geoffrey & Barry on 56.

Barry Lindsay
Final test, Geoffrey wakes up!! Must be home time getting 52 sec, ahead of Andrew and Nigel on 54sec then John & Neil on 57.

Geoffrey Harkness
Results
1st Barry Lindsay 10m 08 7th Andrew Graham 11m 43
2nd John Ross 11m 07 8th Neil Varah 12m 32
3rd Nigel Harkness 11m 16 9th Rob Hodgson 13m 17
4th George Edminson 11m 29 (1st Nov) 10th Pete Johnson 14m 20
5th Geoffrey Harkness 11m 34 11th Mark W 18m 11
6th Neil Thomlinson 11m 43
(Images © B. Lindsay/ H. R. Gibbon/ Spadeadam Motor Club 2013)