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.

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.

 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.

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 2^nd position.

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

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

 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.

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

Results

1st Barry Lindsay             10m 08                      7^th Andrew Graham   11m 43

2^nd John Ross                  11m 07                         8^th Neil Varah           12m 32

3^rd Nigel Harkness           11m 16                        9^th Rob Hodgson       13m 17

4^th George Edminson       11m 29 (1^st Nov)     10^th Pete Johnson      14m 20

5^th Geoffrey Harkness      11m 34                       11^th Mark W              18m 11

6^th Neil Thomlinson         11m 43

(Images © B. Lindsay/ H. R. Gibbon/ Spadeadam Motor Club 2013)