By Barry Lindsay

The summer Grass tests were ran at Longpark in June. Despite rain on the Saturday afternoon it had dried enough to run on the Sunday afternoon. Ian Robinson & Michael Lindsay were the timekeepers for the afternoon while Caroline Lodge worked on the results. 12 tests were run with the final two being a head to head special test.

First test Barry Lindsay was quickest with 53sec only just ahead of Andrew Graham on 54sec then Landowner Joe Thomlinson on 56sec, visitor Jonny Crisp a junior from the North East brought his KA over and got 58sec. John Ross got off to a bad start getting a wrong test. On the rerun Barry got 54sec as conditions dug up a little, Andrew got 56sec along with Geoffrey Harkness. Jonny & Nigel Harkness got 57sec.

On test 3 Barry got 1m14 ahead of Nigel on 1m16, Jonny on 1m 17 then Andrew & Geoffrey on 1m 18. On the re-run Nigel & Andrew went quickest with 1m 15 ahead of Barry & Neil Thomlinson on 1m 16 but Neil burst a brake pipe on the test so retreated to his workshop for some repairs.

Positions after 4 tests:
1st Barry Lindsay                 4m17                  6th Neil Thomlinson 4m 36
2nd Andrew Graham         4m23                   7th Geoffrey Harkness 4m 36
3rd Nigel Harkness            4m27                   8th Helen Gibbon 4m 41
4th Joe Thomlinson           4m29                   9th John Ross 4m 54
5th Johnny Crisp (JNR)   4m30
Test 5 Barry got 1m 08 along with Neil who was Joint quickest when he returned in the Club car. The repairs weren’t successful on his own Fiesta.  Andrew got 1m 09 then Joe also in the club car with 1m 10. The rerun it was Barry & Andrew were tied on 1m 04, John Ross got 1m 06 then Nigel on 1m 07. Jonny got a wrong test.

Test 7 Andrew was quickest with 1m 20 then John on 1m 25, Barry got 1m 28 after hesitating and needed to look at a map mid test. Joe got 1m 33. Neil & Jonny both got wrong tests. Rerun for test 8, Barry & Andrew again tied with 1m 17 (It was tight at the top of the leaderboard with Andrew leading by a single second over Barry, Joe third a single second ahead of Nigel) Nigel got 1m 20 then Neil on 1m23.

Test 9 Andrew got 1m 29 ahead of Geoffrey on 1m 30 then Barry on 1m 33 whose exhaust had broken and needed repairs then Nigel on 1m 35.

Test 10 was the rerun. Jonny got 1m 16, Andrew got 1m 28, John got 1m 31 then Nigel and Geoffrey on 1m 32. Barry’s exhaust came off completely and his time dropped & hitting a cone trying to hold the speed didn’t help.

Tests 11 & 12 were identical tests run side by side and competitors in current position order run together just to add more pressure! Quickest on test 11 was Andrew with 59sec, Nigel got 1m 01, Jonny on 1m 02 then Helen Gibbon who fired up the nitrous oxide kit when the race was on against Geoffrey. Her face beamed as she crossed the line on 1m 04.

On the re-run Barry got 1m00 ahead of Andrew on 1m 05 then Joe and Nigel on 1m 07. Jonny got 1m 08. Thanks to Ian, Michael & Caroline for time keeping and Joe & Neil for the use of the field.

Result:
1st Andrew Graham       14m14         6th John Ross                   15m57
2nd Barry Lindsay         14m30         7th Helen Gibbon            16m05
3rd Nigel Harkness       15m04         8th Johnny Crisp             16m09
4th Joe Thomlinson      15m21          9th Geoffrey Harkness   16m15
5th Neil Thomlinson     15m37

(Images © B. Lindsay / H. R. Gibbon/ Spadeadam Motor Club 2014)