By Barry Lindsay
The second grass Autotest ran mid-June but this report wasn’t written for the newsletter copy deadline the week after so for those of you can remember back, this is how it unfolded.
Fourteen competitors arrived at the freshly silaged grass field at Longpark. Setting out the new layouts a test of routes to be used at the display the club were doing at the Cumbria Auto Show the week later…turned out to it never ran as dust prevented the display happening. However, test one of the new tests was one that no one had ever ran so this event was a leveller. Helen Harkness was fastest with 1m06 just ahead of Nigel Harkness on 1m07. Geoffrey Harkness and Barry Lindsay getting 1m09. Running new tests always produces wrong tests, Phil Hodgson, Andrew, Geoffrey, Mike, Sade & Lizzy Burke and Josh Shaw.
On the second run, Barry got the hang of his recently acquired 206 which was to be broken for rally car spares getting 1m 03, Helen, Nigel, Phil H and Martin Davies were close behind on 1m04 though, then Andrew J & David Garstang on 1m05.Test 3 was the same cone layout but different route. Times were tight with Nigel, Helen, Barry and John Ross all getting 47sec, Andrew J getting 48 then Martin Davies on 49sec. Wrong test for David and Geoffrey.
Test 4 was a repeat 43sec was the quickest time for Martin and Barry with Nigel & Phil getting 45sec then David on 46sec.
Positions after test4
1st Barry L 3m 42 8th Phil H 4m14
2nd Nigel H 3m 43 9th Geoffrey 4m30
3rd Helen H 3m 46 10th David G 4m30
4th Martin D 3m 47 11th Sade B 4m33
5th John R 3m 52 12th Lizzy B 4m35
6th John B 4m 01 13th Josh S 4m49
7th Andrew 4m 12 14th Mike B 4m50
Test 5 was another route around the same cones. Phil H getting 1m05 then Barry on 1m08 followed by Mike Burke & Nigel getting 1m09. Wrong tests for Josh Shaw, David G and Lizzy B.
Test 6 Mike B, Nigel & Phil were tied on quickest time of 1m 06, Helen & Barry getting 1m07 then John R & David both using the club car getting 1m 08.
Test 7 was a test that had been used before but caught out Geoffrey and Sade both getting wrong tests Phil was quickest with 1m11 ahead of Barry on 1m13 then Helen on 1m17. Nigel didn’t wrong test but lost some time with a detour but still better than getting it wrong.
Test 8 Phil repeated his earlier run with 1m11 followed by Mike & Nigel both on 1m13. Followed by Helen & John on 1m14. Wrong test for Lizzy and David G.
Finial test and the weather was to play a major part as it started raining and the times increased as each car went. Nigel was quickest into the start and got fastest time of 1m05 followed by Geoffrey on 1m07 then John Ross on 1m09. Wrong test for Sade and Martin D. Others losing out were Helen who went near the end in wet horrible conditions getting 1m13 while Barry could only manage a 1m23 which did include a cone.
Results
1st Nigel Harkness 9m47 8th Andrew Jeffrey 11m01
2nd (1st L) Helen Harkness 9m48 9th Mike Burke 11m13
3rd Barry Lindsay 9m49 10th Geoffrey Harkness 11m20
4th John Ross 10m06 11th David Garstang 12m28
5th John Barber 10m32 12th (1st Jnr) Josh Shaw 12m32
6th Martin Davies 10m44 13th Sade Burke 13m49
7th (1st NC) Phil Hodgson 10m44 14th Lizzy Burke 14m15
Thanks to Michael Lindsay & Caroline Lodge for marshalling and Joe & Neil Thomlinson for the use of the field.
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