The September autotest was held near Calthwaite, with the new venue, thanks to Colin, Patricia & Sam Trotter. We had an entry of 18 crews, with 10 newcomers, 4 juniors and 4 ladies on the list.

Fastest on the first test were Barry Lindsay & Colin Trotter on 59 seconds. Followed behind by on 1m 1second; Jon Ross, Jon Stynes, newcomer Carl Barnett. The first person of the day to “kiss a cone” was newcomer Mark Salisbury.

Test 2, a repeat of test one, and once again, Barry & Colin shared fastest time, 56 seconds. Carl on 57 seconds was next, then Jon Ross, Jon Stynes, Helen Harkness and Mark. The first wrong test of the day went to Mike Burke, with Sade Burke also hitting a cone on that test.

Test 3 Barry lead with 50 seconds. Closest behind was Colin with 52 seconds. Then David Garstang, Nigel Harkness and junior newcomer Jamie Barnett all on 53 seconds. A wrong test for Lizzy Burke on this one.

Test 4 The fastest time of 50 seconds was shared by David, Barry and Colin. Mark was close behind on 51seconds, then Sam Trotter and Jon Stynes on 52 seconds.  This test caused problems for both Mike & junior newcomer Martyn Petry, both getting wrong tests.

Test 5 and Barry had obviously had his Weetabix that morning, as once again, he had the fastest time of 1m14. Closest to him was Colin on 1m17. Then David on 1m18. Another wrong test for Mike, and another cone for Sade.

After 5 tests top 10 looked like this:

1^st             Barry Lindsay      4m49                 = 5^th      Nigel Harkness                 5m08

2^nd        Colin Trotter      4m54                     7^th        Carl Barnett                   5m10

3^rd             David Garstang   5m04                 8^th       Martyn Petry                  5m11

4^th             Helen Harkness  5m07                 9^th        Jamie Barnett                 5m12

=5^th       Jon Stynes         5m08                      10^th      John Ross                      5m13

 

Test 6 Barry was fastest again with a 1m12. The competition in the Barnett’s car must have been heating up with both Carl & Jamie getting the next fastest time of 1m14. Then a whole bunch of folk getting 1m15; David, Helen, Andrew Jeffrey (Jay) and Mark. Unfortunately, this was to be newcomers Mark & Veronika’s last test of the day as they had to leave early. We also lost Colin Trotter at this point, when the Micra’s gearbox decided it had had enough.

Test 7 The fastest time went to Barry, with 1m05, a second behind was David on 1m06. Then Nigel on 1m08 and Helen on 1m09, John Ross and John Stynes sharing times again on 1m10. Cones for juniors, Jamie and Sam.

Test 8 With 1m03 was Barry, next Helen with 1m05. Carl on 1m06 and David and Nigel on 1m07. No wrong tests or cones for anyone on this test.

Test 9, and it was decided that this would be the last test of the day, so it was now all or nothing! David took the fastest time on this test with 1m02 seconds, followed by Helen and Barry on 1m03. Followed by Carl and Nigel on 1m05, and Jon Stynes on 1m06. A cone for Jay and a wrong test for Mike.

Final Results:

1^st             Barry Lindsay                9m12      1^st O/A

2^nd        David Garstang              9m34

3^rd        Helen Harkness             9m39   1^st Road car

4^th        Nigel Harkness              9m44

5^th        Carl Barnett                  9m48   1^st Newcomer

6^th        Jon Stynes                     9m59

7^th        John Ross                      9m59

8^th        Martyn Petry                 10m09    1^st Junior

9^th        Kieron Stynes                10m12

10^th      Jamie Barnett                10m03

11^th      Lizzy Burke                    11m01   1^st Lady

12^th      Jay                               11m21

13^th      Sam Trotter                  11m21

14^th      Sade Burke                   12m43

15^th      Mike Burke                   12m43

Thank you to the marshals, Michael Lindsay, Graham Petry, Dylan Jones, Geoffrey Harkness & Bob Hill. Thanks to Caroline Lodge for the results. Big thanks to Colin & Sam Trotter for the venue and to Patricia Trotter for the cakes… and thank you to everyone who came along and made it an enjoyable afternoon! 😊