June 2000 - Part 2    (Click here to view full screen in a new window)

Originally published on The Classical Gas Web Site, moved here on 1 Feb 2002

Spring Fever Autotest

	Richard Tompkins was taking part in his first Autotest in his smart yellow Imp, finding plenty of grip when the rain came down.
Keith Pettit was another one who expolited his trials experience in the "Frogeye" Sprite so familiar on MCC events.
	David Manning driving Arnold Lane's Mini in the Production event.

A varied entry of fifteen took part, including David Manning, driving Arnold Lanes Mini in the Production class. This is a wonderful way to start out in the sport. Drivers can take part when they are fifteen years old. They have to have an "experienced" driver in the passenger’s seat, which can be a great help finding your way around the cones! While David was the only entry, this time, it’s a great idea and one I hope the club will continue.

There was a wonderful selection of cars taking part. The regular class A contender were joined by Kevin Roberts and Veronica Caspari in their Nova and Richard Tompkins in his very smart Imp, which now has a super yellow paint job and some very smart wheels. Richard has only recently completed his car and has already taken part in PCT’s, a Classic and an Autotest. Jack Williams bought along his well-known Tempest and Ross Nuten his Dellow. The trials scene was also represented by Keith Pettit with his "Frogeye" Sprite, both car and driver are very much MCC veterans and it was very nice to see them at Upper Caldecote.

There had been a bit of rain in the days preceding the event, making the top surface a bit greasy on the nice open tests devised by Clerk of the Course Alan Davies. However, Neil and Allison’s paddock is quite well drained, so it didn’t rut up under cornering and the surface moisture kept the dust down!

Neil Bray had dug his Mini out of storage the previous weekend to find the tin worm had been feasting on the sills over the winter so he had to take time out from preparing his pre war C type Ford to weld to weild the MIG welder. It did the trick because Neil flew around the first two tests to get ahead of the field by a couple of seconds. However, things changed on the long test three and Arnold Lane went into the lead when he set a time over three seconds faster than everyone else.

Simon Robson had been struggling to keep up in the big Skoda (on yet another final outing) but this changed when the rain came down on test four and Simon could employ the traction advantages of his well-developed trials machine. It certainly showed in the results, as Simon was three and a half seconds faster than his nearest rival. This produced big changes in class B as Simon had been trailing Keith Pettit by quite a bit until the conditions changed.

It was still quite greasy when battle re-commenced after lunch and Simon set fastest time again on test five. Richard Tomkins able to exploit the traction capabilities of his Imp as was Jack Williams in his trials developed Tempest. However, Arnold fought back as the ground dried out and set a string of fastest times to end the day on top.

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