Owen's Surprise

Owen Turner on his way to set FTD	Dan Turner pressing on in Arnold's Mini

It was another Rover Group FTD at Falcon’s final autotest of the year but it was a Metro this time with Owen Turner blowing the regulars away in his Rally prepared Metro.

There were thirteen entries to do battle with Peter Manning’s tests on another nice day. This is around the ideal number for the meadow at the back of Neil and Allsion Brays house. After last years successful experiment Peter repeated his unique twin tests, with two identical layouts end to end, the finish line of the first becoming the start of the second. This idea makes it really interesting to watch the tests as you can see two competitors “racing” each other and the driver on the first test can see how the one in front is getting on!

The Watling Metro boys joined the regulars on this occasion. Owen Turner had his 1400cc Rally prepared K series car and his navigator Andrew Dadswell had his similar engined road car. They were joined by Dan Turner who was competing in the Production class in the Lane Mini..

It was Arnold Lane, the winner of the seasons opener, who set the pace with the fastest time on the first test just in front of Roger Dudely who was competing in the production class alongside Jackie and therefore not strictly eligible for the FTD award! They were followed by David Manning, who went so well last time out and Owen Turner. Neil Bray was well of the pace, picking up penalties on both his runs which was to drop in out of contention for the day. Keith Pettit didn’t set a very good time either but looking back through the seasons results Keith doesn’t get going until the second or third test!

Neil made up for his early mistake by setting fastest time on the second test, which had the same layout as the first one on this twin test event. Simon Robson and Roger Dudely followed Neil. Owen Turner had a terrible run but soon made up for it by being fastest on tests three, four and five, putting him in the overall lead by test five. Keith Pettit had got going now and was in joint second place with the flying Roger Dudley.

Keith set a very fast time on test seven, putting him into a joint first place with Owen Turner but slipped back after a slow test eight and despite being fastest on test nine Owen held onto his lead for a well deserved FTD.

RESULTS

Bob Tatum		Fiat		477.2	

Arnold Lane	Mini		426.3	1st Class A

Andrew Dadswell	Metro		455.0	

Owen Turner	Metro		419.2	FTD

David Manning	Mini		437.0	3rd Class A

Neil Bray		Mini		428.3	2nd Class A

Matt Robson	Minii		457.1	

Simon Robson	Liege		427.0	

Keith Pettit	Spridget		421.2	1st Class D

Roger Dudley	Mini		426.0	1st Production Class

Jackie Dudley	Mini		545.8	

Rachel Lane	Mini		521.7	Best Novice

Dan Turner		Mini		511.5	2nd Production Class

Click here for Full results in PDF