We had another fine entry of seventeen for the second autotest of the year. It was disappointing to have a couple of non-starters, but then it was nice to see more people entering in advance. There’s nothing worse for the organisers than only having a couple of entries on Saturday night and relying on people just turning up on the day. Well I suppose that’s not true. The worse thing is having only a couple of entries on the Saturday night and nobody tuning up on the day! The most notable absentees were Simon and Matt Robson who had forsaken autotesting for a visit to Falmouth to watch the tall ships race.
The tiddlers class was well supported. An increasing number of members finding small engine over wheels cars to take on a grassy Sunday drive! This was a very competitive class. Neil Bray was sharing the family Mini with Chris who was having his first drive for a while. Chris is a keen and successful Mountain Bike racer and this normally occupies his Sundays. Arnold and Andrea Lane were in their turquoise Mini. Arnold had tweaked the suspension since it’s last outing, lengthening the lower arms to give it a spot of negative. Matt Clarke and Michael Leete had their usual Nova’s and Martin Cheshire was sharing one of his Polo’s with Chris Saunders as a change from the Maserati he used on the Falcon Run!
Alan Davies had planned some super tests. Again there was no
reversing, which seems to find favour with most of the
competitors, although it’s hard work to find new variations. Sadly Alan was not able
to come on the day for family reasons, so the organisation on the day was down to John
Prestage and John and Hillary Newberry.
Neil Bray set fastest time on the first test and that set the pattern on the day. Neil only missed a clean sweep when Chris Bray did a bit better on test five. Matt Clarke chased Neil very hard, but couldn’t quite get on terms with the nimble Mini. Behind Neil and Matt there was a real battle between the Mini’s of Arnold Lane and Chris Bray in the morning but after lunch it all went wrong for both of them when they recorded double wrong courses on the last test. To make matters worse Arnold made a double wammy on test five as well.
With Neil setting FTD Matt took the class win and tidy driving by Martin Cheshire and Chris Saunders netted them second and third in class, which was nice after their car problems on the last event.
Murray MacDonald won class B in Iain’s Golf, setting third best time overall in the process. David Alderson was driving his Monte Carlo Challenge Okrasa Beetle with great verve and some superb hand-brake turns, despite swing axle’s on the rear! David set some pretty fast times as well, better than many of us in class A! James Lindsay took part in his first Autotest in his Audi 80. He spent the morning feeling his way with the big car and stated to fly in the afternoon, taking the best novice award.
Mike Hayward won the Escort battle with Tom Goggin in class C. Finally Neil Masters was fastest in "D" with his Locust. Peter Mountain bought along his Morgan, with limited suspension travel and not much lock this is hardly the most suitable car, but Peter set some pretty impressive times. You can read all about this very interesting car in the September "Classical Gas". So ended another nice day. The weather was kind, the tests were good and there were some very interesting cars to look at. I know its getting a little monotonous for me to say this but I will, "another great Falcon event".
