18 drivers competed in round 8 and the 5th Unsealed surface event of the Isle of Wight Car Club’s season, held at Knighton sand pit.

This active sand quarry requires drivers to twist their way around piles of sand, rock and even giant digger buckets. Unlike other venues remembering the course is not often an issue thanks to the many landmarks, however, deep sand, loose gravel surfaces and even a water splash prove challenging enough for many competitors.

The battle for the fastest lady of the day was fought between Sue Mitchell driving her normal every day car, a Fiat Seicento, who finished 3rd, Kelly Read in her Mx5 who claimed 2nd and today’s fastest lady and 11th overall Marion Brett in her classic Mini.

In the unmodified classes Ricky Shepherd as usual astounded onlookers by driving his standard class 1 Rover 45 to not only win class 1 but place 8th overall. Tony Long drove very smoothly in his standard Mx5 to place fastest class 2 car and 10th overall.

Modified cars make up classes 3 and 4. Steve Brett, despite being stuck in the sand earlier in the day, pushed his classic Mini hard and at one point was in 4th place overall but had to settle for fastest class 3 and 7th place overall. Dan Morgan literally waisted no time when attempting to perform the perfect lap, on one occasion he abandoned his run after glancing at the trackside lap timer and noticed he was down on his best split time. This attention to detail bagged fastest class 4 and 4th place overall.

Respect has to go to Danny Grist who despite being in a class full of turbo four wheel drive Subaru Imprezas drove his front wheel drive Peugeot 205 to 6th place overall.

Class 5 is for single seater specials or for cars that do not fit in any other class and it was class 5 that ended up monopolising the podium. Andy Williams opted to miss his final 6th run of the day due to having a bad back, but his 5th run was enough to stand on the 3rd step of the podium. Will Thomas’ day was bookended by bad luck, his first 3 runs were plagued by penalties for touching cones and his 6th and final attempt to stand on the top step was halted by a mechanical failure.

Running away with the unsealed championship, Chris Wilson drove a penalty free day and  sprayed the champagne after delivering the fastest overall time.

Inspired by the Olympic games held in Rio drivers were also awarded with novelty bronze, silver and gold medals by Isle of Wight Car Club chairman Malcolm Smith.