On the 19^th of Feb, the Isle of Wight Car Club held their annual winter non-championship event at BAE Systems in Northwood. The club always tries to do something a little different than the normal competition format and this year’s event consisted of a simple course set between cones that drivers had to navigate in one direction for 3 runs and the remaining 3 runs in the opposite direction. All six runs were added together and the driver with the lowest combined time would be crowned the winner.

With every run counting, drivers were very reluctant to drive the course without being confident where they were going as a wrong test would instantly place them at the bottom of the leader board.

Not everyone was at this event to be competitive, many used it as a shake down session to test their cars for the upcoming season or just wanted an excuse to shred some tyres on this open twisty course.

The ladies had an interesting battle, Marion Brett in her Classic mini and Hope Wallis in her mk7 Ford Fiesta were placing competitive times, although, both performed one wrong test. New member and first time competitor Josie Collins, however, was precise and consistent driving her classic mini and thanks to this, leapfrogged both Marion and Hope in the leader board to claim the flowers as the fastest lady of the day.

This was not a specific drift event but you would have been mistaken for thinking so. The amount of tyre smoke produced from rear wheel drive cars choosing to navigate the cones in a sideways fashion provided lots of entertainment, not only for the drivers but also for the onlooking crowd.

One such driver was new member Adam Pomeroy who was not shy in using his immaculate Skyline to its true potential. With the rise in popularity of forced induction Mx5s and other driver orientated cars, expect to see more of this style of driving in 2017.

Father and son duo of Chris and Adam Greenen were super quick right from the start. Their distinctive 1275GT may have been giving up power to the larger cars but more than made up this deficit with plenty of grip, lifting a rear wheel on the tight corners. These two traded places during the day but in the end, Chris had to settle for the 3^rd step on the podium as Adam pipped him to second place by only 4 tenths  of a second.

But the driver of the day was Ricky Sheppard, who consistently laid down very quick runs without a single mistake and finished on the top step of the podium with a combined lead of over 11 seconds.

The next event is round one of the Isle of Wight Car Club’s 2017 championship held within the top car park of the Ventnor Botanic Garden. The format of this event has been changed from previous years and if you can attend the club’s AGM and awards evening at the Chequers Inn on the 3rd of March all will be explained. You can find more details on how you can attend both of these events on the club’s website www.iow.co.uk. Keep in touch with latest updates by following us on Facebook and Twitter.