The Isle of Wight Car Club held their 5th round of their forward only autotest championship within a heat wave that has so far dominated the summer of 2018.
BAE Northwood hosted this round and its huge open car park is a favourite amongst club members. The course was a simple double lap of the car park incorporating tight chicanes and 180 turns. However simple it may have been the hot weather played havoc with cars and drivers alike.
The only un modified cars competing were in class 2. This consisted of MX5’s, a Suzuki Ignis and a wonderful Austin Healy driven by Gerald Wilby. But it was John Cooper and Wayne Hole who battled for class honours in their shared MX5. Wayne not only won this class but finished 8th place overall.
With no class 3 cars, all modified saloon cars were in class 4 and this time there were 7 drivers vying for this title.
New member Will Mellon campaigned his nicely prepared MX5 and took advantage of the clubs PCA rule allowing him to have a passenger. Toby Allan kindly volunteered to sit in with Will and guide him around the course and invited him to sit beside him in his own MX5 during his runs.
The new PCA rule can only help with the confidence of new and experienced members alike, so if you would like to try this at a future venue just ask at race control during sign on.
Mather Price piloted his highly modified MX5, clad with aero dynamic aids into the top position in class and finished 5th place over all.
Class 5 was a 50/50 split of single seater ex autograss specials and two-seater Locost style sports cars.
Championship leader Chris Wilson had his sealed surface championship lead reduced to 10 points after his special had electrical issues forcing him to retire.
Andy Williams, as hard as he tried, could not catch Steve wells in his Sub Zero and had to settle for 3rd place overall, however, Steve was kind (foolish) enough to let Mr S drive his car for the day. Despite Mr S having his hand in plaster he humiliated Steve by out performing him in his own car and took the top step of the podium.
Thank you very much to Young Plumbing who sponsors the podium and supplies our winners with champagne
The next event is an unsealed surface event and we have been invited back to Cheverton Chalk Pit on the 15th of July. This is an event not to miss