Day 2 of the Healey Weekend was held at Westridge next to Wight Karting in Ryde.

This venue was a huge contrast to Saturday’s event at BAE. Now competitors had to navigate car park islands lined with unforgiving curbs, master super tight changes of direction and even a ramp. The biggest difference was that the construction of the surface was abrasive yet surprisingly slippery in the damp conditions.

Competitors’ fastest times from Saturday were to be added to the fastest times on Sunday and the individual with the fastest combined time would be awarded the prestigious Turbine Trophy and special class awards. Both days were also individual rounds of the IOWCC forward only Autotest championship.

Class 1 is for unmodified cars under 1400cc. Simon Johnstone in his micra and Rob Highmore and Darren Phillips in their shared Ford Ka took advantage of their small cars to nimbly navigate this tight course. In the end it was Darren Phillips who posted the fastest time. Giving him the round 13 class win as well as the Healey Weekend class 1 trophy.

Class 2 is for unmodified cars over 1400cc. With the damp conditions, most drivers were initially driving the course very gingerly, however, Steve Ridett in his Corrolla was the first driver in run one to give it some beans, smoke the tyres and use the handbrake to slide his car round the track – posting a cracking time others followed his form.

Steve took the round 13 class win and the Healey Weekend class 2 trophy.

Class 3 is for modified cars under 1400cc. Dave Goodwin was going into day 2 with a second lead over his nearest rival and his goal was to keep or even extend that lead today, however, his challengers were many and at many points during the day he found himself on the back foot as others challenged his lead.

Steve Staff in his micra also in class 3 posted the fastest time of the day in run 5 and Oliver Chatham from the Healey club also topped the day’s standing in his MX5. James Robbins in his C1 was a serious challenge throughout the day, however, the weather closed in and it started to rain for his last run, dashing his chances to be a contender, However, Dave’s combined weekend lead was still intact at the end of play giving him the honour of taking home that amazing Turbine trophy. Steve Staff did not go home empty handed as he finished 2nd overall Sunday’s IOWCC results.

Also in class 3 was Joel Gilby in his Panda and Kaiden Read in his Clio – both are Junior drivers and competing in the IOWCC Youth Championship sponsored by Jake Ellis Sunglasses.

Kaiden took the day’s award finishing 4 tenths of a second ahead of Joel. Joel on the other hand had competed on both days and his combined times awarded him with the kudos of being the Healy weekend youth champion.

Class 4 is for modified cars over 1400cc. Cathy True in her Suzuki Ignis Sport was presented with the fastest lady of Sunday’s event and it was a pleasure to award her with the Healey weekend trophy as well.

With the event right next to Wight Karting and Tesco the event certainly attracted a crowd – as always spectating is encouraged and free, it helps promote our sport and demonstrates how accessible motorsport can be. Entertaining the crowds were our Subaru driving club members Jakey Jarrold and Luke Everson – not only was it impressive that they could thread these large saloon cars through the tight gates marked by cones, it was the sideways, drifting, tyre smoking way they did it that made the spectators cheer.

But it was the slightly smaller class 4 cars that were battling for the class win – Jacques Ridett in his Rally Mini Cooper R50 and Kevin Richardson in his R53 Mini Cooper S both picked up time penalties on their final runs due to hitting cones meaning their run 5 times would be their quickest of the day. In the end Kevin Richardson took the class 4 title and 3rd overall on Sunday.

Class 5 is for heavily modified cars, limited production cars and specials. The battle continued between Robbie Cooper and Martin Goddard. Try as he might, Martin struggled in the super slippery conditions in his brutally powerful single seater special. Robbie found a little more grip in his saloon car and this in turn awarded him with not only a 9th place on Sunday but the class 5 Healey trophy for the weekend.

Thank you to Pro-Tek for their ongoing support and sponsoring the podium prizes and the Healey Club for another amazing weekend. There is a lot of work that happens behind the scenes and we would like to thank all our club members and partners who help make these events happen.

There is one more forward only autotest on the IOWCC calendar in 2023 and this is at Fort Street on the 26th of November. If you are not a current member of the IOWCC and you join for this final event, your membership will roll over to 2024. If you have never been an IOWCC member before, your first ever autotest is free, so you have nothing to loose, come and have a go. Check out our website www.iowcc.co.uk for more details.