The final round of the IOWCC sealed surface Autotest calendar was held at Fort Street car park in Sandown.

This popular venue is great for spectators and despite the prospect of rain attracted many onlookers.

Cathy True took the reins as Clerk of the course, this role includes many duties, including designing and setting the course. The course Cathy designed resembled a butterfly and it was named Metamorphic motoring. Considering this was Cathy’s first ever course, many drivers praised it as one of the best courses ever designed at car club, so sell done.

Class 1 is for unmodified cars under 1400cc – new member Max Downer struggled to learn the course to start with, however, once he knew where he was going, he put his karting skills to good use and finished 15th overall and 4th in class. Michael Jolliffe finished 3rd in class, Rob Highmore 2nd and the class winner was Darren Phillips finishing 10th overall.

Wight Karting had their simulator van at the event and the chosen course was Goodwood, a fitting choice, since quite a few IOWCC members will be competing there in a week’s time as part of the South Downs Stages. Jakey Jarrold was the 3rd fastest virtual driver of the day followed by Kevin Richardson in 2nd and our Kart champion of the day was Jacques Ridett. Thank you so much to Wight Karting for adding this new dynamic to our events.

The IOWCC / Wight Karting evening is on the 29th of November for IOWCC members – checkout our website for more details.

Class 2 is for unmodified cars over 1400cc –  Wayne Hole as missed a few events due to a damaged thumb and although safe to drive he was worried about aggravating his injury at today’s event and with this he felt his times suffered. Despite this, he still took the class win and just missed out on the podium by a tenth of a second. In consolation Wayne has taken the combined championship award for 2023.

Class 3 is for modified cars under 1400cc – a decade ago the IOWCC was awash with classic minis but in later times they have been in the minority, however, at today’s event we had Daniel O’Connor in his lovely red 1989 classic mini, Collin Attrill in his formidable yellow mini and Dave Goodwin who has never wavered from using his mini at car club and has consistently been firing for the top spot. Dave performed the fastest time of the day on his 3rd run and the rest of the field were unable to challenge such a lead. Steve Staff took 3rd in class 3 finishing 5th overall and James Robbins took 2nd in class and 2nd overall. Dave not only finished 1st in class and 1st overall he has also taken the sealed surface championship for 2023.

Tyres were the hot topic at this meeting – under Motorsport UK regulations cars used for autotesting are not permitted to use tyres on the 1b and 1c tyre list, contained within the current Motorsport UK yearbook (commonly known as the blue book). Tyre softening treatment, blankets or hot boxes are also not permitted.

With the season coming to a close it is very tempting to make upgrades to your car for 2024, however, it would be wise to delay any expensive purchases such as tyres until the 2024 year book has been released.

IOWCC rules also change from time to time and if there are any changes, these will be discussed and put into place at the AGM.

Class 4 is for modified cars over 1400cc – James McEnery in his Fiesta, Dave Leppard in his MX5 and Luke Everson in his Subaru Wrx, all driving very different class 4 cars, finished 9th, 7th and 7th. Yes that is not a typo both Dave’s and Luke’s fastest times were identical – 0:54:58.

However, the fastest class 4 driver of the day was Kevin Richardson in his shared BINI Cooper S, he also finished 3rd overall.

Fastest youth of the day was Kaiden Read, who also finished 19th overall in his class 3 Clio.

Club members can drive as young as 14 years old and this year was sponsored by Jake Ellis Sunglasses and we would like to thank them for their support – we hope to see more youth drivers competing in 2024 – check out our website for more details.

Class 5 is for heavily modified cars, limited production cars and specials such as Martin Goddard’s single seater special. Martin is racking up his seat time in his new machine and we are looking forward to seeing what he can achieve in 2024. 

Fastest lady of the day was Cathy True in her class 4 Suzuki Ignis Sport, not only did Cathy take this title but also finished 17th overall and 7th in class.

That’s it for the 2023 Autotest season, it has been amazing and we would like to thank everyone who has helped make these events happen. 

Don’t forget we have the club’s Wight Karting event on the 29th of November and the IOWCC Christmas meal on the 7th of December, check out our website for more details.