Autotest report

Added: 23rd May 2008

With four events run we are now into the second quarter of the year. 2008 started with a clean sheet as Champion, Paul Swift was concentrating on his work and would not be competing this year. At the first round at Curborough, two potential winners, Roger Holder (Mini) and Dave Mosey (Mini Special) returned and they were expecting to have tough competition from Stephen Wild (ABS Freestyle) and Richard Pinkney (Caterham 7). Another returnee was John Moffatt in a Nova. He had been successful in Northern Ireland and was expected to challenge current class champion, Gavin Dickson who is also Nova mounted. Malcolm Livingston was Clerk of the Course for the Hagley & DLCC event and he provided some challenging, but straight forward tests. Unfortunately Dave Mosey lost oil pressure and had to retire. A promising start by Stephen and father, Duncan Wild was cut short when Duncan's wife fell and broke her arm. They retired to the local hospital. Gordon Holmes was another early retirement. The day belonged to Roger Holder who took his first FTD of the year. Richard Pinkney got his year off to a good start with second place. Henry Moorhouse had his best ever result in third.

The second round was at Foxley. Graham Powell took on the role of Clerk of the Course to leave the Moffatt boys free to compete. Alastair put his experience of Foxley to good use to claim FTD on his first event of the year. Malcolm Livingston returned to competing in his usual Lotus 7 and was second overall. Richard Pinkney was the one to suffer this time when his diff failed. It was a lovely dry day at Foxley and there was spirited driving throughout the field on the challenging roads.

Next it was North to the Bolton Services on the M61. As with Foxley, this was also an MSA round so a quality entry was ensured for the Bolton-le-Moors CC event. Alastair Moffatt showed that Foxley was no fluke as he took his Mini Special to his second FTD. Dave Mosey was also entered and he pushed Alastair all day to take his first points of the year in second. Two sports cars followed. Ashley Lamont from Northern Ireland was third but as he was only registered for the MSA Championship doesn't feature in the BTRDA® tables. He pushed Richard Pinkney down to fourth after a close battle. Duncan Wild returned and finished fifth.

Another open car park provided the venue for round four. Warwickshire Drivers used the Truck stop on the A5 near Rugby. It was another dry day and the regulars were out in force. Breakages were again to cause early retirements, none more so than Peter Cox who broke down on his way to the event. This also sidelined Richard Yapp who shares the ABS with Peter. Dave Sowman was the first retirement when a rose joint sheared on his special. By the end of round one Stephen and Duncan Wild were out due to electrical problems in the ignition. At the front Dave Mosey and Alastair Moffatt were having their usual close battle with tenths of a second separating them. Towards the end, Alastair gained the initiative and went on to record another FTD. Dave Mosey was second. Drive of the day was John Moffatt with third overall, just ahead of Roger Holder. Fifth was Malcolm Livingston in Martin McKenzie's Lindsay Special. Malcolm changed to the special after Foxley.

Not surprising, the Gold Star is being led by Alastair Moffatt. Gavin Dickson is second but he has one more score than the other top drivers. Current Silver Star Champion, Howard Everingham is leading again this year, closely followed by John Moffatt and Carl Sams in their Novas. The Bronze Star championship leader is Steven Gray in the Striker. Full class results are on the web site. One of the closest battles will be the small saloon where Gavin Dickson and John Moffatt have two class wins each. Lee Valentine had an excellent second in class on round four. Keith Walton is the only sports car driver to have four scores and lies second in class. Richard Pinkney looks to be favourite to take this class if reliability is maintained. Ian Chapman was going well until a sheared half shaft put him and son Chris out of the Warwickshire drivers' event. Newcomer, Dave Evans is currently second in the specials class behind Alastair Moffatt. Most of the specials drivers have only scored on two rounds so the next few months will show some significant changes in the table. Watch this space.

Duncan Wild