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BTRDA® Gold Star® Champions

Autotest championship after double header Anglesey and Demon Tweeks weekend

Added: 20th July 2009

The second half of the championship kicked off with a busy weekend in Wales. Caernarvonshire and Angelsey CC had hoped to move to Ty Croes race circuit but in the end we were back at the Anglesey Showground. Stephen Wild commented that the Anglesey Showground on Saturday and the Demon Tweeks car parks on Sunday were the equivalent to F1s Monza and Monte Carlo. This was very close to the truth as the long roads on Anglesey had most cars on their rev limiters, both in forward and reverse. After the rain of the previous week it was pleasing to have a mainly dry event on Saturday. However Sunday was as different as it could be. The marshals received particular praise for sticking to their task when the heavens opened on several occasions.

Saturday's tests were a good leveller where Simon Echlin in his Caterham took his first FTD of the year with a spirited drive on the narrow roads of the Anglesey Showground. Stephen Wild in the ABS Freestyle led going in to the final round but failed by a second to hold off Simon. A penalty and slight hesitation on test 7 cost Alastair Moffatt the win. A stall by Stephen on test 11 cost him the win. Third place was enough to move Alastair into the lead of the BTRDA Gold Star Championship after Richard Pinkney's Caterham broke down twice and he took two maximums.

Second drivers were next in line. Malcolm Livingston has got to grips with Simon's Caterham and he was fourth ahead of Duncan Wild in the ABS. John Moffatt was back on form after a poor result at Hartlepool but couldn't hold off Duncan who had a good last round to move ahead of John to take fifth place.

While it was dry there was a lot of grip and several cars were seen with frantic repairs being carried out. Brian Bridge was having his usual close battle with Dave Goodlad for small mini honours when his clutch failed. Alastair Moffatt provided expert advice, then the skill to strip the clutch and finally the spares to get Brian back on the road for Sunday. Another example of the help competitors give each other came when Stephen Wild had a cross member break on the ABS. Richard Pinkney was quickly to the rescue and welded the offending part. Fortunately he left the welding bay set up because on the next round of tests the two upper engine steadies fractured and his skills were called into service again.

Saturday was a day for the youngsters. There were four father and son pairs competing and it looked as though all the sons would beat their dads. Ben and Stephen Morten were dead level after three rounds but Ben, the son, lost 17 seconds on test 9 with a couple of wild manoeuvres and had to settle for finishing one place behind Stephen.

After a very sociable evening when many competitors were staying at The Holt Lodge near to Demon Tweeks it was back into action for the Knutsford & DMC Tim Sargeant Memorial Autotest, the second event of the weekend. Heavy rain played into the hands of Alastair Moffatt and his Mini Special at the home of BTRDA Autotest Championship sponsors, Demon Tweeks. Stephen Wild took an early lead but it was Alastair Moffatt who coped best with the slippery conditions when the rain came as the pair were in their second round of tests. Richard Pinkney recovered from a broken gearbox to finish third just ahead of the star of the day, John Moffatt in his rapid Nova. Many competitors collected penalties in the slippery conditions, including Saturday's winner Simon Echlin who could only finish ninth. Everyone found the conditions very tricky as cars slid gently around the cones. Clerk of the Course, Duncan Wild, took the decision to run four rather than five rounds of tests and ironically that was the point when the rain stopped but it remained slippery for the rest of the event.

Both the events had healthy entries in Class E. The decision to introduce the road going saloon class has boosted entries and has brought out local drivers at most events. Hopefully this will encourage some to move into more specialised cars. Lloyd Bass has moved into the lead of this class after the weekend but will certainly have to give second best to Dave Cook when dropped scores come in to play later in the season.

At the end of the day Bob Sargeant, brother of Tim who the event is named in honour of and Chris Turner of Demon Tweeks presented the awards.

Duncan Wild

Brief Results for Round 8
Kennings Trophy , Caernarvonshire & Anglesey CC
1 Simon Echlin (Caterham 7) 775.3; 2 Stephen Wild (ABS Freestyle) 776.7; 3 Alastair Moffatt (Mini Special) 781.5; 4 Malcolm Livingston (Caterham 7) 793.8; 5 Duncan Wild (ABS Freestyle) 819.0; 6 John Moffatt (Nova) 820.7; 7 Stephen Morten (Striker) 834.0; 8 Chris Chapman (Striker) 835.1; 9 Ian Chapman (Striker) 838.2; 10 Richard Pinkney (Caterham 7) 838.2.
Class Winners: Howard Everingham (Mini) 929.0; J Moffatt; Echlin; S Wild; Liam Rollings (Mini).

Brief Results for Round 9
Tim Sargeant Memorial Autotest, Knutsford & DMC
1 Alastair Moffatt (Mini Special) 580.3; 2 Stephen Wild (ABS Freestyle) 604.9; 3 Richard Pinkney (Caterham 7) 636.2; 4 John Moffatt (Nova) 637.3; 5 Stephen Morten (Striker) 644.4; 6 Henry Moorhouse (AEA Special) 647.3; 7 Gordon Holmes (Westfield) 656.6; 8 Chris Chapman (Striker)664.6; 9 Simon Echlin (Caterham 7) 669.0; 10 Lee Valentine (Nova) 674.2.
Class Winners: Rob Rolston (Mini) 756.1; J Moffatt; Pinkney; A Moffatt; Dave Cook (Ford 100E) 745.2.

Full results are in the files below.

Peter Cox