Under17 Car Club Selection Day

Date: 1st March 2009

We arrived at Long Marston Airdrome to gatecrash the Under 17's Car Club's newcomers day where we found a handful of excited and more experience Under 17s Drivers. Much like the setup of the Motorsport News Selection day we started with demonstrations and an Autosolo challenge. The hopefuls now looked a little scared but eager to have a go. Again, as last year, we were astonished by the standard of driving that the 16 year olds were capable of.

It soon became clear who we thought were going to be the most deserving of the scholarship but it was clarified after a short interview with Jess Fack and Nick Pollitt. The person who won was almost as fast as our two instructors, Sam Williams and Alastair Moffat (John Moffatt's brother).

While the contestants were being individually interviewed, JP came up with an interesting team building exercise and the use of pen and paper was hindered by the lack of tables and high wind. We gave them an Autotest diagram from an Autotest that Moffatt had competed on just the week before. They had to memorise this and remap the diagram for real on the tarmac. There was a twist however, they had to run the test as quick as possible, ensure they memorised where to go and where the test should be done backwards, WITH A CONE ON THEIR HEAD.

It was a hard decision as all the contestants had good qualities but the lady who came out on top was Sophie Bennett, from Oxford.

Well done Sophie and a huge thank you to The Under 17s Car Club for inviting us along to the day and feeding us.

Thankyou to Sam Williams, Alastair Moffatt, Jo Preston, Jess Fack and Russ Coppin.

All the candidates with the Drive'09 Micra