Round 2 – Sunday 12th October 2008.

After all the problems with venues over the last few months Round 2 of the 2008 championship saw us at another new venue, the Elmwood Farm Equestrian Centre. With the help of Michael Helm, a local rally man and councillor Baz was able to secure a very large and smooth field for the club to use.

The stage was set up on Saturday afternoon. With few natural features the course was made up of gates of cones and a five second penalty per cone was in place for anyone getting too out of shape.

The morning dawned foggy and damp under foot. Eleven Delado competitors arrived along with 4 BNI drivers who were sharing the RPM Skoda as course opening and closing car. Baz and Tom Cannon were marshalling the stage and Jane once again had the comfort of the caravan (with heater) for the timing and Darren was acting as start and finish marshal.

After two parade lamps our reigning champion Roy Gravestock was first away into the fog. With the fog getting thicker it was a job to watch him round the whole course but he completed the stage without getting lost and without hitting a cone. Even though he was first away he still managed to set the fastest time on stage 1. Roy would have repeated that on stage 2 had he not brushed a cone and incurred a 5 second penalty. The prize for the fastest time on Stage 2 went to Pedro who was driving very well in the very tricky conditions.

It was an ever changing picture as on Stage 3 the only junior competing Cameron Buchanan set the fastest time, some 3 seconds quicker than Roy. On stage 4 it was Mike Bishop in the Triumph Herald who took the stage honours.

As we stopped for lunch the fog had lifted and was replaced with blue skies and sunshine. One bonus of this venue is that there is a very nice café on site and most of the club made full use of the facilities.

After lunch it was decided to make the afternoon stages two laps and with the ground now dry and everyone knowing where they were going it gave all the drivers something to get their teeth into.

Andrew Springett set fastest time on Stage 5 driving Roys old Nova, 3 tenths of a second quicker than Roy himself. The drier conditions certainly seemed to suit Andrew as he was quickest again on stage 6 this time 3 seconds ahead of Roy.

Roy put his serious head on and went quickest on the last test. This was enough to give him overall victory on the event and in Class A. Alex Cannon had driven the Escort well all day, not incurring any penalties and was rewarded with second overall and first in Class B. In third was Cameron Buchanan who had one of the drives of the day in his yellow Sunbeam. This was a great result for the only junior competing and I think a sign of things to come.

Other drives of note were Pedro Morris who came home an excellent 4th overall and 3rd in Class A in his white Escort. Stephen Mayo was competing on his first event in his Sierra Sapphire and showed good car control in the tricky conditions to finish 11th overall and 3rd in Class B.

Tom Schofield was the sole driver from the Schofield team and drove the powerful BMW very well on the slippery grass to finish 9th overall.

Everyone seemed very happy with the event and the new venue. The course, which was designed to focus on driver skill rather than outright speed, was also well received and it certainly brought the best out in everyone.

The next round is again at Elmwood where rumour has it there will be a pretty full entry.

I will post the championship positions on the web site separately.

Darren Knights
Club Chairman.

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