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2012 NEWS ARCHIVE

We hadn't been planning to cover any more racing in 2012, but when Carlow Class 2 racer Shane Farrell had the idea to stage a one-off charity event on December 30, in aid of a cause close to the hearts of many people in the Autograss community, we resolved to support the event if we possibly could.

But as well as being a very worthwhile charity fund raiser, this was above all  a fun day at which racers from both the Irish Hot Rod and grass racing scene could blow away a few winter cobwebs. It was truly a "back to basics" grasstrack racing event, with a great atmosphere and entertaining racing. All the facilities and help had been donated, so every Euro raised during the day went straight to the charity.

Shane had found a well drained stubble field on a hillside in the village of Ballinkillen, near Bagenalstown in County Carlow, which, despite torrential rain early on Sunday morning, proved ideal for racing after everyone had either been towed through the lower unloading field, or unloaded out in the lane. As forecast, the rain that swept across Ireland during the afternoon managed to miss this corner of Carlow and the racing was run in bright and breezy conditions. With cars grouped loosely according to the Irish Hot Rod classes, everyone had the chance of three heats of up to eight laps before the three Cup races completed the day. The Men's Cup race provided a spectacular win for Mick Boland in his Class 9 grasser; the Ladies' Cup went to Wexford Hot Rod racer Joan Redmond after battling all day with Carlow grasser Laura Farrell, and the Junior Cup to Jack Byrne, who brought his Special through from the back of the field in all his races.

More details of the charity can be found at www.suicideaware.ie

There weren't any class results, but if there had been, they might have looked something like this:

CLASS 1A (Hot Rods): 1st 101 Andy Foley 2nd 354 James Sinnott 3rd 19 Dylan Roche. CLASS 1B (Grassers): 1st 88 Vincent Hutton 2nd 211 Shane Farrell 3rd 300 Nick O'Leary. CLASS 2/FWD HOT RODS: 1st 196 Paul Boland 2nd 280 Colm Bulger 3rd 615 Billy Clince. RWD HOT RODS/SPECIALS: 1st 126 Daryl O'Connor 2nd 300 Mick Boland 3rd 777 James Lee. JUNIORS: 1st 97 Jack Byrne 2nd 101 Kyle Martin 3rd 111 Sean Foley. LADIES: 1st 74 Joan Redmond 2nd 1 Laura Farrell 3rd 615 Claire Boland.

Our racing season ended on December 2 with the Westcountry Videos Open, the final event of the year at Standlake Arena. With the points championships having been settled a fortnight ago, there were still healthy fields of a dozen or so cars in the five main non-contact divisions while the National Bangers turned out just under sixty cars racing in 2-litre and unlimited classes.

STANDLAKE RESULTS:

HOT RODS: 1st 204 Dan Phillips 2nd x4 Eddie Cotton 3rd x772 James Potts. PRODUCTION A: 1st x442 Jessica Phillips 2nd x68 Kelvin Passey 3rd x173 Jason Kew. 1450 PROD RODS: 1st 90 Paul Bartlett 2nd 128 Daniel Allen 3rd 329 Mervyn Beckett. SALOON RODS: 1st 148 Nathan Sheppard 2nd 325 Darren Taylor 3rd 13 Barry Tweddle. JUNIORS: 1st x244 Jack Bunyan 2nd x63 Jodie Simmonds 3rd x608 Harry Watson. MONDEO STOX: 1st 74 Trevor Harvey 2nd 94 Paul Beer 3rd 146 Ben Wilson.

STANDLAKE POINTS CHAMPIONSHIPS:

HOT RODS: 1st x4 Tracey Cotton 2nd x362 Martin Faherty 3rd x65 Mark Bennett. F2 STOX: 1st 420 Ade Baker 2nd 666 Andy Cornock 3rd 421 Gary Webb. PRODUCTION A: 1st x68 Kelvin Passey 2nd x62 Les Hatch 3rd x442 Jessica Phillips. 1450 PROD RODS: 1st 527 Stuart Wise 2nd 528 Guy wise & 329 Mervyn Beckett. SALOON RODS: 1st 148 Nathan Sheppard 2nd 100 Gary Trafford 3rd 220 Benn Watson. JUNIORS: 1st x7 Aaron Charles 2nd x372 Tom Potts 3rd x296 Michael Barber & x105 Louis Williams. BANGERS: 1st 348 Sonny Sherwood 2nd 528 Alan Hunt 3rd 260 Keith Reynolds. STREET BANGERS: 1st 553 Luke Webb 2nd 425 Neil McPhilimy 3rd 568 James Gardner.

The Rolling Thunder Show finished its 2012 programme at Arena Essex on November 24; a wet night resulted in a smaller than usual turnout in most of the classes, but the racing was as close fought as ever. The Euro Rod final saw a new winner in the form of one Neil Thomas, who looked as though he might have had some previous racing experience! Also making his debut was Neil’s Grandson, 7 year old Fino Wells (Mitch’s little brother), racing in the Mini Sprints. Another Autograss regular, Lee Pullen in his Class 3B Sierra, won the Formula Fords final.

ROLLING THUNDER SHOW RESULTS:

SUPERSTOX: 1st 21 Sean Smith 2nd 3 Ben Fieldwick 3rd 874 Neil Moss. OUTLAW HOT RODS: 1st 285 Trevor Ward 2nd 12 Mark Cooke 3rd 333 Phil Gomm. NATIONAL SUPER RODS: 1st 32 Wayne Hearn 2nd 56 Dave Leeks 3rd 341 Jason Osborne. STOCK RODS: 1st 86 Dave Hutchins 2nd 151 Luke Oliver 3rd 45 Dave Oliver. EURO RODS: 1st 55 Neil Thomas 2nd 7 George Morris 3rd 23 Dan Spinner. FORMULA FORDS: 1st 339 Lee Pullen 2nd 7 Tony Bates 3rd 31 Dave Follett, JUNIOR HOT RODS: 1st 113 Lauren Simmonds 2nd 9 Sammy Mileham 3rd 784 Georgina Goodchild. STREET STOX: 1st 181 Andy Reynolds 2nd 697 Jake Field. RELIANT ROBINS: 1st 838 Aaron Keynes 2ns 104 Billy Kavanagh 3rd 9 David Weaver. MINI SPRINTS: 1st 252 Callum Searle 2nd 299 Harley Burns 3rd 24 Corben Lord.

NOVEMBER 17/18: The Autograss season is officially over, but there was still a choice of events for tarmac racers. At Arena Essex on Saturday night the ROLLING THUNDER SHOW drivers were actually starting their 2013 points championship, having resolved the 2012 points battles, along with the British Championship finals, the previous week. Car numbers were understandably down, with the Superstox and Euro Rods having the best fields, but there was still good racing in every class on a mild and dry evening. A guest appearance in the Euro Rods came from Neil Thomas, chasing son Gary through the pack from the back of the grid.

The following day the sun shone on STANDLAKE ARENA and the Oxfordshire track attracted an excellent turnout in all classes for the final points meeting of the year. The highlight was a superb field of F2/Superstox cars to contest the Brian Holmes Memorial race, with drivers fittingly coming from all over the country to pay tribute to the popular veteran Stock Car racer, whose two racing grandsons lined up among the packed grid.

Arena Essex (November 24) and Standlake (the Westcountry Videos Open on December 2) each have one more meeting to wrap up the 2012 season. Details from www.rollingthundershow.co.uk and www.standlakearena.co.uk

RTS RESULTS 17 NOVEMBER

SUPERSTOX: 1st 21 Sean Smith 2nd 566 Jordan Salmon 3rd 88 James Gray. OUTLAW HOT RODS: 1st 12 Mark Cooke 2nd 112 Charlie Schembri. STOCK RODS: 1st 106 Ricky Walker 2nd 575 Matt McMahon 3rd 135 Tony Rolfe. EURO RODS: 1st 547 Tony McNeil 2nd 787 Mike Amos 3rd 2 Dean Webster. FORMULA FORDS: 1st 237 Chris Reeve 2nd 259S George Abraham 3rd 259L Andy Faggetter. JUNIOR HOT RODS: 1st 223 Harry Amos 2nd 16 Jimmy Newbon 3rd 9 Sammy Mileham.  STREET STOX: 1st 697 Jake Field 2nd 96 Mason Parker 3rd 10 Dean White. RELIANT ROBINS: 1st 6 Stuart Weaver 2nd 838 Aaron Keynes 3rd 316 Dave Blackman. MINI SPRINTS: 1st 599 Harvey Hendy 2nd 24 Corben Lord 3rd 299 Harley Burns.  FORMULA FOCUS: 1st 2 Dan Byers 2nd 6 Lee Tandy 3rd 8 Sue Tandy.

STANDLAKE RESULTS

F2 BRIAN HOLMES MEMORIAL: 1st 176 Pat Lines 2nd 205 Gary Jacobs 3rd 499 Steve Davies. F2 STOX: 1st 499 Steve Davies 2nd 750 Dean Jacobs 3rd 420 Ade Baker. HOT RODS: 1st X75 Michael Hayes 2nd 25 Adam Proudman 3rd X15 Andy Garrad. PRODUCTION A: 1st X40 John Hatch 2nd T92 Peter Tilley 3rd X173 Naomi Harvey. JUNIORS: 1st X244 Jack Bunyan 2nd X7 Aaron Charles 3rd X105 Louis Williams. 1450 PROD RODS: 1st 661 Tony Green 2nd 527 Stuart Wise 3rd 528 Guy Wise.  SALOON RODS: 1st 523 Jeffrey Crocker 2nd 9 Olly Adams 3rd 617 Jason Painter.

NOVEMBER 10/11: The one scheduled Autograss fixture, at Spalding, was to nobody’s surprise, cancelled due to waterlogged ground, but the focus this week was on the tarmac racers of the Rolling Thunder Show, who contested their British Championship Finals at Arena Essex Raceway. A damp and greasy surface meant the pace wasn't quite as fast as usual, but all the classes provided close action.

There were a few familiar Autograss faces in evidence; Gary Thomas won the Euro Rod championship, with Racetec team cars occupying four of the top five places. Ken and Bill Edwards appeared in the Superstox and Frank Gough in his Class 3B Sierra was a winner in the Formula Fords.

RTS BRITISH CHAMPIONSHIP RESULTS

SUPERSTOX: 1st 3 Ben Fieldwick 2nd 566 Jordan Salmon 3rd 150 John Enright. OUTLAW HOT RODS: 1st 285 Trevor Ward 2nd 8 Stu Hammond 3rd 46 Dave Saxon. STOCK RODS: 1st 45 Dave Oliver 2nd 148 Wayne Shackleford 3rd 93 Andy Taylor. EURO RODS: 1st 55 Gary Thomas 2nd 787 Mike Amos 3rd 47 Jason Hilliard. FORMULA FORDS: 1st 411 Colin Fuller 2nd 42 Dan Guidotti 3rd 7 Tony Bates. JUNIOR HOT RODS: 1st 9 Sammy Mileham 2nd 88 Jayden Anderson 3rd 7 George Morris.  STREET STOX: 1st 37 Fred Tebbenham 2nd 10 Ben White 3rd 181 Andy Reynolds. RELIANT ROBINS: 1st 838 Aaron Keynes 2nd 104 Billy Kavanagh 3rd 26 Cliff Hutchings. MINI SPRINTS: 1st 842 Tyler Ivins 2nd 421 Jim Cogger 3rd 252 Callum Searle.  NATIONAL SUPER RODS: 1st 56 Dave Leeks 2nd 44 Steve Tandy 3rd 46 John Wicks.

RTS 2012 POINTS CHAMPIONSHIPS

SUPERSTOX: 1st 3 Ben Fieldwick 2nd 566 Jordan Salmon 3rd 72 Chris Langridge. OUTLAW HOT RODS: 1st 285 Trevor Ward 2nd 8 Stu Hammond 3rd 46 Dave Saxon. STOCK RODS: 1st 45 Dave Oliver 2nd 30 Mark Martin 3rd 106 Ricky Walker. EURO RODS: 1st 55 Gary Thomas 2nd 2 Dean Webster 3rd 47 Jason Hilliard. FORMULA FORDS: 1st 132 Steve Norman 2nd 7 Tony Bates 3rd 31 Dave Follett. JUNIOR HOT RODS: 1st 7 George Morris 2nd 9 Sammy Mileham 3rd 88 Jayden Anderson.  STREET STOX: 1st 137 Curtis Tebbenham 2nd 37 Fred Tebbenham 3rd 10 Ben White. RELIANT ROBINS: 1st 104 Billy Kavanagh 2nd 838 Aaron Keynes 3rd 9 David Weaver. MINI SPRINTS: 1st 216 George Baker 2nd 252 Callum Searle 3rd 24 Corben Lord. 

WINTER SERIES WRAPPED UP

NOVEMBER 3/4: Winter was definitely on the way, but the cold weather didn't stand in the way of a good field of cars for the traditional NASA season closer, the Nottingham Bonfire meeting, which also closed down the three round Winter Series. The return to the "finals for all" format helped to make this the most popular Winter series yet, and 218 drivers turned out to race on Nottingham's well prepared "all weather" track.

The previous day saw the sixth running of the Eric Carlin Memorial Grasstrack Grand Prix, on the tarmac of Northampton International Raceway, with a good entry of 110 cars. Everyone enjoyed the chance of virtually unlimited practice laps in the afternoon, before racing kicked off under the floodlights with three 12 lap heats and a 15 lap final for every class. Unfortunately there was a fair bit of damage done in a couple of races; the first Class 2 heat and the second Class 1 race turned into destruction derbies with North Wales' Vikki Lamb the worst casualty as her Mini was followed into the fence. Unluckiest driver was former Ministox racer Jordan Spavins, who tangled with a backmarker while leading the Class 2 final; picking up the win was Jonny Hemming, who then went on to hold off Steve Carpenter's rapidly closing Escort and win the Champion of Champions. A rain shower during the finals made the track extremely slippery, and contributed to the drive of the night as Terry Cox in his Formula 600 ran rings round the more powerful Class 8s. The three visiting SEGTO racers had a good night as Peter Tilley won Class 1/Production A; the 1450 Hot Rods of Mikee Habicht and Luke Stonehouse headed the Class 5s. Interestingly through the NASA Junior Minis (with free tyre choice) were able to beat the tarmac spec Junior Rods, including Spedeworth Champion Tyler Wilkin.

NORTHAMPTON RESULTS

CLASS 1/PRODUCTION A: 1st T92 Peter Tilley 2nd SN18 Allan Cooper 3rd IK37 Fred Carpenter. CLASS 2: 1st SS63 Jonny Hemming 2nd SN668 Ollie Sole 3rd IK751 Phil Button. CLASS 3: 1st IK32 Steve Carpenter 2nd IK21 John Berry 3rd C202E Fred Carpenter. CLASS 4: 1st R47 Rob Lancaster. CLASS 5/1450 HOT RODS: 1st T120 Mikee Habicht 2nd S280 Luke Stonehouse 3rd S121D Carl Smith. CLASS 6/STOCK RODS: 1st H55 Martin Jones 2nd BC5 Martin Bowen 3rd H99 Paul Bailey.  CLASS 7: 1st A1 Derrick/Rob Carless 2nd BC62 Mike Hockly 3rd SP141 Vernon Mackenzie. CLASS 8/F600: 1st ST1 Terry Cox 2nd S27D Scott Aldridge 3rd C83E Barry Hathaway. CLASS 9: 1st R309 Mike Liddiat 2nd SS18 Allan Tovey 3rd H250 Marc Paskell. CLASS 10: 1st A10 Ian Stott 2nd BC22 Lance Bowen 3rd SS166 Paul Coles. JUNIORS: 1st SN12 Tom Hall 2nd SN201 Jake Bartlett 3rd G15D Ollie Stevens. JUNIOR SPECIALS: 1st SS11 Dex Hannant 2nd A110 Jed Stott. CHAMPION OF CHAMPIONS: 1st SS63 Jonny Hemming 2nd IK32 Steve Carpenter 3rd R47 Rob Lancaster.

NOTTINGHAM BONFIRE MEETING RESULTS

CLASS 1: 1st N53 Lloyd Elliott 2nd SP43 Ash Robinson 3rd P87EM Gareth Stokes. CLASS 2: 1st N840 Clint Fowles 2nd N200 Lloyd Elliott 3rd WR143 Sam Begley. CLASS 3: 1st C12 Pat Smith 2nd NS293 Leon Dorsett 3rd WR71 Steve Woodruff. CLASS 4: 1st T199 Mike Greaves 2nd L7 David Hampson 3rd WR63 Dean Burrows. CLASS 5: 1st E152 Matt Manning 2nd N333 Joe Smith 3rd N582 Joe Martin. CLASS 6: 1st E5 Micky Manning 2nd N10 Martyn Janes 3rd IK64 Andy Russell.  CLASS 7: 1st R119 Phil Travers 2nd SC19 Tom Page 3rd SC99 Andy Kershaw. CLASS 8: 1st NS151 Tom Chadwick 2nd SC235 Paul Johnson 3rd NS55 Matt Berrisford. CLASS 9: 1st Y6 Russ Addyman 2nd N54 John Boaden 3rd CA98 Lee Forster. CLASS 10: 1st SC21 Alex Kershaw 2nd IK19 Chris Allanson. STOCK HATCH: 1st SP35 Ash Robinson 2nd WR99 Mark Day 3rd N363 Barry Wasley. F600: 1st ST1 Terry Cox 2nd N40 Ross Sinclair 3rd SC155 Dave Wells. CLASS 11: 1st LM87 Louise Clancy 2nd SC170 Kirsty Malkin 3rd N999 Linzi Berry. CLASS 11A: 1st M90 Nicola Bettoney 2nd N840 Rachel Sims 3rd N125 Sarah Housley. CLASS 12: 1st NS219 Angela Evans 2nd YD916 Kim Green 3rd SC78 Kate Dixon. CLASS 13: 1st N16 Karen Burke 2nd N60 Sue Thom. CLASS 14: 1st SC17 Clare Horner 2nd ST305 Laura Makar. JUNIORS: 1st SV4 Kieran Griffiths 2nd N444 Scott Holmes 3rd WR192 Joe Jopling. JUNIOR SPECIALS: 1st SP6 Lewis Clayton 2nd YD24 Abi Shields 3rd Y218 Ayrton Ellison. JUNIORS’ DEVIL’S RACE: 1st WR44 Callum Ball 2nd N444 Scott Holmes 3rd Y218 Ayrton Ellison. FWD DEVIL’S RACE: 1st NW164 Mark Stephenson 2nd NW301 James Espley 3rd P69EM David French. RWD DEVIL’S RACE: 1st NS55 Matt Berrisford 2nd N666 Steve Berry 3rd N9 Karl Young.

NOTTINGHAM WINTER SERIES RESULTS

CLASS 1: 1st SP43 Ash Robinson 2nd P87EM Gareth Stokes 3rd N53 Lloyd Elliott. CLASS 2: 1st N840 Clint Fowles 2nd N200 Lloyd Elliott 3rd N125 Chris Rook. CLASS 3: 1st NS242 Raife MacDonald 2nd WR71 Steve Woodruff 3rd N13 Al MacFarlane. CLASS 4: 1st L7 David Hampson 2nd Y60 Mick Norgate 3rd ST136 Rob Taylor. CLASS 5: 1st N333 Joe Smith 2nd N34 Matt Tasker 3rd N582 Joe Martin. CLASS 6: 1st E5 Micky Manning 2nd N10 Martyn Janes 3rd N48 John Derry.  CLASS 7: 1st SC99 Andy Kershaw 2nd R119 Phil Travers 3rd N75 Dan Barnett. CLASS 8: 1st SC67 Marc Clayton 2nd SC235 Paul Johnson 3rd N8 Simon Reeve. CLASS 9: 1st Y6 Russ Addyman 2nd N54 John Boaden 3rd CA98 Lee Forster. CLASS 10: 1st SC21 Alex Kershaw 2nd IK19 Chris Allanson 3rd SS166 Paul Coles. STOCK HATCH: 1st SP35 Joe Baxter 2nd WR99 Mark Day 3rd L644 Mick Wood. F600: 1st ST1 Terry Cox 2nd N41 Gary Shaw 3rd N40 Ross Sinclair. CLASS 11: 1st LM87 Louise Clancy 2nd SC170 Kirsty Malkin 3rd P69EM Pam French. CLASS 11A: 1st N840 Rachel Sims 2nd M90 Nicola Bettoney 3rd N18 Becky Smith. CLASS 12: 1st SC78 Kate Dixon 2nd N225 Kerrilee Smith 3rd NS219 Angela Evans. CLASS 13: 1st N16 Karen Burke 2nd N60 Sue Thom 3rd P307EM Lyndsey Allen. CLASS 14: 1st ST305 Laura Makar 2nd N8 Clare Horner 3rd H150 Jade Dyke. JUNIORS: 1st SV4 Kieran Griffiths 2nd WR192 Joe Jopling 3rd N46 Lewis Dann. JUNIOR SPECIALS: 1st YD24 Abi Shields 2nd SP6 Lewis Clayton 3rd Y218 Ayrton Ellison.

IRISH TROPHIES CLAIMED AT LAST

OCTOBER 28: West Waterford's annual memorial trophy meeting, twice postponed from its usual August date, is usually the club's second biggest event of the year and when the meeting finally took place as the last day's racing of the Irish Autograss season, a cold and windy day at Ballysaggart brought out a good field for an excellent day's racing.

The two main highly coveted perpetual trophies went to F600 driver Sean O'Sullivan, who took the Nicky Hannigan Memorial Cup, and young Eoghan O'Neill completed a good year's racing in the Junior 1A class by taking the Sheila Oakham Memorial Shield.

WEST WATERFORD RESULTS:

CLASS 1: 1st WW43 Sean O’Grady 2nd WW216 James Daly 3rd WW3 Kieran Cashel. CLASS 1A: 1st WW300 Nicholas O’Leary 2nd CW73 Mick Boland. CLASS 2: 1st WW59 Damian Houlihan 2nd CW22 Shane Farrell 3rd CK96 Stephen O’Neil. CLASS 3: 1st CW25 Ed Sheehan 2nd WW821 Yvonne Kearns 3rd CW777 James Lee. CLASS 4: 1st WW159 Mike Fuller 2nd WW50 Jim Hayde. CLASS 6: 1st WW73 Alan Houlihan 2nd WW261 Paul Devine 3rd CW174 James Sinnott.  CLASS 7: 1st WW998 Patrick Sheehy 2nd WW40 Gerry Kelly 3rd DA127 David Hamilton. CLASS 8: 1st WW10 Martin Feeney 2nd DA821 Joe McGrath 3rd WW156 Mike Whelan. CLASS 9: 1st WW399 John Fuller 2nd WW252 Shane Houlihan. CLASS 10: 1st WW5 JP Houlihan 2nd WW143 Gavin Tivy. F600: 1st WW11 Sean O’Sullivan 2nd WW77 Kevin Keating. LADIES: 1st MA48 Nicole O’Brien 2nd CW73 Laura Farrell 3rd CW12 Chelsea Brady. WINNERS’ RACE: 1st WW59 Damian Houlihan 2nd WW11 Sean O’Sullivan 3rd WW159 Mike Fuller. HELPERS’ RACE: 1st CW174 James Brady 2nd DA119 James Roche 3rd WW998 Eamonn Sheehy. THE NICKY HANNIGAN PERPETUAL CUP: WW11 Sean O’Sullivan.

JUNIORS SPONSORED BY THE OAKHAM FAMILY, LISMORE

JUNIOR CLASS 1: 1st CW2 Courtney Brady 2nd WW106 Brian Meagher 3rd WW217 Michael Boland. JUNIOR CLASS 1A: 1st CK296 Eoghan O’Neill 2nd CK224 Jason Farrell 3rd MA290 Dylan Browne. JUNIOR SPECIALS: 1st DA114 Eoghan O’Neill 2nd WW108 Cillian Doherty. THE SHIELA OAKHAM PERPETUAL SHIELD: CK296 Eoghan O’Neill.

Photos by courtesy of Tina Lee

Although this was the last Autograss meeting of the year, Monday was a Bank Holiday in Ireland and several grassers took advantage of a sunny day to join in with drivers from the Irish Hot Rod Federation in a special stubble meeting staged by the East Cork Hot Rod Club at Midleton.

SPEEDWAY STAR SPENCER

OCTOBER 27: The fourth annual Autograss outing at the Eddie Wright Raceway, Scunthorpe, proved to be the best supported stadium meeting since the heyday of the Hednesford events in the 1990s. 266 drivers put in entries; the final list after cancellations ran to 241 and 188 turned up on the day, of whom 177 eventually raced after a few were eliminated in practice incidents. The smooth surface of what's recognised as the UK's fastest shale oval produced excellent racing throughout the heats and finals, but the highlight was undoubtedly the six car battle for the Class 8 final. Despite regularly interlocking wheels with the hard charging Tom Chadwick, Ian Spencer held on to win on his comeback outing after missing most of the 2012 season, with Geoff Berrisford, Jack Rawlinson, Barry Ashmore and Jay Jones all in the thick of the battle. There were too many impressive individual performances to mention but two to single out are Natasha Hardwick, who led most of the way in her debut Class 2 race, and Lucy Lockett, who ended up with the second place trophy in a very competitive Class 5 field. Martyn Janes dominated Class 6 and took the Champion of Champions trophy, but had to work hard to pass Junior winner Jake Bartlett! Despite many incidents, the 49 races were run in record time, and it was all over by 8 pm, allowing promoter Rob Godfrey to make an early start to track preparation for the following day's Speedway finals.

EDDIE WRIGHT RACEWAY FINAL RESULTS:
CLASS 1: 1st N53 Lloyd Elliott 2nd Y35 Danny MacVarish 3rd P56EM Andy Heath. CLASS 2: 1st P7EM Ben Gadsby 2nd Y14 Ian Tomkinson 3rd SC600 Anthony Conway. CLASS 3: 1st SN270 Barry Almond 2nd SP401 Aaron Mackenzie 3rd NS334 Martin Gould. CLASS 4: 1st ST18 Chris Wood 2nd T199 Steve Olive 3rd ST136 Rob Taylor. CLASS 5: 1st YD916 Wes Green 2nd LM34 Lucy Lockett 3rd E152 Matt Manning. CLASS 6: 1st N10 Martyn Janes 2nd SC808 Jonathan Jobson 3rd NW97 David Owen.  CLASS 7: 1st  ST307 Tony Goodsir 2nd NW37 Carl Kent 3rd N60 Paul Bacon. CLASS 8: 1st ARC18 Ian Spencer 2nd NS151 Tom Chadwick 3rd NS55 Geoff Berrisford.  CLASS 9: 1st Y5 Mark Brooks 2nd ARC6 Lynn Cooper 3rd SC14 Russ Thompson. CLASS 10: 1st BC22 Lance Bowen 2nd WR11 Sean Wright 3rd ARC1 Lee Seagreaves. STOCK HATCH: 1st WR68 Carl Cockhill 2nd S319Y David Squire 3rd Y105 Andy Kitchen. F600: 1st SC91 Gary Pugh 2nd WR400 Trevor Frost 3rd Y195 Ray Darwent. JUNIORS: 1st SN201 Jake Bartlett 2nd SN617 Tom Baker 3rd ST70 Will Hunt. JUNIOR SPECIALS: 1st NS15 Dan Owen 2nd WR44 Callum Ball 3rd SC181 Dan Barnard. NORA SUPERLITE: 1st #11 Toby Taylorr 2nd #150 Duncan MacBeth 3rd #41 Antony Jackson. OPEN HOT RODS: 1st #52 Kev Brocklesby 2nd #155 "Smithy" 3rd #067 Marc Walker. CHAMPION OF CHAMPIONS: 1st N10 Martyn Janes 2nd Y5 Mark Brooks 3rd SN201 Jake Bartlett.

The two planned UK Autograss meetings this weekend, at NORTH SHROPSHIRE and SPALDING were cancelled.

NOTTINGHAM BEAT THE CLOCK

OCTOBER 21: For the second round of the Winter Series Nottingham attracted an even bigger turnout of 264 drivers, with visitors from as far afield as South Somerset. The hot racing blew away the fog that shrouded the Oxton track in the morning, and a mainly sunny afternoon saw close and fast racing with a minimum of incidents. As the daylight finally ran out, the Nottingham team somehow ran off all the finals (including the B, C and D) finals in about half the budgeted time, and even squeezed in the traditional "Devil's Race" at the end to underline their achievement. Although one of the smallest classes with a dozen entries, the Class 9s provided some highlights with a winning comeback by Mal Cooper, a victorious class debut by Colin Chilvers and another remarkable run by the novice Lee Forster, who this time chased Mal Cooper home for fourth in the final. The meeting also saw the debuts of Junior racers Matt Berrisford and Matt Stratton in Class 8. With the huge turnouts for this year's Winter Series, the final round on November 4 will see an earlier than advertised start, at 10 am.

WINTER SERIES ROUND 2 RESULTS:
CLASS 1: 1st SP43 Ash Robinson 2nd P87EM Gareth Stokes 3rd P15EM Alex Sheriston. CLASS 2: 1st N840 Clint Fowles 2nd LM43 Al Stretton 3rd N125 Chris Rook. CLASS 3: 1st Y51 Phil Thompson 2nd SN270 Barry Almond 3rd R70 Dean Guy. CLASS 4: 1st L7 David Hampson 2nd Y60 Mick Norgate 3rd Y132 Sam Green. CLASS 5: 1st NS83 Gareth Williams 2nd N582 Joe Martin 3rd N34 Matt Tasker. CLASS 6: 1st E5 Micky Manning 2nd N10 Martyn Janes 3rd N225 Andrew Smith.  CLASS 7: 1st  SC99 Andy Kershaw 2nd N12 Jake Lee 3rd SC61 Andy Holtby. CLASS 8: 1st SC67 Marc Clayton 2nd LM93 Dean Barnes 3rd WR32 Bryn Hawkins.  CLASS 9: 1st Y6 Russ Addyman 2nd WR20 Colin Chilvers 3rd ARC6 Mal Cooper. CLASS 10: 1st SC21 Alex Kershaw 2nd SS166 Paul Coles. STOCK HATCH: 1st WR36 Steven Faunch 2nd SP35 Joe Baxter 3rd L644 Mick Wood. F600: 1st ST1 Terry Cox 2nd N41 Gary Shaw 3rd N40 Ross Sinclair. CLASS 11: 1st LM87 Louise Clancy 2nd SC170 Kirsty Malkin 3rd T1 Paula Percival. CLASS 11A: 1st M90 Nicola Bettoney 2nd N840 Rachel Sims 3rd N18 Becky Smith. CLASS 12: 1st N225 Kerrilee Smith 2nd NS219 Angela Evans 3rd SC78 Kate Dixon. CLASS 13: 1st SP307EM Lyndsey Allen 2nd N60 Sue Thom 3rd N16 Karen Burke. CLASS 14: 1st H150 Jade Dyke 2nd ST304 Laura Makar 3rd H250 Jodie Paskell. JUNIORS: 1st SV4 Kieron Griffiths 2nd N47 Aiden Derry 3rd WR192 Joe Jopling. JUNIOR SPECIALS: 1st NW711 Aaron Jones 2nd YD24 Abi Shields 3rd NW20 Jay Colegate. DEVIL'S RACE: 1st N666 Steve Berry 2nd N18 Becky Smith 3rd N10 Martyn Janes.

The only other NASA racing this weekend was at YORK. Meetings at CAMBRIDGE, CONCORD, PENHOW, STAR and LEEWOOD were all cancelled. In Ireland CARLOW's meeting was also called off although Irish racers still had non-NASA meetings to choose from on dirt at Ballyshannon and on tarmac at the Pike (Waterford Raceway).

SCUNNY'S SUPER SEVENS

OCTOBER 14: Scunthorpe's delayed season closer attracted a big entry, with 196 drivers enjoying ideal conditions - until a sudden downpour decimated the field just as the finals started. Just as everyone started to dry out again another heavy shower turned the "helpers' race" that ended the day into chaos. A packed field of Class 7s provided the best of the action, with Andy Kershaw heading the pack until Jake Lee shot through from third place to steal the final by inches - and pocket the sweepstake cash that the Class 7 drivers had put on the result! Other high spots included an impressive performance by newcomer Lee Forster in his first ever meeting to take second in the Class 9 final.

SCUNTHORPE RESULTS:
CLASS 1: 1st SP43 Ash Robinson 2nd ST14 Paul Weeton 3rd SP57 Carl Secker. CLASS 2: 1st ST474 Jamie Hornby 2nd SC851 Phil Clark 3rd Y190 Carl Verity. CLASS 3: 1st Y51 Phil Thompson 2nd SN270 Barry Almond 3rd WR71 Steve Woodruff. CLASS 4: 1st ST18 Chris Wood 2nd SC36 Dane Coupland 3rd SC137 Brian Smart. CLASS 5: 1st M45 Wayne Orton 2nd NS83 Gareth Williams 3rd N582 Joe Martin. CLASS 6: 1st ST47 Jamie Hornby 2nd SC33 Rob Milbourn 3rd CA121 Adam Golding.  CLASS 7: 1st N12 Jake Lee 2nd SC99 Andy Kershaw 3rd SC61 Andy Holtby. CLASS 8: 1st WR32 Bryn Hawkins 2nd T5 Stu Whitehouse 3rd WR8 Phil Liddle.  CLASS 9: 1st SC14 Russ Thompson 2nd CA98 Lee Forster 3rd WR111 Paul Wright. CLASS 10: 1st WR11 Sean Wright 2nd SC45 Chris Barnbrook 3rd SB7 Neil Rawlinson. STOCK HATCH: 1st C11E Mike Tunnicliff 2nd WR36 Steven Faunch 3rd YD69 Neil Rastrick. F600: 1st ST42 Gav Waby 2nd SC91 Gary Pugh 3rd SC153 Clarice Keenan. CLASS 11: 1st S93Y Amanda Tunnicliff 2nd SC170 Kirsty Malkin 3rd SC31 Zoe Coupland. CLASS 12: 1st WR19 Jemma Griffiths 2nd SC84 Katie Holmes 3rd NS83 Kate McGrogan. CLASS 13: 1st SC199 Laura Emmerson 2nd Y33 Clare Horner 3rd Y26 Natalie Longley. CLASS 14: 1st ST46 Kelly Hornby 2nd YD7 Sue Nicholls 3rd SC17 Clare Horner. JUNIORS: 1st WR192 Joe Jopling 2nd SP43 Emma Robinson 3rd Y144 Callum Hope. JUNIOR SPECIALS: 1st T25 Dean Percival 2nd SC181 Dan Barnard 3rd SC92 Chloe Lockwood.

PENNINE ran their third Autumn Showdown event in dry conditions, with 105 entries including quite a few first time visitors to Darleymoor.

PENNINE AUTUMN SHOWDOWN SERIES RESULTS

CLASS 1: 1st P14EM TJ le Mercier 2nd P65EM Steve Heath 3rd P87EM Gareth Stokes. CLASS 2: 1st P12EM John Gadsby 2nd P7EM Ben Gadsby 3rd P98EM Richard Tate. CLASS 3: 1st N22 Kev Thorpe 2nd WR33 Dave Dearden 3rd WR333 Jasper Aspinall. CLASS 4: 1st P33EM Jason Clews 2nd ST213 John Howseman 3rd WR19 Kev Griffiths. CLASS 5: 1st N333 Joe Smith 2nd N102 Marcus Fletcher 3rd E19 Mark Stallard. CLASS 6: 1st P112EM Ben Gadsby 2nd N48 John Derry 3rd P3EM Louis Gutteridge. CLASS 7: 1st P26EM John Cottrill 2nd P502EM Mark Guy 3rd P23EM Phil Barleyman.  CLASS 8: 1st P503EM John Leighton 2nd NS151 Tom Chadwick 3rd M11 Ben Harper. CLASS 9: 1st NS105 Adrian Jones 2nd SR98 Chuck Jones 3rd SC150 Anthony Read. CLASS 10: 1st NW117 Tony Jones 2nd L159 Carl Radford. STOCK HATCH: 1st P666EM Ady Bennett 2nd P602EM Paul Burbridge 3rd N363 Barry Wasley. F600: 1st LM7 Shaun Gallagher. CLASS 11: 1st P191EM Kirsty Frost 2nd T32 Hannah Fletcher. CLASS 12: 1st WR19 Jemma Griffiths 2nd LM34 Lucy Lockett 3rd M121 Sam Turner. CLASS 12A: 1st L681 Rachel Hinton. CLASS 13: 1st P307EM Lyndsey Allen 2nd N45 Helen Brooks. CLASS 14: 1st M11 Barbara Harper. JUNIORS: 1st P56EM Dan Heath 2nd P70EM Jordan Hampson 3rd P71EM Ed Savage. JUNIOR SPECIALS: 1st NS15 Matt Owen 2nd NS65 Travis Kirk 3rd NW711 Aaron Jones. CHAMPION OF CHAMPIONS: 1st N333 Joe Smith. LADIES’ CHAMPION OF CHAMPIONS: 1st M11 Barbara Harper.

There were also events at  SCARBOROUGH and CORK. The cancellation list however included the combined Worcestershire Championship and South Somerset Grand Prix at RADFORD, ST NEOTS' Eastern Open Challenge meeting and NORTH WALES' memorial trophy event.

OCTOBER 6/7: Another weekend in which the majority of Autograss fixtures were cancelled - this time Concord and North Wales succumbed to ground too wet to be saved by a sunny weekend; other meetings were cancelled or postponed in reaction to the BAS reserve date coming into play for the first time. EVESHAM closed the BAS series with an entry of 474 drivers, racing on an initially wet track that soon became punishingly hard and dry, with lots of spectacular action punctuating the weekend's racing and providing plenty of footage for the next Dirt Devils DVD!

All the results are available here:

The alternatives to the BAS were in the far north and south; CENTRAL SCOTLAND ended their season at Avonbridge while the last SEGTO meeting of the year took place at TONGHAM. A relatively small turnout of the home club's racers enjoyed dry and sunny conditions and laid on some close fought racing at the very well appointed Four Marks track, completing Tongham Motor Club's 40th anniversary season.

TONGHAM RESULTS:
PRODUCTION A: 1st T14 Jason Woodgate 2nd T92 Peter Tilley 3rd T493 Alan Goddard. PRODUCTION B: 1st T116 Emily Hayhoe 2nd T132 Keri Stockham 3rd T134 Laura Chappell. MODIFIED C: 1st T136 Jonathan Chappell 2nd T16 Barney Hayhoe 3rd T42 Andy Williams. 1450 HOT RODS: 1st T292 Jody Withers 2nd T34 Robert Gray 3rd T83 Chris Bullock. SUPER SALOONS: 1st T17 Kevin Ambrose 2nd T58 Graeme Taylor 3rd T74 Laurence Connors. SPECIALS: 1st T0 Terry Sherwood 2nd T87 sam Hartley 3rd T174 David Baigent. JUNIORS: 1st T750 Jay Pearce 2nd T22 Jordan Beardsall 3rd T438 Jason Greener. NOVICE JUNIORS: 1st T183 Callum Bullock 2nd T13 Josh Cole 3rd T266 Brad Wells. THUNDER RODS: 1st T366 Tracey Wells 2nd T100 Matt Cooper 3rd T118 Trevor Smith.

The cancellation of meetings at SOLWAY, LEEWOOD, NORTH SHROPSHIRE, YORK, SPALDING, INVICTA, GLOUCESTER and WESSEX meant that NOTTINGHAM was the only Autograss club left running on September 30 - it may still have been September, but this was the first round of the Winter series, traditionally the sign that the season is starting to wind down. The threat of rain later in the day meant that the meeting was rushed through non stop, with a total of 238 entries making for a very busy day, thankfully free of major incidents. The new format for the winter series included A, B, C and D finals where needed, which made for a much more satisfying event, even though the finals were reduced to 3¾ laps. Highlights included Andy Kershaw's unbeaten run against tough Class 7 opposition; a last corner winning bid by Raife MacDonald in Class 3 and promising debuts by several new Junior racers, including a B-final win for local boy Louis Jackson.

NOTTINGHAM RESULTS:

CLASS 1: 1st N53 Lloyd Elliott 2nd SP43 Ash Robinson 3rd P87EM Gareth Stokes. CLASS 2: 1st N840 Clint Fowles 2nd N200 Lloyd Elliott 3rd Y38 Dave Laughton. CLASS 3: 1st NS242 Raife MacDonald 2nd WR71 Steve Woodruff 3rd WR999 Si Aspinall. CLASS 4: 1st L7 David Hampson 2nd Y60 Mick Norgate 3rd ST13 John Howseman. CLASS 5: 1st N333 Joe Smith 2nd ST69 Wayne Yeardley 3rd N34 Matt Tasker. CLASS 6: 1st SP81 Chris Parkinson 2nd E5 Matt Manning 3rd N25 Andrew Smith.  CLASS 7: 1st SC99 Andy Kershaw 2nd SC61 Andy Holtby 3rd N70 Rich Lee. CLASS 8: 1st SC1 Antony Ross 2nd SC67 Marc Clayton 3rd Y71 Adam Morgan. CLASS 9: 1st Y6 Russ Addyman 2nd N95 Steve Gillon 3rd N54 John Boaden. CLASS 10: 1st SC21 Alex Kershaw. STOCK HATCH: 1st P666EM Ady/Josh Bennett 2nd SP35 Joe Baxter 3rd WR99 Mark Day. F600: 1st ST1 Terry Cox 2nd WR400 Trevor Frost 3rd N41 Gary Shaw. CLASS 11: 1st LM87 Louise Clancy 2nd SC170 Kirsty Malkin 3rd P69EM Pam French. CLASS 11A: 1st M90 Nicola Bettoney 2nd N840 Rachel Sims 3rd ST474 Kelly Hornby. CLASS 12: 1st N225 Kerrilee Wilson 2nd SC78 Kate Dixon 3rd ST13 Jodi Rudkin. CLASS 13: 1st SC99 Helen Brooks 2nd SC171 Kirsty Malkin 3rd N60 Sue Thom. CLASS 14: 1st N8 Clare Horner. JUNIORS: 1st N47 Aiden Derry 2nd SV4 Kieran Griffiths 3rd WR192 Joe Jopling. JUNIOR SPECIALS: 1st WR44 Callum Ball 2nd SP6 Lewis Clayton 3rd Y218 Ayrton Ellison.

Other racing action came from the Rolling Thunder Show at ARENA ESSEX on Saturday night and SEGTO at HORNDEAN on Sunday.

Our search for true grass roots racing venues with their own character took us beyond NASA on Saturday to the BALLYSHANNON HOT ROD CLUB's track in County Kildare. If you've ever wondered why, when new drivers appear in Irish Autograss, they're often immediately on the pace, it's because they've more than likely had a good grounding in the wealth of independent Hot Rod clubs that race on grass or tarmac throughout Ireland. Ballyshannon proved to be a superbly prepared track with over twenty years of racing history, and the action throughout the Saturday evening meeting was fast, close and clean.

We then moved on to CARLOW AUTOGRASS CLUB who were staging the second annual running of the Irish Autograss Grand Prix. This brought a good turnout from all over Ireland to the Knocknatubbrid track. After a busy day's racing, with no serious mishaps, a team from West Waterford comprising Kevin Keating, Cillian Doherty, Mike Fuller, John Fuller and Patrick Sheehy won the Grand Prix  title. The individual Grand Prix finals went to Carlow's Spud Murphy and Down's Davon Henry, while John Fuller won the day's Champion of Champions race.

While we were enjoying fine weather in Ireland, unfortunately the various UK meetings were all affected by rain. The BAS round at STAR was cut short before the finals, an inspired move that enabled most competitors to clear the venue before the promised storms arrived. MELTON's two day meeting was successfully completed despite rain arriving for Sunday's finals,  while CONCORD, CENTRAL SCOTLAND and TONGHAM all suffered wet conditions.

IRISH AUTOGRASS GRAND PRIX RESULTS:

CLASS 1: 1st WW43 Sean O'Grady 2nd CW42 Davie Timmons 3rd DA321 Kenneth Dougherty. CLASS 1A: 1st CW501 Jimmy Boland 2nd CW88 Vincent Hutton 3rd WW58 Ricky Houlihan. CLASS 2: 1st CW346 Aiden Murphy 2nd CW22 Shane Farrell 3rd WW303 Francis Beecher. CLASS 3: 1st CW25 Ed Sheehan 2nd CW777 James Lee. CLASS 4: 1st WW159 Mike Fuller 2nd CW112 James Brady. CLASS 5: 1st CW31 Kevin Carron 2nd CW77 Dwayne McAssey. CLASS 6: 1st MA183 Declan Browne 2nd DA53 Joe Kehoe 3rd CW125 Martin O'Reilly. CLASS 7: 1st WW998 Patrick Sheehy 2nd CW162 Kevin Roche 3rd CY50 Dessie Orr. CLASS 8: 1st DA821 Joe McGrath 2nd MA8 Mark Kelly 3rd CW196 Paul Boland. CLASS 9: 1st WW399 John Fuller 2nd WW252 Shane Houlihan 3rd CW46 Martin Cunningham. CLASS 10: 1st MA23 Danielle Barrett. FORMULA 600: 1st WW77 Kevin Keating. JUNIOR CLASS 1: 1st DA322 Davon Henry 2nd DA42 Ciara Kent 3rd CW2 Courtney Brady. JUNIOR CLASS 1A:  WW108 Cillian Doherty 2nd WW58 Jack Houlihan 3rd MA290 Dylan Browne. JUNIOR SPECIALS: 1st MA155 Jack Creaven 2rd CW160 Liam Byrne. WW97 Jack Byrne.JUNIOR SPECIALS B: 1st DA27 Sarah Larkin 2nd MA969 Eamonn O'Brien 3rd WW93 Eamonn Falvey  LADIES: 1st CW112 Chelsea Brady 2nd MA48 Nicole O'Brien 3rd CW18 Emma Hutton. LADIES NOVICES: 1st WW108 Judy Doherty 2nd DA42 Aine Kehoe 3rd CW160 Fiona Roche. HELPERS' RACE: 1st CW58 Ken Kelly 2nd CW777 Ross Ansell 3rd CW501 Paul Boland. GRAND PRIX FINAL: 1st CW346 Aiden Murphy 2nd DA43 Joe Kehoe 3rd CW162 Kevin Roche. JUNIOR GRAND PRIX: 1st DA322 Davon Henry 2nd MA155 Jack Creaven 3rd WW108 Cillian Doherty. CHAMPION OF CHAMPIONS: 1st WW399 John Fuller 2nd CW501 Jimmy Boland 3rd MA23 Danielle Barratt

The East Anglian Open meeting sadly had to be terminated after Sunday's Class 9 final due to the very serious accident that befell Don Colquhoun. We're sure all our readers will join us in wishing all the best to Don, his family and friends, and in hoping that he's able to make a full recovery. Our sincere thanks to the East Anglian League members and officials, the British Red Cross, the paramedics in attendance and the MAGPAS air ambulance team for their prompt and professional response.

Saturday at the East Anglian Open had been an altogether happier day with a good field of local and visiting drivers enjoying close racing, and plenty of it, in the sunshine on an extremely well prepared track at Wyboston.

EAST ANGLIAN OPEN SATURDAY RESULTS:

CLASS 1: 1st SN43 Daniel Robins 2nd SN10 Mark Empson 3rd SN203 Nathan Teather. CLASS 2: 1st SN48 Chris Barrett 2nd IK167 Gareth Matthews 3rd SN450 Tony McKenna. CLASS 3: 1st Y51 Phil Thompson 2nd SN269 Dave George 3rd SN270 Barry Almond. CLASS 4: 1st CA87 Ash Poulter 2nd CA242 Gary Pemberton 3rd SN316 James Auld. STOCK HATCH: 1st SN14 Mark Hill. CLASS 5: 1st E10 Julian Heath 2nd SN123 Ken Smith 3rd SP252 Kev Glidden. CLASS 6: 1st CA285 Sam French 2nd SN207 Tony Teather 3rd CA121 Adam Golding. CLASS 7: 1st SV2 Mark Griffiths 2nd N45 James Brooks 3rd M12 Tim Back. CLASS 8: 1st SN60 Barry ashmore 2nd SN514 Aly Ashmore 3rd E111 Julian Heath. CLASS 9: 1st IK257 Sean Collin 2nd SN75 Stuart Hurrell 3rd CA690 Don Colquhoun. CLASS 10: 1st R7 Paul Fackrell 2nd NS120 Liam Evans 3rd CA24 Stuart Ward. JUNIORS: 1st SV212 Rhys Griffiths 2nd SN617 Tom Baker 3rd SN201 Jake Bartlett. JUNIOR SPECIALS: 1st SN11 Ash Howard 2nd NS15 Dan Owen 3rd NS115 Matt Owen. CLASS 11: 1st CA181 Rachel Taylor 2nd SN64 Abiee Hill. CLASS 11A: 1st SN31 Emily Empson 2nd IK334 Toni Humphrey. CLASS 12: 1st SN14 Abiee Hill 2nd SP18 Rachel Taylor 3rd SN132 Linda Smith. CLASS 13: 1st Y51 Jo Thompson 2nd SN269 Trish Simmonds-Grant 3rd C266E Lianne Teather. CLASS 14: 1st E111 Diane Heath 2nd CA647 Bethany Marjoram. EAST ANGLIAN OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP: 1st IK167 Gareth Matthews 2nd SN451 Jordan Spavins 3rd N45 James Brooks. EAST ANGLIAN JUNIOR OPEN: 1st SN11 Ash Howard 2nd SN232 Kirsty Empson 3rd SN9 Charlie Fleckney.

Also taking place last weekend were SOUTH WALES' "Dash for Cash" meeting, the second round of PENNINE's Autumn Showdown, STURTON & STOW's final meeting of the year, SCARBOROUGH, SOLWAY, GLOUCESTER and LEEWOOD. There was also another two day event at DOWN but CORK's meeting was cancelled after heavy early morning rain.

STURTON & STOW RESULTS:

CLASS 1: 1st ST19 Jake Farrar 2nd Y501 Rob Hattersley 3rd S319Y David Squire. CLASS 2: 1st T132 Conrad Noble 2nd WR143 Sam Begley 3rd SC126 Craig Conway. CLASS 3: 1st SC131 Mark Houlton 2nd WR999 Jasper Aspinall 3rd ST24 Simon Farrar. CLASS 4: 1st ST18 Chris Wood 2nd WR212 Tim Crook 3rd SC105 Craig Coupland. CLASS 6: 1st Y205 Scott Macaulay 2nd SC33 Rob Milbourn 3rd T335. CLASS 7: 1st SC19 Tom Page 2nd ST50 Dave Fretwell. CLASS 8: 1st SC67 Marc Clayton 2nd WR32 Bryn Hawkins 3rd WR2 Paul Glover. CLASS 10: 1st SC3 Ken Salt. JUNIORS: 1st Y144 Callum Hope 2nd WR192 Joe Jopling 3rd SC15 Jordan Coupland. JUNIOR SPECIALS: 1st WR44 Callum Ball 2nd YD70 Liam Nicholls 3rd SC181 Daniel Barnard. CLASS 11: 1st SC15 Zoe Coupland 2nd T1 Paula Baker. CLASS 13: 1st SC171 Kirsty Malkin. CLASS 14: 1st WR2 Rosemary Glover 2nd ST74 Laura Makar. JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP: 1st WR192 Joe Jopling 2nd Y144 Callum Hope 3rd ST70 Will Hunt. JUNIOR SPECIALS: 1st SC181 Daniel Barnard 2nd SC460 Luke Tongue 3rd YD70 Liam Nicholls. BERNARD MASON CGTRO CHAMPION OF CHAMPIONS: Special SC67 Marc Clayton Saloon ST50 Dave Fretwell Junior Special SC460 Luke Tongue Saloon ST70 Will Hunt. BRUCE KITCHEN CHAMPIONSHIP: T132 Conrad Noble. HARVEY ENGINEERING STURTON CHAMPION OF CHAMPIONS: 1st T132 Conrad Noble 2nd ST24 Simon Farrar 3rd ST18 Chris Wood.

PENNINE RESULTS:

CLASS 1: 1st P87EM Gareth Stokes 2nd P14EM TJ Le Mercier 3rd P377EM David Diesbergen. CLASS 2: 1st P12EM John Gadsby 2nd P98EM Richard Tate 3rd P6EM Nick Gregory. CLASS 3: 1st P505EM Graham Gregory 2nd N22 Kev Thorpe. CLASS 4: 1st P33EM Jason Clews. CLASS 5: 1st N333 Joe Smith 2nd N102 Marcus Fletcher. CLASS 6: 1st P112EM Ben Gadsby 2nd NS78 Michael Reynolds 3rd N48 John Derry. CLASS 7: 1st P25EM Phil Barleyman 2nd P307E Tom Chadwick 3rd P502EM Mark Guy. CLASS 8: 1st NS151 Tom Chadwick 2nd NS55 Geoff Berrisford 3rd P503EM John Leighton. CLASS 9: 1st N95 Steven Gillon. CLASS 10: 1st P18EM Ian Morson 2nd ARC9 Gareth Hankey. STOCK HATCH: 1st P666EM Ady Bennett 2nd P602EM Andy Heath 3rd P669EM Neil Leeray. JUNIORS: 1st P56EM Dan Heath 2nd P70EM Jordan Hampson 3rd P53EM Shaun Nelson. JUNIOR SPECIALS: 1st NS155 Matt Berrisford 2nd P42EM Brad Wright. CLASS 11: 1st P29EM Charlotte Rice 2nd T32 Hannah Fletcher 3rd P191EM Kirsty Frost. CLASS 12: 1st L681 Rachel Hinton. CLASS 13: 1st P307EM Lyndsey Allen. CLASS 14: NS55 Clare Cockerill.

Pennine's meeting saw the debut of Brad Wright (Shifty Junior) - one to keep an eye on in the Junior Specials - and the crowning of the East Midland Champions of Champions for 2012, Rachel Hinton and John Gadsby.

Declan Browne and John Wilde shared top honours at the end of Ireland's premier Autograss event, the All Ireland Finals and Irish Fastest Person on Grass, held at the West Waterford club's Ballysaggart track. Uniquely this meeting features two Champion of Champions events, one for the weekend's winners and one for the All Ireland Autograss Series winners. Declan took his Class 6 to All Ireland honours while John scored his third win in five years in the Fastest Person on Grass final. Always a highlight of the season, this year's meeting proved a huge success; the sun shone over the Knockmealdown Mountains for most of the weekend and the event struck just the right balance between fast and furious racing and off track "craic". By the time the last few were ejected from the Lismore Hotel prizegiving at 4.30 am on Monday, many were claiming it to have been the best race weekend they'd ever attended!

Full results can be downloaded here:

If you have trouble opening the PDF file, it will usually help if you right click, save it to your computer and open it from there.

ALL IRELAND AUTOGRASS SERIES RESULTS (registered drivers only):

CLASS 1: 1st WW226 Paul Pearce 2nd DA115 Maeve Devlin. CLASS 1A: 1st MA551 Francis Creaven 2nd WW58 Ricky Houlihan 3rd CK123 Michael O'Mahoney 4th CW73 Mick Boland. CLASS 2: 1st CW346 Aidan Murphy 2nd WW59 Damian Houlihan 3rd CK7 Steven White 3th DA119 Dylan Roche. CLASS 3: 1st CW25 Ed Sheehan 2nd DA19 Neil Priestley. CLASS 4: 1st WW169 Mike Fuller 2nd WW50 Jim Hayde 3rd WW921 Brian Kearns. CLASS 5: 1st NS70 John Wilde 2nd DA20 Cecil Haffey 3rd DA88 Aaron Wilde 4th CW31 Kevin Carron. CLASS 6: 1st MA183 Declan Browne 2nd DA43 Joe Kehoe. CLASS 7: 1st CW247 Keith Quinn. CLASS 8: DA48 Cieran Creane 2nd DA117 Davy Curran 3rd DA66 Paul Moore 4th DA821 Joe McGrath. CLASS 9: 1st WW252 Shane Houlihan 2nd WW399 John Fuller. CLASS 10: 1st WW318 Martin Browne 2nd MA23 Danielle Barratt. FORMULA 600: 1st DA11 Jamie McDonald. JUNIOR CLASS 1: 1st DA74 Caolan O'Connor 2nd DA322 Davon Henry 3rd CW96 Lee Mulroy 4th CW2 Courtney Brady. JUNIOR CLASS 1A: 1st CK296 Eoghan O'Neill 2nd CK64 Gary Lordan 3rd CK123 Cian O'Mahony 4th WW108 Cillian Doherty. JUNIOR SPECIALS: 1st DA114 Evan Curran 2nd MA969 Niall O'Brien 3rd DA32 Matty Bassett 4th DA27 Sarah Larkin. LADIES' CLASS 1-6: 1st CW12 Chelsea Brady 2nd CW73 Laura Farrell. LADIES' CLASSES 7-10: 1st WW319 Jessica Browne.

The major UK event was the YORKSHIRE OPEN at Thornborough, featuring another double-header F600 round, while Sunday also saw racing at INVICTA, CONCORD, SPALDING, PENHOW, HEREFORD, RADFORD, NORTH WALES NOTTINGHAM and CENTRAL SCOTLAND.

THE LADIES' AND JUNIORS' NATIONALS

Nicola Olsson took her Class 4 Peugeot to long overdue National honours and capped her win by taking the Champion of Champions title after what had been, apart from one incident, an excellent weekend's racing. For the first time in 2012, in the UK at least, a major event was run without interference from the weather - any adverse weather affecting the Severn Valley club's Withington track was only a matter for the Severn Valley members who, after seeing the track virtually flooded on the previous Wednesday, presented the venue in near perfect condition when the gates opened on Friday. With 361 of the 424 registered competitors present, Saturday saw close and fast racing in warm sunshine, with no major accidents and the full programme completed by 5.20 pm.

However, Sunday's racing was marred by the accident to Sarah Johnston in the last Class 6 heat; the former class champion was clipped as she passed an incident between two other cars and was launched into what most onlookers felt was the worst rollover they’d ever witnessed in Autograss. Our best wishes go to Sarah for her recovery.

While you're waiting for the full report in Autograss Review, here’s a quick class by class round-up:

CLASS 1: After perfectly behaved heats, the finalists proved that four cars abreast into a relatively narrow dry racing line wouldn’t work; the unlucky one on the outside was Vicky Sole, who was rammed into the armco and ended up on her roof. After two more restarts and a total of four exclusions, we had a very tight three way battle with Missy Moseley’s new (still in primer) car fending off Ash Bryan and Sarah Trott, with Vicky Sole a brave fourth in her “sticky tape special”. 

CLASS 2: One of only two ladies’ finals to be completed at the first attempt, resulting in a 1-2 for the Yorkshire Dales. Sarah Carden pulled out a good lead while Michelle Arnett fended off Paula Rees-Williams for second. Defending Champion Sarah Trott had a first corner disaster in her first heat, but scraped into the final with two wins and ended up fourth.

CLASS 3: There were two aborted starts, the first accounting for favourite Penny Smith who, after spectacular wins in the two heats she completed, had a rear wheel and halfshaft part company. Trish Simmonds-Grant then showed her mastery of a slick, polished track by fending off Jo Thompson all the way, with Sally Shorter and Donna Cole next up in the tightly bunched pack.

CLASS 4: With both inside and outside lines watered, the 4s had a narrow dry racing line and this proved decisive as early leader Lisa Grasby slipped wide, and then Alice Bevans chose the wrong side to pass a backmarker and dropped from first to third. Nicola Olsson then hung on for a very popular win in front of Sarah Levics and Alice, while Claire Lancaster came home fourth.

CLASS 5: There were two stoppages, one for a first corner tangle and one when Vicky Appleton spun out just after grabbing the lead from Nicola Jesse. That was the only time Nicola was headed and on the third attempt she set a fast pace, matched only by Sandra Jones, who came in a close second, while Sarah Bateman was awarded third after a photo finish with Claire Winnall.

CLASS 6: After an upsetting weekend for the Class 6 ladies, there was an incident filled final, stopped first when Tina Hilton was sent backwards into the fence, and a second time when Becky Smith and Sarah Carden went hard into the armco.  With earlier front runner Sarah Haigh also having to pull out, the only survivor of the strong Yorkshire Dales contingent was Katie Sunley and she drove a well controlled race on the polished track to win from the more spectacular Kerrilee Smith, while Becky Smith’s car gave up on the last lap, promoting Jodie Faulkner and Sue Whipps to third and fourth.

CLASS 7: The first attempt was in its closing stages with Clare Horner in front when Di Jones and Lynn Olsson got in trouble and brought out the reds.  On the rerun Laura Blaber and Charlotte Pugh battled for the lead but young Nicola Mackenzie neatly picked them off and then held on in front for a well earned win, with Laura, Clare and Jo Thompson keeping the pressure on right to the chequered flag.

CLASS 8: The only 2011 Champion to retain her title was Clare Horner, who led a fast and dusty final all the way.  Mel Gallagher was giving Clare a close run for her money but had problems that knocked the closely following Lindsey Stephenson out of contention; Sandra Jones came through to take second from Emily Gill, while Mel recovered for fourth. 

CLASS 9: With only ten starters, and past champ Jane Baynton retiring early, this was the smallest class of the weekend. Sue Herdman dominated qualifying, while reigning champ Kelly Paines scraped into the final on a run-off. Sue led the way in the final, before a red flag, thrown in order to exclude Gemma Stephenson for some reason, caused havoc with damaged cars everywhere. The form was then sharply reversed on the rerun, with Kelly leading the way on the highly polished track, and Sue trailing the field after a delayed start. It all changed entering the last lap when Sue caught up and swept round the outside of the second, third and fourth placed cars; Kelly then slipped briefly off the dry line and Sue was through to win from Kelly, Jade Dyke and Emily Gill.  

CLASS 10: In a very dusty final, Jade Russell ran wide in the first corner, but recovered and a good move round the outside of Di Jones put Jade in front to win from Di, with Jessica Browne taking a great third place on only her second outing in the class, from Heidi Deeley, while top qualifier Lynn Johnston had to play catch-up after a late start.

JUNIORS: 92 starters were boiled down to eight finalists after 36 heats, four quarter-finals and two semi-finals, all completed with no major mishaps or controversy. 2010 Champion Zack Booth was unbeaten until Kent’s Robert Reed just snatched the semi-final from him. There was no such slip up from Zack in the final, breaking away as Ross Evans’ second place Micra got out of shape. Zack then led all the way with Jake Bartlett, Dafydd Jones and Aiden Derry taking the trophy places. After a very strong showing by the Micras all weekend, two of them made the final with Ross Evans finishing fifth and Irish Junior Champion Davon Henry taking a creditable sixth on his first overseas outing.

JUNIOR SPECIALS: Incredibly close racing was a feature of the heats, with just two of the 62 drivers being unbeaten; Matt Bishop with three heat wins, and Jack Creaven, for whom two wins, after breaking a driveshaft when leading his first heat, wasn’t good enough to make the semi-final. The close racing continued in the final, but all took place behind Matt Berrisford, who relieved Trystan Roberts of the lead after two laps and then smoothly pulled away as the rest battled for second. Trystan held onto the place, but later lost it on a technicality, leaving Matt Booth in second from Jack Joyce and Dan Owen.

THE FASTEST MAN IN MUD

A rain affected Autosport International Fastest Man on Grass meeting at Lincolnshire’s Caenby Corner Raceway ended with Worcester’s Daz Mullen becoming the 26th different driver in 42 years to lift the oldest established and second most prestigious title in Autograss. Claire Horner won the Fastest Lady on Grass title for the 8th time, and Zack Booth became the first repeat winner of the Fastest Junior on Grass.

FASTEST MAN ON GRASS RESULTS

FASTEST SALOON ON GRASS: 1st SC167 Marc Clayton 2nd LM4 Terry Rigney 3rd SC19 Tom Page 4th P24EM Brian Wright. FASTEST SPECIAL ON GRASS: 1st SS38 Daz Mullen 2nd S19Y Tom Bendall 3rd ARC4 Phil Cooper 4th NS151 Tom Chadwick. FASTEST LADIES’ SALOON ON GRASS: 1st Y33 Clare Horner 2nd LM30 Charlotte Pugh 3rd SL222 Leanne Huschka 4th L36 Melanie Walton. FASTEST LADIES’ SPECIAL ON GRASS: 1st YD7 Sue Nicholls 2nd T50 Jenny Rutter 3rd SC17 Clare Horner 4th YD80 Emily Gill. FASTEST JUNIOR ON GRASS: 1st SC16 Zack Booth 2nd Y144 Callum Hope 3rd N46 Lewis Dann 4th ST70 Will Hunt. FASTEST LADY ON GRASS: 1st Y33 Clare Horner 2nd YD7 Sue Nicholls 3rd SL222 Leanne Huschka 4th L36 Melanie Walton. FASTEST MAN ON GRASS: 1st SS38 Daz Mullen 2nd S19Y Tom Bendell 3rd ARC4 Phil Cooper 4th NS151 Tom Chadwick. GLEN CARTER MEMORIAL: 1st SC14 Russ Thompson 2nd ST42 Gav Waby 3rd T199 Steve Olive 4th SC31 Zoe Coupland. LINCOLNSHIRE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP: 1st Y190 Carl Verity 2nd ST50 Dave Fretwell 3rd SP552 Sam Crane. LINCOLNSHIRE OPEN JUNIORS: 1st Y144 Callum Hope 2nd ST28 Poppie Roe 3rd ST70 Will Hunt. BEST TURNED OUT CARS: Saloons: WR801 Damian Hare; Specials ST45 Chris Barnbrooke; Junior Saloons: ST70 Will Hunt; Junior Specials: Y218 Ayrton Ellison. BEST ROLL: SC137 Brian Smart.

Much of Sunday’s racing was held in warm, sunny conditions, and Monday’s on a dull, overcast day that just saw a few spots of rain, but the track conditions were affected by heavy rain on the previous two days, and another unexpected and localised downpour just after racing finished on Sunday. Although the track was drying out through both days’ racing, necessitating a few mud-scraping breaks, the meeting was run ultra-efficiently, with the lowest number of accidents of any recent major meeting, resulting in an early finish and well attended prizegiving after the fast and clean major races.

The other major event of the weekend was the rescheduled WEST MIDLAND OPEN, held at Cwmdu’s Lyonshall track. This year this was the only survivor of the popular Western Region Opens, and was run to the traditional schedule with a full format meeting on Saturday before the main trophy event on Sunday. Saturday proved an enjoyable, stress free and mostly sunny day with 144 drivers taking part, although some missed their first heats after a rain shower coincided with the delayed start time. Sunday, as always used to be the case, featured a much bigger entry, excellent track and weather conditions, and some rather more fraught action.

The other two Bank Holiday fixtures had sharply contrasting fortunes; INVICTA KENT ran a very successful two day event in perfect conditions at Ivychurch, while WESSEX were forced to cancel their meeting after a Friday night downpour flooded the Bearley track.

In Ireland DOWN AUTOGRASS enjoyed another well supported two-dayer on Saturday and Sunday, while CARLOW took advantage of a break in the weather to slot in a last minute extra fixture that proved very successful.

WEST MIDLAND OPEN SATURDAY RESULTS (unofficial):

CLASS 1: 1st NW50 Lee Hynes 2nd H66 James Williams 3rd H95 Martin Jones 4th SV103 Ben Williams. CLASS 2: 1st L254 Neil Cashmore 2nd LM62 Grant Mitchell 3rd NW15 Rich Owen 4th LM49 John McGrady. CLASS 3: 1st 123F Dave Westlake 2nd NW49 Paul Cosby 3rd LUD9 Stewart Moore 4th NS421 Paul Bonner. CLASS 4: 1st BC25 James Williams 2nd NW12 Paul Tyrrell. CLASS 5: 1st C5 Barry Williams 2nd R420 Al Green 3rd PAC15 Glyn James 4th TA451 Lewis Richards. CLASS 6: 1st BC5 Martin Bowen 2nd NW97 David Owen 3rd P58 Paul Coventry 4th PAC91 Ken Thomas. CLASS 7: 1st SR90 Colin Griffiths 2nd R41 Martin Wright 3rd R13 Mark Barratt 4th LUD27 Darren Tennant. CLASS 8: 1st BC4 Lance Bowen 2nd C108 Bill Bradford 3rd NS344 Sam Gould 4th LUD6 Aidan Mills. CLASS 9: 1st TA17 Anthony Paines 2nd NW4 Fred Roberts 3rd PAC4 Derrick Brown 4th NW34 Ynyr Davies. CLASS 10: 1st BC22 Lance Bowen 2nd NW117 Tony Jones . CLASS 11: 1st PHD4 Daphne Mousley 2nd SV666 Michelle Williams 3rd H95 Amy Jones 4th LUD41 Melissa Burchett. CLASS 11A: 1st LM49 Annette McGrady 2nd L254 Mandy Cashmore 3rd LM63 Sue Mansfield 4th C13 Donna Howells. CLASS 12: 1st TA221 Sarah Johnston 2nd NS219 Angela Evans 3rd NW12 Jenny Tyrrell 4th C121 Mandy Newman. CLASS 13: 1st TA224 Sarah Johnston. CLASS 14: 1st NS1 Di Jones 2nd TA17 Kelly Paines 3rd BC14 Carol Stead 2nd C155 Shirley Preece . JUNIORS: 1st SN90 Max Fleckney 2nd SV68 Connor Green 3rd H3 James Stanley 4th LUD53 Adam Smith. JUNIOR SPECIALS: 1st C118 Leigh Hughes 2nd NS15 Dan Owen 3rd NW711 Aaron Jones 4th NS115 Matt Owen.

WEST MIDLAND OPEN SUNDAY RESULTS (unofficial):

CLASS 1: 1st C3 Ryan Jones 2nd C98 Chris Milner 3rd NW50 Lee Hynes 4th NW125 Lee Powell. CLASS 2: 1st C46 Anthony Davies 2nd NW15 Rich Owen 3rd NW38 Lee Kent 4th LM49 John McGrady. CLASS 3: 1st 123F Dave Westlake 2nd S15D Tim Freeman 3rd NW49 Paul Cosby 4th LUD9 Stewart Moore. CLASS 4: 1st H31 Mike Jones 2nd NW12 Paul Tyrrell 3rd PAC685 George Bagley 4th BC25 Jumbo Williams. CLASS 5: 1st C5 Barry Williams 2nd TA451 Lewis Richards 3rd S60D Stuart Deacon 4th C4 Brian Preece. CLASS 6: 1st H99 Paul Bailey 2nd PHD44 Damian Longotano 3rd C52 Mike Harris 4th NW97 David Owen.  CLASS 7: 1st TA6 Emyr Evans 2nd PHD72 Jake Roberts 3rd SR90 Colin Griffiths 4th LUD27 Darren Tennant. CLASS 8: 1st PHD2 Phil Rogers 2nd C15 Richard Herdman 3rd BC4 Lance Bowen 4th BC98 Dek Traylor. CLASS 9: 1st TA17 Anthony Paines 2nd SV93 Derek Warren 3rd PAC4 Derrick Brown 4th PAC104 Richard Tipping. CLASS 10: 1st NW117 Tony Jones . CLASS 11: 1st PHD11 Claire Hall 2nd C3 Ella Hughes 3rd ARC20 Gemma Walshaw 4th PHD4 Daphne Mousley. CLASS 11A: 1st G23D Clair Griffiths 2nd B5H Amanda Cheshire 3rd LM63 Sue Mansfield 4th H177 Teresa Lancett. CLASS 12: 1st R420 Natalie Green 2nd TA221 Sarah Johnston 3rd NS219 Angela Evans 4th S2 Leanne Lewis. CLASS 13: 1st BC62 Claire Hockly 2nd CM4 Donna Cole 3rd PAC53 Alice Bevans 4th TA224 Sarah Johnston. CLASS 14: 1st PAC4 Heather Evans 2nd C155 Shirley Preece . JUNIORS: 1st SV212 Rhys Griffiths 2nd SN90 Max Fleckney 3rd SV4 Kieran Griffiths 4th R15 Will Barratt. JUNIOR SPECIALS: 1st NS15 Dan Owen 2nd NW711 Aaron Jones 3rd C118 Leigh Hughes 4th BC18 Ellie Court. SUPER SALOON SHOOTOUT: 1st TA32 Alun Jenkins 2nd TA20 Pete Thomas 3rd TA84 Rhydian Evans. SPECIALS SHOOTOUT: 1st C108 Bill Bradford 2nd BC98 Dek Traylor.

Our own photos from the Fastest Man on Grass and the West Midland Open (Saturday only) will be uploaded as soon as we can!

BAS ACTION

As the dust settles on the Bredon Hill club's superb achievement of salvaging a successful and spectacular BAS round from what seemed almost impossible conditions, here's a small sample of the action from what unfortunately turned out to be yet another highly destructive major meeting in 2012. We hope everyone involved in the many incidents will soon be fit and well and back in action.

Full sequences of all these, and many more incidents can be found here:

and full results should be posted here

Just one photo for now of a car with all its wheels in the mud; the meeting saw the comeback of maybe the most popular Class 3 driver of all time, Ed "The Bull" Lloyd, who will surely, given better conditions, do justice to the Paul Watson A35-Chevy.

SCOTTISH WEEKEND PART TWO

Several extra entries arrived on Sunday for the second part of Central Scotland's latest double header meeting, the only club racing on offer in the UK while the BAS round continued at Javelin Park. The additions included the furthest travelled driver to race in Scotland this year, Charlane Bonfield from Bedford, having her first ever race - albeit in a car based a few miles from the Avonbridge track. Another English resident driver, Mark Little came out on top of a varied field in Class 3, the best supported class of the day. Proceedings ended with another spectacular Champion of Champions, won again by Nick Holt's Class 8.

CENTRAL SCOTLAND SUNDAY RESULTS (unofficial):

CLASS 1: 1st CS835 Blair Robertson 2nd CS38 Andy Duff 3rd CS158 Bert Keenan. CLASS 2: 1st SB93 David Ford 2nd CS18 David Powell 3rd SB63 John Rankin. STOCK HATCH: 1st CS205 Matt Collins  2nd  CS405 Rab Elliott 3rd CS33 Calum Kitt. CLASS 3: 1st SL66 Mark Little 2nd CS3 Mick Nairns 3rd SL54 Bruce Bertram. CLASS 5: 1st SL167 Alan Bonfield. CLASS 6: 1st CS17 Willie Munro. CLASS 7: 1st CS27 Kenny Downie 2nd CS81 Graeme Cuthbert 3rd CS2 Mick Nairns. FORMULA 600: 1st CS97 Muzza Pryde. CLASS 8: 1st CS48 Nick Holt 2nd SB2 Shuggy Brown. CLASS 9: 1st CS57 Gerry Castle. CLASS 10: 1st CS1 Mick Nairns. JUNIORS: 1st CS77 Cameron Doak 2nd CS98 Billy Donoghue 3rd CS158 Amy Keenan. LADIES' CLASS 1: 1st CS813 Rosie Nairns 2nd CS53 Lesley Nicol 3rd CS60 Liz Murray. LADIES' CLASS 2: 1st CS44 Fiona Mauchland. LADIES' CLASS 5: 1st SL167 Charlane Bonfield. CHAMPION OF CHAMPIONS: 1st CS48 Nick Holt 2nd CS1 Mick Nairns 3rd CS97 Muzza Pryde. JUNIOR OPEN: 1st CS158 Amy Keenan 2nd SL77 Cameron Doak 3rd CS38 Brendan Lawrie.

SUNNY SCOTLAND

While the attention of much of the Autograss world was on Gloucestershire's Javelin Park, where the Bredon Hill "pinkies" and most of the BAS racers were working together to make up time after Friday's severe weather resulted in the loss of the first morning's racing at BAS round 3, the only club in the UK to stage a meeting for their local drivers was Central Scotland. Saturday's racing suffered from rough track conditions, as Scotland hadn't escaped the recent rain, but the club made the best use of the resources available, eventually venturing into uncharted territory to adopt a new "long track" configuration to avoid the worst undulations of the Avonbridge track. The field, comprising all Scottish resident drivers, enjoyed two heats, finals, a busy and spectacular Champion of Champions race and opens, and the trophies were being presented by 4 pm. Unlike Javelin Park, there were no major accidents (our best wishes to Keith Featherstone after his big shunt at the BAS), but ironically it was a former Stroud driver now living in Scotland, Nick Holt, who took the day's major honours.

On Sunday there'll be more racing for anyone who cares to visit Scotland, while Irish racers will be catered for by a Carlow club meeting.

CENTRAL SCOTLAND SATURDAY RESULTS (unofficial):

CLASS 1: 1st CS835 Blair Robertson 2nd CS158 Bert Keenan 3rd CS6 Josh Duff. CLASS 2: 1st CS13 Stewart Mitchell 2nd CS35 Joe Murdoch 3rd CS18 David Powell. STOCK HATCH: 1st CS405 Rab Elliott 2nd CS205 Matt Collins 3rd CS33 Calum Kitt. CLASS 3: 1st CS3 Mick Nairns 2nd CS37 Davy Duff 3rd CS16 Callum Munro. CLASS 6: 1st CS17 Willie Munro. CLASS 7: 1st CS2 Mick Nairns 2nd CS81 Graeme Cuthbert. FORMULA 600: 1st CS97 Muzza Pryde. CLASS 8: 1st CS48 Nick Holt 2nd SB2 Shuggy Brown. CLASS 9: 1st CS57 Gerry Castle. CLASS 10: 1st CS1 Mick Nairns. JUNIORS: 1st CS77 Cameron Doak 2nd CS158 Amy Keenan 3rd CS53 Kiera Nicol. LADIES' CLASS 1: 1st CS813 Rosie Nairns 2nd CS60 Liz Murray 3rd CS53 Lesley Nicol. LADIES' CLASS 2: 1st CS44 Fiona Mauchland. CHAMPION OF CHAMPIONS: 1st CS48 Nick Holt 2nd CS1 Mick Nairns 3rd CS405 Rab Elliott. JUNIOR OPEN: 1st CS53 Kiera Nicol 2nd CS158 Amy Keenan 3rd CS6 Jason Duff. ALLCOMERS: 1st CS17 Willie Munro 2nd CS205 Matt Collins 3rd CS33 Calum Kitt.

CAR OF THE MONTH

It's been a few months since we featured anyone in this spot, but Jasper Aspinall's joined the gradually growing "Classic Three" ranks with this superb Anglia.

GRASSFEST SUNDAY FINALE

The longest meeting in Autograss came to a successful conclusion with the fine sunny weather continuing for an action packed Sunday. By now many of the visitors to Solway had been at the track for six days, and for those who'd travelled straight from the Nationals, there'd been eleven days or more on the road. A few had to move on after racing on Wednesday and Saturday, but there were still additional cars turning up on Sunday to replace them. After five days of sun and three days of racing, the track finally turned slick and polished for the finals, and no fewer than nine of the finals had to be stopped after first lap incidents, but nearly all those involved made it out for the reruns. Maybe the unluckiest driver of the weekend was Blair Robertson, who stepped for the first time from Class 1 to Class 9 and struggled in his early races, before improving to the extent that he had just taken the lead of the final when his engine blew up. Terry Cox took his second A-final win of the weekend in the British F600 round. There's no doubt that the Grassfest has proved to be one of the highlights of the 2012 season and has made many more grassers aware of Solway's beautiful venue and friendly organisational style.

GRASSFEST SUNDAY RESULTS (unofficial):

CLASS 1: 1st YD53 Alun Adams 2nd DA115 Maeve Devlin 3rd LM78 Marc Shepherd. CLASS 2: 1st YD65 Tez Alderson 2nd SC126 Craig Conway 3rd SL70 Andrew Davison. CLASS 3: 1st SL54 Bruce Bertram 2nd CS54 Kev Nicol 3rd SL81 Jim Welsh. CLASS 4: 1st WR24 Henry Lunn. CLASS 5: 1st SL15 Steven Graham 2nd LM4 Terry Rigney 3rd DA15 Connor Devlin. CLASS 6: 1st SC7 Shaun Thompson 2nd WR1 Chris Dunwell 3rd DA116 Andrew Greenaway. STOCK HATCH: 1st SL90 Paul Harrington 2nd SL64 Lloyd Stephenson 3rd YD69 John Furniss. CLASS 7: 1st Y115 Matt Kitching 2nd Y4 Russ Tinker 3rd DA38 Chrisy McCracken. FORMULA 600: 1st ST1 Terry Cox 2nd LM1 Zoe Leyland 3rd ST42 Gav Waby. CLASS 8: 1st DA61 Howard Thomas 2nd SL1 Mark Dalgleish 3rd Y217 Mike Barratt. CLASS 9: 1st SL99 Liam Harvey 2nd LM8 Roger Haynes 3rd CS57 Gerry Castle. CLASS 10: 1st SL5 Mark Johnston 2nd MA23 Danielle Barratt 3rd SL80 Phil Talbot. JUNIORS: 1st SL53 Joe Rumney 2nd SL55 Kirby Johnston 3rd CS98 Billy Donohue. JUNIOR SPECIALS: 1st DA37 Jonny McCracken 2nd YD64 Jason Alderson 3rd SL118 Curtis McBride. LADIES' CLASS 1: 1st LM36 Sue Gillard 2nd CS60 Liz Murray. LADIES' CLASS 2: 1st SL222 Leanne Huschka 2nd SL70 Sandra Davison 3rd SL4 Lin Cunningham. LADIES' CLASS 3: 1st ARC8 Jacquie Power. LADIES' CLASS 4: 1st YD14 Beth Robinson. LADIES' CLASS 5: 1st SL15 Julie Graham. LADIES' CLASS 6: 1st YD16 Sarah Haigh.  LADIES' CLASS 7: 1st SC199 Laura Emmerson 2nd  WR176 Emma Stokes. LADIES' CLASS 8: 1st WR2 Rosemary Glover 2nd DA61 Kate Thomas. LADIES' CLASS 9: 1st YD171 Chris Raffel. LADIES' F600: 1st WR400 Hilary Bird.

Grant Victory sponsored a special "Spirit of Solway" award, which was presented to Junior racer Nathan Patterson, who was contesting his second meeting and impressed both on track and with his non-stop help for the club.

Other events took place at INVICTA, CAMBRIDGE, FOREST OF DEAN and an additional fixture at NORTH WALES, plus the first round of PENNINE's Autumn Showdown, Saturday night's Rolling Thunder Show at ARENA ESSEX also included a double points round of the 2012 SEGTO Championship. However,  the annual perpetual trophy meeting at WEST WATERFORD had to be cancelled as another wave of wet weather hit the Ballysaggart track late on Saturday.

PENNINE RESULTS:

CLASS 1: 1st P65EM Steve Heath 2nd P14EM TJ le Mercier 3rd P22EM James Walker. CLASS 2: 1st P12EM John Gadsby 2nd P7EM Ben Gadsby 3rd N43 Matthew Grimley. CLASS 3: 1st N22 Kev Thorpe 2nd WR33 Dave Dearden 3rd WR333 Jasper Aspinall. CLASS 4: 1st P33EM Jason Clews 2nd ST213 John Howseman 3rd WR19 Kevin Griffiths. CLASS 5: 1st N333 Joe Smith 2nd LM34 Rob Simmonds 3rd N102 Marcus Fletcher. CLASS 6: 1st P3EM Louis Gutteridge 2nd P112EM Ben Gadsby 3rd N48 John Derry.  CLASS 7: 1st P26EM John Cottrill 2nd SC99 Andy Kershaw 3rd SC19 Tom Page. CLASS 8: 1st P50EM John Leighton 2nd 3rd . CLASS 9: 1st SR98 Chuck Jones 2nd NS105 Adrian Jones 3rd SC150 Anthony Read. CLASS 10: 1st LM35 Rob Simmonds. STOCK HATCH: 1st LM610 Simon Kennedy 2nd P666EM Ady/Josh Bennett 3rd L644 Mick Wood. F600: 1st N600 Chris Weston 2nd N41 Gary Shaw 3rd N35 Ian Smith. CLASS 11: 1st L10 Ella Markham 2nd T32 Hannah Fletcher 3rd P191EM Kirsty Frost. CLASS 11A: 1st LM49 Annette McGrady 2nd LM64 Sue Mansfield 3rd N125 Sarah Housley. CLASS 12: 1st WR19 Jemma Griffiths 2nd LM34 Lucy Lockett 3rd M121 Sam Turner. CLASS 12A: 1st L681 Rachel Hinton. CLASS 13: 1st P307EM Lindsey Allen 2nd N45 Helen Brooks. CLASS 14: 1st ST46 Tina Hilton. JUNIORS: 1st P56EM Dan Heath 2nd N47 Aidan Derry 3rd P70EM Jordan Hampson.

GRASSFEST SATURDAY UPDATE

After two days' holiday for everyone who'd stayed on at Hay Close following the Wednesday night meeting, the hot sunny weather was still around on Saturday, by which time the field of cars had virtually doubled, including a number of first time visitors to Solway. With three heats and a final again fitted in, it was a very full day's racing, with good competition in early all classes, but very few incidents. The feature race was the first of two rounds of the British F600 Championship, with Terry Cox winning the A-final.

GRASSFEST SATURDAY RESULTS (unofficial):

CLASS 1: 1st YD197 Alun Adams 2nd DA115 Maeve Devlin 3rd YD37 Paul Dowdle. CLASS 2: 1st DA119 Dylan Roche 2nd SL74 Andrew Sharp 3rd SL4 Arthur Cunningham. CLASS 3: 1st SL54 Bruce Bertram 2nd ARC8 Ryan Power 3rd CS54 Kev Nicol. CLASS 5: 1st NS70 John Wilde 2nd LM4 Terry Rigney 3rd DA15 Connor Devlin. CLASS 6: 1st SL22 Jason Ballantyne 2nd WR1 Chris Dunwell 3rd SL11 Joe Threlkeld. STOCK HATCH: 1st SL64 Lloyd Stephenson 2nd SL38 Andrew Shaw 3rd SL90 Paul Harrington. CLASS 7: 1st YD21 Andy Jefferson 2nd WR176 Richard Dunwell 3rd DA38 Chrisy McCracken. FORMULA 600: 1st ST1 Terry Cox 2nd SB20 Andy Watson 3rd SL101 Jonny Dawson. CLASS 8: 1st WR32 Bryn Hawkins 2nd WR2 Paul Glover 3rd DA61 Howard Thomas. CLASS 9: 1st S14D Nigel Candy 2nd SL8 Paul Sharp 3rd YD117 Dennis Raffel. CLASS 10: 1st SL5 Mark Johnston 2nd WR175 Dave Stokes 3rd SL80 Phil Talbot. JUNIORS: 1st SL912 Jack Shaw 2nd DA115 Peadar Devlin 3rd SL55 Kirby Johnston. JUNIOR SPECIALS: 1st DA37 Jonny McCracken 2nd SL177 Matty Cobb 3rd MA969 Niall O'Brien. LADIES' CLASS 1: 1st LM36 Sue Gillard 2nd CS813 Rosie Nairns 3rd CS60 Liz Murray. LADIES' CLASS 2: 1st SL222 Leanne Huschka 2nd SL4 Lin Cunningham 3rd CS44 Fiona Mauchland. LADIES' CLASS 4: 1st YD14 Beth Robinson. LADIES' CLASS 6: 1st YD16 Sarah Haigh.  LADIES' CLASS 7: 1st WR176 Emma Stokes 2nd SC199 Laura Emmerson 3rd Y61 Kelly Johnson. LADIES' CLASS 8: 1st WR2 Rosemary Glover 2nd WR32 Hilary Bird 3rd DA61 Kate Thomas. LADIES' CLASS 9: 1st YD171 Chris Raffel 2nd S14D Nancy Hughes. LADIES' F600: 1st WR400 Hilary Bird 2nd LM321 Rosemary Glover 3rd SL33 Kelly Johnson.

GRASSFEST DAY ONE

The sunshine ordered by the Dales League arrived for the start of Solway's Grassfest event, planned as a relaxed post-nationals festival of club racing. Amid a wealth of off-track activities, the action kicked off on Wednesday night with an entry of 62 enjoying three heats, finals and the first attempt at a special Inter-Nations team race, all in not much more than three hours. This was followed by the presentation of the special Cumberland trophies, that were immediately barbecued and enjoyed by the winners! This was maybe a unique club event, with drivers from as far afield as Somerset, Scotland, Northern and Southern Ireland. The Inter-Nations race (unfortunately with no Welsh representation) seemed to come out as a draw between England and Ireland - we're not sure which part of Ireland as the places were taken by southern resident drivers racing for a northern club!

GRASSFEST WEDNESDAY RESULTS:

CLASS 1: 1st SL55 Danny MacVarish 2nd DA115 Maeve Devlin 3rd LM36 Glen Jackson. CLASS 2: 1st SL222 Leanne Huschka 2nd YD30 Dan Grufferty 3rd DA119 Dylan Roche. CLASS 3: 1st SL66 Mark Little 2nd SL54 Bruce Bertram 3rd CS37 Davy Duff. CLASS 5: 1st DA88 Aaron Wilde 2nd NS70 John Wilde 3rd S24D Reece Candy. CLASS 6: 1st SL11 Joe Threlkeld 2nd SL17 Andrew Harkness. STOCK HATCH: 1st YD38 Simon Alldritt 2nd YD84 Vince Grufferty. CLASS 7: 1st DA38 Chrisy McCracken 2nd DA5 Keith McCammon 3rd MA66 Eamonn O'Brien. FORMULA 600: 1st LM1 Zoe Leyland 2nd SL102 Max Dawson 3rd ST42 Gav Waby. CLASS 8: 1st DA61 Howard Thomas. CLASS 9: 1st S14D Nigel Candy 2nd SC150 Anthony Read 3rd DA31 Noel Cunningham. CLASS 10: 1st MA23 Danielle Barratt 2nd SL5 Jason Ballantyne 3rd SL80 Phil Talbot. JUNIORS: 1st SL55 Kirby Johnston 2nd SL6 Daniel Talbot 3rd DA115 Peadar Devlin. JUNIOR SPECIALS: 1st DA37 Jonny McCracken 2nd SL177 Matty Cobb 3rd MA969 Niall O'Brien. LADIES: 1st S14D Nancy Hughes 2nd DA61 Kate Thomas 3rd MA36 Michelle Cusack. INTER-NATIONS HANDICAP: 1st SL102 Max Dawson 2nd DA31 Noel Cunningham 3rd DA119 Dylan Roche.

THORNBOROUGH THUNDER

The Dales League, together with the dedicated owner of the Thornborough track, Peter Almack, were determined to put on a memorable Nationals, and that they certainly did, although not altogether in the way they’d intended. With the venue looking absolutely superb, and the planning that had gone into the layout working perfectly in practice, a lot of the magical Nationals atmosphere was back. The sun shone for most of Saturday’s racing, with a brief shower in the afternoon and more prolonged rain overnight doing the track more good than harm. Distant thunder and lightning threatened, but never quite delivered. Morning mist gave way to a fine day on Sunday, until torrential rain interrupted the final heat for the Class 4s. Soon after racing resumed, an almighty hailstorm hit the track, sending the marshals scuttling for cover, leaving the field white with hailstones, which were still evident late in the evening, and putting the hard packed track under several inches of standing water. After an hour’s break and emergency drainage work the sun came out and the finals went ahead – despite the surface mud and spray, underneath it all was still an excellent track surface, so the actual racing was just as good as you’d see on a dry, polished track! Maybe the weather had thwarted the Dales members’ intention to put on the best Nationals ever, but there’s no doubt that their efforts made this the best possible Nationals in the conditions!

There’ll be a full report in the next issue of Autograss Review, but here’s a brief run-down of the classes:

CLASS 1: It was all happening on and off the track, with eligibility issues in pre-race scrutineering, the non-appearance of the defending champion and the first heat winner of the weekend getting excluded. After impressing all year, Josh Fowler kept his nose clean through the heats and, in the third attempt at running the final, took an early lead from Daniel Robins and held it all the way. Daniel snatched second at the end as top qualifier Matt Middleton’s car went sick, while having dropped to Class 1 just for fun this year, Trevor Cusack brought home the first of several trophies for Ireland, with fourth. The first start of the final was a disaster as Ian Ullathorne broke down at the start; the reds came out instantly but drivers racing in the blinding spray failed to react and Arron Sharp ran into the back of Ian while Matt Middleton veered off into a marshals’ post.

CLASS 2: The Micras seemed to have the upper hand in the heats, with Will Elford coming out as top qualifier, narrowly beating Aidan O’Neill, who delighted his Irish supporters and shocked everyone else with two impressive wins, while Mat Morris looked like the top Nova contender. In the final, though, Damian Harris never looked likely to be caught, coming home with a well earned win over Martyn Canning, while Jonny Barber snatched third from Mat Morris on the last corner.

CLASS 3: Martin Gould put himself in a class of his own, outstripping Jim Corbett’s and Derek Linch’s records with his fifth Class 3 title, and his third in a row. Although beaten by Adrian Joyce in his first heat, Martin was never again headed, although he had to withstand a very strong challenge throughout the final from the on-form Irish favourite, Paul Cusack. Pete Robinson claimed third and Adrian Joyce fourth.

CLASS 4: Darren Grasby’s Stiletto topped qualifying, winning in the wet and dry, while Mini men Adam Henley, Luke Smith, Wez Johnson and Martin Hucknell all looked capable of beating the flying Welsh Micras although Wez was taken out of the final by a contentious rerun decision and Martin by a third heat breakdown. Come the final, though, the Micras were back in their usual place, except this time Huw Jones held off Rob Corbett for the win. Trystan Daniels dropped out of a challenging position and Adam Henley and Luke Smith claimed third and fourth.

CLASS 5: Some great racing in dry conditions through the heats ended with Matt Manning and Matt Dance unbeaten and Jabez Smith and Mark Grice only one place adrift. Manning was soon out of the final but Matt Dance pulled out a massive lead before coming up behind Nigel Candy, struggling with a drowned engine after spinning at the start. Matt could find no way past the backmarker, Blobby reeled him in and a last corner clash between the three cars saw Blobby winning and Matt in the fence. After the most controversial decision of the meeting, the whole race was rerun with Blobby excluded. Matt Dance got clipped at the start, leaving him with a flat rear tyre, but he still pulled away for a clear win from Colin Chilvers, Nigel Candy and Jabez Smith.

CLASS 6: Declan Browne looked like Ireland’s best hope for honours this year, but it would be tough as he was one of four drivers sharing the top qualifying spot. After Craig Tovey was sidelined and Andrew Smith controversially excluded the final was the last one completed in dismal conditions. Jason Ballantyne squeezed past Declan and went on to retain his title, while Declan held second from Ben Gould and Stuart Thompson

CLASS 7: Saturday saw the weekend’s most spectacular when Dan Mackenzie broke a shaft off the line and simultaneously launched Phil Barleyman off his front wheel and Neil Rawlinson off his back wheel; Phil and Neil tumbling down the track until they collided to bring them back to earth. Hopes were high for a local win with Andy Jefferson topping the points and Graham Blackburn not far behind. It all went wrong for Jeffo at the start of the final, and in the end it was Phil Cooper all the way, surviving three starts and a close challenge from defending champ Gareth Thomas, to claim his second title of the day. Graham Blackburn and Paul Waldron claimed the other trophies.

CLASS 8: The Eights endured extreme conditions, from horrendous dust in their first heat to being on track when the hail storm struck on Sunday. Daz Mullen was top qualifier but Phil Cooper controlled the pace in the final, holding off Phil Rogers all the way, Antony Ross taking third and Daz Mullen spinning out of fourth on the last lap, letting Ben Harper take a well deserved trophy after qualifying through a run-off.

CLASS 9: The scene was set when the first heats needed six reruns for five races. One of the second heats took from 4 pm on Saturday to 11 am on Sunday to complete, with rolls for Paul Prior and Wayne Llewellyn along the way. Controversy surrounded the circumstances of Keith Matthews spinning out of the lead of the final, but the race restarted without Keith and Andy Hornshaw successfully defended his title by fending off young chargers Shaun Power and Sam Gould with Jason Richardson in fourth.

CLASS 10: The Tens had more wet races than any other class, and closed Saturday’s racing with a nasty shunt that saw Tony Jones and Danielle Barratt both needing the ambulance, but through it all Graham Bennett looked unbeatable. Defending champion Lee Seagreaves’ event ended when a stuck throttle took him into the barrier. Martin Browne raised Irish hopes with two wins, but failed to survive the final in which just four cars finished, spread over almost a full lap, with Alex Kershaw, Paul Fackrell and Tony Wilson chasing the flying Spanner.

CHAMPION OF CHAMPIONS: With heavy rain falling again, just five cars came out. The Class 2 pulled away from the two Fours and the Five, and actually lapped the Eight! It was a great achievement for Damian Harris to win the biggest trophy of the year, in a car that had been a bare shell at the beginning of the week, just being finished in time to arrive at the track at 3 am on Saturday!

THE WEEK BEFORE THE NATIONALS

Usually the major meeting in the last weekend of July is the King of the Hill at Bredon Hill, but with the Hilltop Raceway out of use this year the event was cancelled, leaving NORTH WALES’ meeting as the one with the widest appeal, drawing an entry of nearly 200 from as far afield as West Waterford – although Irish visitor John Fuller gave himself, and car constructor Darren Lane, a busy week before the Nationals.

Other well-supported meetings were held at MELTON, SCUNTHORPE and YORK, while CONCORD and WESSEX (with an additional fixture to replace their rained out meetings) both staged successful events. SPALDING were again unlucky with the weather, a heavy downpour finishing their meeting after the first heat.

NORTH WALES RESULTS

CLASS 1: 1st SR295 Carl Whitfield 2nd NW255 Mat Williams 3rd LM46 Simon Mills 4th NW50 Lee Hynes. CLASS 2: 1st NW46 Mark Ratcliffe 2nd LM146 Simon Mills 3rd NW32 Carl Lloyd 4th SR33 Pete Morgan. CLASS 3: 1st NW234 Barry Evans 2nd NW49 Paul Cosby 3rd NW99 Rupert Lomax 4th NW72 Pete Robinson. CLASS 4: 1st NW66 Richie Steele 2nd NW14 Paul Tyrrell 3rd NW96 Graham Moore 4th NW23 Jonathan Wells. CLASS 5: 1st SR84 Winston Jones 2nd NW43 Gaz Edwards 3rd NS46 Jake Williamson. CLASS 6: 1st NW747 Karl Andrews 2nd NW85 Wendy Barlow 3rd NW97 Dave Owen 4th NW197 Dennis Owen.  CLASS 7: 1st C2 Craig Bagley 2nd BC62 Mike Hockly 3rd BC61 Daz Hockly 4th NW37 Carl Kent. CLASS 8: 1st C108 Bill Bradford 2nd NW30 Gwilym Roberts 3rd C29 Adam Walters 4th NW212 Carl Sheffield. CLASS 9: 1st NW141 Jason Sheffield 2nd NS3 Rhys Williams 3rd NS4 John Williams 4th NW34 Ynyr Davies. CLASS 10: 1st NW117 Tony Jones 2nd NS11 Warren Davies 3rd C8 Nathan Powell. JUNIORS: 1st NW149 Jordan England 2nd NS63 Ross Evans 3rd NW210 Scott Howard 4th LM90 Joseph McCormick. JUNIOR SPECIALS: 1st NS155 Matt Berrisford 2nd NW200 Kieran Sheffield 3rd C118 Leigh Hughes 4th NW80 Trystan Roberts. CLASS 11: 1st LM87 Louise Clancy 2nd LM78 Sue Gillard 3rd ARC16 Dani Abbott 4th ARC20 Gemma Walshaw. CLASS 11A: 1st LM64 Sue Mansfield 2nd NS444 Emily Jacks 3rd NW46 Laura Pountney 4th NW38 Terri Rowland. CLASS 12: 1st NS219 Angela Evans. CLASS 14: 1st BC160 Cat Mumford 2nd NW81 Sheena Thompson.

SUMMER FOR SOME

Cork’s annual Junior Cup meeting once again provided one of the most relaxed and enjoyable two day events of the year, at NASA’s most remote and rural venue, buried deep in the West Cork countryside at Castletown-Kenneigh. The meeting had been planned to start with two heats of racing on Saturday evening, but the Cork club took advantage of the sunshine and eventually ran four full sets of heats plus a fifth heat for the Juniors. Sunday’s racing, in cooler conditions with a spot of drizzle to damp the dust down, started at 12.00 sharp, West Cork time (i.e. about five to one!) and again loads of racing was crammed in – everyone had a chance of eight races and all the Juniors had ten races over the weekend.

The main event, the Irish Fastest Junior on Grass, developed into a bit of a brawl at the first attempt, but the rerun saw a well deserved win for the furthest travelled driver present, Londonderry-based Davon Henry, whose long haul from the north coast to the south coast of Ireland was rewarded by an extremely successful weekend in his Class 1 Micra. The most competitive racing came from the big field of the older Micras in Class 1A, where Gary Lordan took the honours.

CORK RESULTS

FASTEST JUNIOR ON GRASS: 1st DA322 Davon Henry 2nd CK164 Gary Lordan 3rd CK333 Colm O’Donovan. JUNIOR CLASS 1: 1st DA322 Davon Henry 2nd CW96 Lee Mulroy 3rd CW7 Ryan Mulroy. JUNIOR CLASS 1A: 1st CK164 Gary Lordan 2nd MA551 Jack Creaven 3rd CK333 Colm O’Donovan. JUNIOR 1A B-FINAL: 1st MA290 Dylan Browne 2nd CK396 Robert Buttimer 3rd CK55 Josh Leahy. JUNIOR SPECIALS: 1st CW160 Liam Roche 2nd MA61 Dylan Cusack 3rd MA96 Niall O’Brien. CLASS 1: 1st CK21 Pat Warren. CLASS 1A: 1st MA290 Jimmy Browne 2nd CK166 Dan O’Donovan 3rd CK88 Sean O’Leary. CLASS 2: 1st CK7 Steven White 2nd CK20 Kevin Warren 3rd WW59 Damian Houlihan. CLASS 3: 1st CW5 Yvonne Kearns 2nd MA6 Paul Cusack. CLASS 4: 1st WW921 Brian Kearns 2nd CK999 Ronan Bennett 3rd CK456 Seamus O’Donovan. CLASS 5: 1st CK50 Declan McCarthy 2nd CK54 Darren Swanton. CLASS 6: 1st CK138 Liam Eyre 2nd CK43 John Thompson. CLASS 7: 1st CW162 Kevin Roche 2nd MA23 Danielle Barratt 2nd MA404 Mark Dolphin. CLASS 8: 1st MA99 Eamonn O’Brien 2nd MA8 Mark Kelly. CLASS 9: 1st MA36 Ricky Houlihan 2nd CK10 Brian O’Mahoney. CLASS 10: 1st WW318 Martin Browne. LADIES: 1st CK21 Jenny Warren 2nd CK43 Orla Galvin.

Back in the UK, the cancellation of meetings at Radford, Wessex, Forest of Dean and Leewood meant that, when the sunshine arrived, there were bumper turnouts for the two English and one Welsh meetings that did take place. PENNINE and PENHOW both attracted their record entries of well over 200, with Pennine’s two day meeting being the annual Keith Kent Memorial. SCARBOROUGH also had a well attended meeting on Sunday, while CENTRAL SCOTLAND completed two separate meetings on the Avonbridge track.

PENNINE RESULTS

CLASS 1: 1st NW50 Lee Hynes 2nd NW125 Lee Powell 3rd NS208 Steve Atkins. CLASS 2: 1st N66 Kev Spriggs 2nd SR33 Pete Morgan 3rd CA7 Jay Neville. CLASS 3: 1st Y51 Phil Thompson 2nd NS41 Steve Goodwin 3rd NS242 Raife MacDonald. CLASS 4: 1st P33EM Jason Clews 2nd WR212 Tim Crook 3rd SC137 Brian Smart. CLASS 5: 1st N333 Joe Smith 2nd N9 Karl Young 3rd CA4 Phil/Dan Neville. CLASS 6: 1st P3EM Louis Gutteridge 2nd P112EM Ben Gadsby 3rd SC400 Dave Hughes.  CLASS 7: 1st SC99 andy Kershaw 2nd NW70 Jamie Lea 3rd SR90 Colin Griffiths. CLASS 8: 1st NS151 Tom Chadwick 2nd M11 Ben Harper 3rd ARC30 Matt Moore. CLASS 9: 1st N168 Dan Wilson 2nd SR98 Chuck Jones 3rd CA14 Colin Rogers. CLASS 10: 1st LM35 Rob Simmonds 2nd P208EM Andy Hunter 3rd ARC9 Gareth Hankey. STOCK HATCH: 1st LM610 Simon Kennedy 2nd P666EM Ady/Josh Bennett 3rd P658EM Simon Kershaw. F600: 1st ST42 Gav Waby 2nd SC153 Clarice Keenan. CLASS 11: 1st LM36 Sue Gillard 2nd P191EM Kirsty Frost 3rd ARC21 Gemma Walshaw. CLASS 11A: 1st N840 Rachel Sims 2nd CA7 Carole Drury 3rd CA149 Viv Chapman. CLASS 12: 1st SR6 Jodie Faulkner 2nd LM34 Lucy Lockett 3rd WR19 Jemma Griffiths. CLASS 12A: 1st L681 Rachel Hinton. CLASS 13: 1st N4 Cath Weston 2nd ST16 Sarah Chilvers 3rd P25EM Marie Barleyman. CLASS 14: 1st WR21 Linday Stephenson 2nd M11 Barbara Harper 3rd WR20 Angie Chilvers. JUNIORS: 1st NS63 Ross Evans 2nd P53EM Shaun Nelson 3rd P70EM Jordan Hampson. JUNIOR SPECIALS: 1st NS15 Dan Owen 2nd C118 Leigh Hughes 3rd NW20 Jay Colegate.

Among the action at Pennine was this roll for Matthew White, nicely caught by Simon Tickle (www.anyhowracing.co.uk)

A SOAKING AT SUNNY SCUNNY

This weekend the BAS had a monopoly of Autograss racing, with the only scheduled club meeting at West Waterford  (replacing the Araglin Carnival event due to local date clashes) having to be cancelled. Scunthorpe’s Blyton track was also affected by the weather, but the Scunny members’ efforts made sure the BAS meeting was a great success. An organised approach to towing vehicles in and out of the boggier parts of the venue was much appreciated, while the track itself remained in excellent shape, even after a prolonged downpour on Saturday afternoon left several inches of standing water on the hard packed surface and drowned many of the Junior Specials! On Sunday the sunshine and brisk breeze quickly dried out the track and the finals took place in the familiar slick and dusty conditions. A well-attended prizegiving is often a measure of how well a meeting’s been received and this time there were plenty of people who were in no hurry to leave before the trophies had been dished out.

Several major aerobatic displays punctuated the action (not just Saturday’s Spitfire fly past!). Richard Northway, Scott Sharp, Mark Griffiths and Jamie Little all took tumbles in Class 7, as did Andy Whittingham in Class 4, Katie Wilson in Juniors, Matt Owen in Junior Specials and Craig Lowe and Marc Clayton in Class 8. Tez Alderson did his best in Class 2 but performed the save of the weekend! The two biggest rolls befell Phil Rogers and Jimmy Smith in the Class 8 semi-final and final respectively. Phil proved the theory that, if you re-run a race that’s already been safely completed, something much worse than the original reason for the re-run is bound to occur. Jimmy was promoted to a final place after this mishap, but flipped together with Simon Graeme  immediately after the start. We wish both Billy and Jimmy a speedy recovery from their heavy landings.

Results are now on the BAS website – use this link and as ever ignore the references to 2011 and 2008 results when you get there.

Photos will be at www.absnapshots.co.uk, and we’ll upload our own photos as well, if the week proves long enough!

ANOTHER WET ONE

With severe weather warnings covering most of Britain, we knew what would happen to the weekend's Autograss programme. Although Irish racers ended up with a choice of a two-day event at DOWN or the rescheduled Jim Dimond Cup meeting at CARLOW, only one of the other meetings planned for July 7/8 went ahead,  the Bob Robins Memorial at ST NEOTS. The West Midland Open was postponed until August Bank Holiday and meetings were cancelled at Central Scotland, Sturton & Stow, Nottingham, Wessex and York.

Down had a good day on Saturday but Sunday's event was washed out after one heat. Carlow's efforts to prepare their track were rewarded when they dodged the rain on Sunday and completed a successful meeting  where the main trophy was retained by Class 7 driver Kevin Roche.

St Neots didn't escape the weather but gave a good turnout of local and travelling racers probably the best possible wet weather racing experience. Saturday's programme started with a good set of heats on a dry track, but a heavy shower slowed the pace as the next two rounds of racing were run in the popular "retro" format with handicapped starts for the 8-lap races. There was still plenty of action; the Class 6s  took a starring role, avoiding any mishaps despite having up to 13 cars in a race.

Sunday reverted to a conventional race format, but progressively heavy showers meant that the meeting was curtailed after the second heats, with class trophies awarded on points. The Bob Robins Memorial Trophy race will now be contested at the East Anglian Open meeting in September, with all this weekend's winners eligible to take part.

RETRO RACE DAY RESULTS:

CLASS 1: 1st SN164 Alex Hill 2nd SP119 Joe Bourn 3rd SN617 Rob Baker. CLASS 2: 1st ST474 Jamie Hornby 2nd SN110 Jack White 3rd SN450 Tony McKenna. CLASS 3: 1st CA456 Adam Saint 2nd C13E Graham Douglas 3rd SN286 Clint Platfoot. CLASS 4: 1st = CA87 Ashley Poulter & CA242 Gary Pemberton 3rd SN81 Nathan Saunders. CLASS 5: 1st E10 Julian Heath 2nd SN20 Mark Day 3rd SC72 Martin Dixon. CLASS 6: 1st P2EM David/Louis Gutteridge 2nd IK133 Tony Reynolds 3rd P3EM Louis/David Gutteridge. CLASS 7: 1st SN66 Don Arnold 2nd M12 Tm Back 3rd CA236 Steve Fisher. CLASS 8: 1st SN51 Barry/Aly Ashmore 2nd E8 Alan Smith 3rd E111 Julian Heath. CLASS 9: 1st IK257 Sean Collin 2nd SP12 Andrew Hill 3rd SN173 Matt Tibbitts. CLASS 10: 1st SN55 Colin Sumner 2nd CA5 Tom Parr/Dave King. STOCK HATCH: 1st SN14 Mark Hill 2nd CA954 Matt Ellis. JUNIORS: 1st SN232 Kirsty Empson 2nd CA30 Jasmine Randall 3rd SN90 Max Fleckney. JUNIOR SPECIALS: 1st SN19 Josh Hassell 2nd SN23 Alex Puddiphatt 3rd SN9 Charlie Fleckney. CLASS 11: 1st SN64 Abiee Hill 2nd WR55 Jemma Griffiths 3rd T32 Hannah Fletcher. CLASS 11A: 1st ST474 Kelly Hornby. CLASS 12: 1st T9 Kirsty Noble 2nd SC72 Kate Dixon 3rd SN14 Abiee Hill. CLASS 13: 1st C266E Lianne Teather 2nd SN231 Emily Empson 3rd CA548 Emma Saint. CLASS 14: 1st ST46 Tina Hilton 2nd E111 Diane Heath 3rd CA647 Bathany Marjoram. UNMODIFIED OPEN: 1st SN450 Ollie Sole 2nd SP119 Joe Bourn 3rd SP69 Paul Barrow. MODIFIED OPEN: 1st M121 Marc Grasby 2nd IK133 Tony Reynolds 3rd S66Y Marc Graystone. SPECIALS OPEN: 1st E111 Julian Heath 2nd ST46 Simon Hornby 3rd SP12 Andrew Hill. JUNIOR OPEN: 1st SN201 Jake Bartlett 2nd SN232 Kirsty Empson 3rd SN90 Max Fleckney.

BOB ROBINS MEMORIAL RESULTS:

CLASS 1: 1st SN43 Daniel Robins 2nd M37 Brett Mead 3rd SN10 Mark Empson. CLASS 2: 1st = ST474 Jamie Hornby & SN450 Tony McKenna 3rd M999 Steve Goodman. CLASS 3: 1st SN270 Barry Almond 2nd CA456 Adam Saint 3rd = IK32 Steve Carpenter & SN269 Dave George. CLASS 4: 1st CA242 Gary Pemberton 2nd SC36 Dane Coupland 3rd SN81 Nathan Saunders. CLASS 5: 1st  ST6 Colin Chilvers & T9 Dan Godfrey 3rd SN20 Mark Day. CLASS 6: 1st SN711 Anthony Phillips 2nd SN668 Ollie Sole 3rd P2EM David Gutteridge. CLASS 7: 1st SN145 Kraig Murley 2nd N60 Paul Bacon 3rd SN24 Mark Smith. CLASS 8: 1st E8 Alan Smith 2nd E111 Julian Heath 3rd SN51 Barry Ashmore CLASS 9: 1st = SN75 Stuart Hurrell & SN173 Matt Tibbitts. CLASS 10: 1st CA5 Tom Parr. STOCK HATCH: 1st = SN14 Mark Hill & CA954 Matt Ellis. JUNIORS: 1st SN232 Kirsty Empson 2nd = SN201 Jake Bartlett & SN12 Tom Hall. JUNIOR SPECIALS: 1st SN11 Ash Howard 2nd SN19 Josh Hassell  3rd SN2 Josh Howard. CLASS 11: 1st SN288 Hayley Empson 2nd CA181 Rachel Phillips 3rd SN64 Abiee Hill. CLASS 11A: 1st ST474 Kelly Hornby 2nd N18 Becky Smith. CLASS 12: 1st = ST6 Sarah Chilvers & E10 Diane Heath 3rd = T9 Kirsty Noble & SN14 Abiee Hill. CLASS 13: 1st C266E Lianne Teather 2nd C13E Graham Douglas 3rd CA548 Emma Saint.

SUNNY SCARBORO' SUITS SOUTHERNERS

The ninth running of the Stock Hatch Nationals, hosted by Scarborough Autograss Club at Hunmanby, proved probably the most successful yet. 31 signed on entries gave the event its biggest field to date, and the hard-working Scarborough members delivered perfect track conditions which resulted in ultra-close and clean racing all weekend. Sixteen heats, followed by E, D, C and B finals built up to the A-final in which local hero Rob Farrow looked set to score a third successive title, until a last lap move saw Essex's Mike Sullivan take the win, with former champ Tony Staples snatching second for the third year running. The Ladies' title also went south with Suffolk's Abiee Hill beating local girl Trena Hopper after a tense battle throughout their five races. There was also plenty of action in the support classes, especially in Class 1, where Abiee's brother Alex Hill mastered the challenging Hunmanby track on his first visit.

SCARBOROUGH RESULTS:

CLASS 1: 1st SN164 Alex Hill 2nd S93Y Mike Tunnicliff 3rd P87EM Gareth Stokes. CLASS 2: SC600 Anthony Conway 2nd S309Y Matty Sellars 3rd SC126 Craig Conway. CLASS 3: 1st S101Y James Berriman. CLASS 4: 1st S125Y Connor Gill. CLASS 5: 1st SC44 Adam Hyde 2nd S91Y Mark Basham 3rd S8Y Paul Shepherdson. CLASS 6: 1st S76Y James Armstrong 2nd S134Y Peter Bogg. CLASS 7: 1st P502EM Mark Guy 2nd S12Y Chris Hodgson. CLASS 8: 1st Y217 Michael Barratt 2nd YD76 Stephen Thomas 3rd P503EM John Leighton. JUNIORS: 1st S47Y Ben Wall 2nd S89Y Senna Proctor 3rd S48Y Josh Stonehouse. JUNIOR SPECIALS: 1st Y218 Ayrton Ellison 2nd SC38 Zack Booth. CLASS 11: 1st S93Y Amanda Tunnicliff 2nd YD59 Lynn Robson CLASS 12: 1st S134Y Andrea Dixon 2nd S8Y Nikki Shepherdson.

The weekend's other major event was the CUMBERLAND OPEN, held at Solway's Hay Close track. An 11-car line-up for the Cumberland Open Championship race, featuring all class winners plus defending champion Matt Astbury, saw the title go to Jason Ballantyne. The Ladies' championship saw Michelle Arnett successfully defend her title in her newly re-shelled Corsa and Matty Cobb's special overhauled Kirby Johnston's Mini to win the Junior title.

CUMBERLAND OPEN RESULTS:

CLASS 1: 1st YD35 Rachael Davis 2nd LM112 Matt Astbury 3rd YD197 Alun Adams. CLASS 2: 1st YD30 Dan Grufferty 2nd YD2 Liam Hilton 3rd SB93 David Ford. CLASS 3: 1st YD18 Stevie Bowes 2nd SL66 Mark Little 3rd CS54 Kevin Nichol. CLASS 5: SL86 Paul Wilson. CLASS 6: 1st SL22 Jason Ballantyne 2nd YD16 Aaron Cavagin 3rd SL11 Joe Threlkeld. CLASS 7: 1st  YD21 Andy Jefferson  2nd  YD49 Nick Constantine 3rd CS73 James Mulraney. CLASS 8: 1st SB8 Jack Rawlinson 2nd YD54 Tim Corner 3rd SL14 William Stuart. CLASS 9: 1st YD182 James Bowe 2nd YD143 Ben Wilson 3rd YD117 Dennis Raffel. CLASS 10: 1st SL5 Mark Johnston 2nd SL80 Phil Talbot 3rd CS1 Mick Nairns. STOCK HATCH: 1st SL626 Kevin Brough 4th SL38 Andrew Shaw (GF) 5th SL64 Lloyd Stephenson(GF). F600: 1st SB20 Andrew Watson 2nd SB5 Tony Nicholson 3rd SL101 Jonny Dawson. JUNIORS: 1st SL55 Kirby Johnston 2nd SL6 Daniel Talbot 3rd SL24 Lauren Charlton. JUNIOR SPECIALS: 1st SL177 Matty Cobb 2nd SL118 Curtis McBride 3rd YD100 Kieran Graham. LADIES’ CLASS 1: CS813 Rosie Nairns. LADIES’ CLASS 2: 1st YD209 Michelle Arnett 2nd SL222 Leanne Huschka 3rd YD98 Suzy Aldritt. LADIES’ CLASS 5: 1st SL15 Julie Graham.

CUMBERLAND OPEN JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP: 1st SL177 Matty Cobb 2nd SL55 Kirby Johnston 3rd SL118 Curtis McBride. CUMBERLAND OPEN LADIES CHAMPIONSHIP: 1st YD209 Michelle Arnett 2nd SL15 Julie Graham 3rd CS813 Rosie Nairns. CUMBERLAND OPEN MENS CHAMPIONSHIP: 1st SL22 Jason Ballantyne 2nd YD21 Andy Jefferson  3rd YD35 Rachael Davis.

Two classic meetings scheduled this weekend were cancelled; the West Wales Open due to its new venue awaiting planning permission, and Evesham's Alf Cope Memorial to allow the Dodwell track to be restored from the ravages of the MAP Open. Evesham was replaced by an extra meeting at Radford.

RADFORD RESULTS:

CLASS 1: 1st E121 Andy Kelsey 2nd R137 Steve Edwards 3rd E292 Martyn Canning 4th S122D Jordan Smith. CLASS 2: 1st R246 Alex Broadway 2nd E109 Kev Littlewood 3rd P6EM Nick Gregory 4th R601 Craig Buck. CLASS 3: 1st Y51 Phil Thompson 2nd E56 Neil Corbett 3rd 123F Dave Westlake 4th E16 Pete Haines. CLASS 4: 1st E51 Luke Oakley 2nd IK221 Pete Berry 4rd E66 Sam Forsey 4th R201 Malc Fitzpatrick. CLASS 5: 1st S73D Graham Steadman 2nd E9 Charlie Holloway 3rd S121D Carl Smith 4th R42 John Wright. CLASS 6: 1st E6 Barry Holloway 2nd R27 Dave Houghton 3rd E5 Micky Manning 4th B110H Roger Gurney. CLASS 7: 1st S29D Neil Robins 2nd R139 Paul Waldron 3rd S23D Mark Wilson 4th E14 Rob Holloway. CLASS 8: 1st PHD47 Danny Thomas 2nd M11 Ben Harper 3rd R271 Max Lewis 4th E111 Julian Heath. CLASS 9: 1st E26 Mark Barker 2nd R8 Andrew Adams 3rd E18 Trev Smith. CLASS 10: 1st S74D Phil Young 2nd SS166 Paul Coles 3rd SV81 Mark Webber 4th E444 Steve Hopkin. LADIES’ CLASS 1: 1st R183 Missy Moseley 2nd R2 Rachel Dewhurst 3rd E391 Laura Canning 4th E105 Anna Langridge. LADIES’ CLASS 2: 1st R900 Laura Morgan 2nd R26 Sarah King 3rd E82 Lucy Gurney. LADIES’ CLASS 3: 1st E214 Robyn King. LADIES’ CLASS 5: 1st R71 Kyi Smith 2nd S121D Donna Smith. LADIES’ CLASS 7: 1st E122 Jill Grasby. LADIES’ CLASS 8: 1st E17 Sally Stratton 2nd M11 Barbara Harper 3rd E111 Diane Heath 4th S46D Chloe Smith. JUNIORS: 1st SS10 Dev North 2nd E67 Joe Forsey 3rd R515 Kieran Waterhouse 4th S64D Jake Webb. JUNIOR SPECIALS: 1st SS11 Dex North 2nd SS167 Tori Coles 3rd R14 Russ Victory  4th S102D Tyler Heath-Byard.

Another additional fixture was at WEST WATERFORD where, despite conditions becoming very wet during the day, two heats and finals were completed before the Michael O'Sullivan cup race was won bu Kieran Cashel.

WEST WATERFORD RESULTS:

CLASS 1: 1st WW43 Sean O’Grady 2nd WW3 Kieran Cashel 3rd WW216 James Daly. CLASS 1A: 1st WW147 Willie O’Dwyer 2ndWW58 Ricky Houlihan 3rd WW80 Berry Regter. CLASS 2: 1st CK96 Stephen O’Neill 2nd CW22 Shane Farrell 3rd WW59 Damien Houlihan. CLASS 3: 1st CW25 Ed Sheehan 2nd WW81 Gerry Kelly. CLASS 4: 1st WW50 Jim Hayde 2nd WW921 Brian Kearns 3rd WW159 Michael Fuller. CLASS 5: 1st CW12 James Brady 2nd CK54 Darren Swanton 3rd CW31 Cormac Maher. CLASS 6: 1st WW73 Alan Houlihan 2nd WW261 Paul Devine 3rd DA43 Joe Kehoe. CLASS 7: 1st CW162 Kevin Roche 2nd WW998 Patrick Sheehy 3rd WW40 Dermot Kelly. CLASS 8: 1st CK3 Colin Byrne 2nd WW178 Tom Buckley 3rd DA821 Joe McGrath. CLASS 9: 1st WW252 Shane Houlihan. CLASS 10: 1st WW143 Gavin Tivy. FORMULA 600: 1st CW99 Chris Dimond 2nd WW77 Kevin Keating 3rd WW11 Sean O’Sullivan. LADIES: 1st CW31 Bridget Hutton 2nd MA257 Claire Parker. JUNIOR CLASS 1:  1st CW96 Lee Mulroy 2nd WW106 Brian Meagher 3rd CW2 Courtney Brady. JUNIOR 1A: 1st MA551 Jack Creaven 2nd CK123 Cian O’Mahoney 3rd CK296 Eoghan O’Neill. JUNIOR SPECIALS: 1st MA155 Jack Creaven 2nd WW97 Jack Byrne 3rd WW93 Aaron Falvey. WINNERS’ RACE (The Michael O’Sullivan Perpetual Cup): 1st WW3 Kieran Cashel 2nd CK96 Stephen O’Neill 3rd CW12 James Brady.

On Sunday LEEWOOD staged their third "Wars of the Roses" meeting and  NORTH SHROPSHIRE ran the second Cary Evans Memorial event. Other meetings were at INVICTA, CONCORD and LUDLOW. Round 2 of the SEGTO Championship took place at TONGHAM. 

MUDDIER THAN THE BAS

While the opening British Autograss Series round saw the Severn Valley club successfully overcome pre-event and overnight rain to deliver excellent track conditions to the 684 signed on drivers, the "alternative" event at SPALDING wasn't so lucky. With the cancellation of Cork's meeting, Spalding were the only NASA club offering an "open to all" meeting this weekend, and attracted interest from all over the country. Unfortunately though a forecast of heavy overnight rain put off most of the potential visitors, and even more unfortunately the forecast proved right. The club chose to go ahead and all but a couple of the drivers present enjoyed a day of slow-motion mud plugging.

The only alternatives to the next two BAS rounds are at West Waterford and Central Scotland respectively, so it will now be down to Melton and Concord in September to demonstrate how a strategically placed club racing alternative can succeed on a BAS weekend.

BAS results can now be downloaded from the following link (ignore what's on the BAS links page - they really are the 2012 results!)

Andrea's BAS photos are all now uploaded - here are some highlights, including Matty Jones receiving Sallyann Hayden's congratulations after his fund-raiding half-marathon run round the track. Matty's efforts raised over £1,200 for charities associated with the late Gary Speed and you can still help him increase that total by visiting http://www.justgiving.com/mattjones7. Then there's Donal O'Brien's record of wrecking two cars within a couple of hours; Dec Traylor establishing a "BAS 1" tradition; the Dickster's spectacular Class 10 debut, and so it went on ...

SPALDING RESULTS:

CLASS 1: 1st = SP41 Callum Rankin & SP119 Joe Bourn 3rd SP551 Daniel Pearce 4th SP42 Ken Tomes. CLASS 2: 1st = CA149 Peter Chapman & CA7 Jay Neville 3rd M999 Stephen Goodman. CLASS 3: 1st C13E Graham Douglas 2nd T2 Barry Hoyes. CLASS 4: 1st = ST13 John Howseman & ST213 John Howseman! CLASS 5: 1st N102 Marcus Fletcher 2nd SP95 Mark Shirley 3rd M121 Marc Grasby. CLASS 6: 1st M7 Nick Clarke 2nd SP114 Stephen Pearsall 3rd SP29 Nigel Elderkin. CLASS 7: 1st M12 Tim Back. CLASS 9: 1st CA14 Colin Rogers 2nd M5 Julie Walford 3rd CA16 Barry Rogers. F600: 1st SP123 Jack Barrs. JUNIORS: 1st SP791 Thomas Baggaley 2nd SP144 Jack Whitmore 3rd = CA30 Jasmine Randall, SP42 Harry Tebutt & T1 Kayley Percival. JUNIOR SPECIALS: 1st = T25 Dean Percival & SP744 Jordan Butcher. LADIES: 1st SP119 Amelia Gabriel 2nd CA149 Vivienne Chapman 3rd T32 Hannah Fletcher.

NEW BROOMS SWEEP CLEAN

The new organisational team at CAMBRIDGE Autograss were thrown in at the deep end mid-season, but their first event proved to be one of the club's most successful meetings. A healthy turnout for the East Anglian league's final National qualifier was boosted by a good number of visitors from Essex, Kent, Fenland, the East Midlands and Shropshire, who were greeted by perfect track conditions on a fine, dry, mainly sunny day. The closest qualifying battle saw Shayne Deegan just pip Daniel Robins for top spot in Class 1, while the most successful of the new visitors was Sam Gould, with a win in Class 9. There were a few mishaps, including heavy rolls for Tony McKenna and Rhys Puddiphatt, but the club caught up all the lost time to achieve an early finish despite plenty of open racing.

CAMBRIDGE RESULTS:

CLASS 1: 1st CA28 Shayne Deegan 2nd SN43 Daniel Robins 3rd SN10 Mark Empson. CLASS 2: 1st SN405 Jason Thomas 2nd SN110 Jack White 3rd SP69 Dan Barrow. CLASS 3: 1st SN269 Dave George 2nd SN270 Barry Almond 3rd IK316 Martin Beaney. CLASS 4: 1st C3E Mike Sullivan 2nd SN81 Nathan Saunders 3rd CA242 Gary Pemberton. CLASS 5: 1st SN20 Mark Day 2nd IK5 Dave Sweatman 3rd C20E Kieran Lonergan. CLASS 6: 1st CA25 Andy Shipp 2nd SN73 Matt Tibbitts 3rd C82E Steve Hathaway. CLASS 7: 1st SN145  Dave George 2nd CA236 Steve Fisher 3rd SN66 John Newland. CLASS 8: 1st SN8 Chris Pope 2nd SN51 Barry Ashmore 3rd SN60 Andy Hall. CLASS 9: 1st NS343 Sam Gould 2nd CA21 Chum Ansell 3rd SN173 Matt Tibbitts. CLASS 10: 1st CA1 Lee Deegan 2nd NS120 Liam Evans 3rd IK54 Damian Richards. STOCK HATCH: 1st C16E John Sullivan 2nd SN14 Mark Hill. JUNIORS: 1st SN201 Jake Bartlett 2nd SN232 Kirsty Empson 3rd CA81 Jessica Taylor. JUNIOR SPECIALS: 1st SN11 Ash Howard 2nd SN19 Josh Hassell 3rd SN2 Josh Howard. CLASS 11: 1st SN288 Hayley Empson 2nd CA181 Rachel Taylor 3rd SP119 Amelia Gabriel. CLASS 11A:  1st SN47 Sharron Barrett. CLASS 12: 1st SN14 Abiee Hill 2nd SP18 Rachel Taylor 3rd SN668 Vicky Sole. CLASS 13: 1st C13E Sharon Douglas 2nd CA548 Emma Saint 3rd SN270 Beth Flynn. CLASS 14: 1st CA647 Bethany Marjoram. CAMBRIDGE OPEN: 1st CA543 Vic Marjoram 2nd CA547 Charlie Marjoram 3rd CA296 Kevin Wager. JUNIOR OPEN: 1st SN90 Max Fleckney 2nd SN232 Kirsty Empson 3rd SN19 Josh Hassell. EAST ANGLIAN OPEN: 1st SN10 Mark Empson 2nd SN164 Alex Hill 3rd SN110 Jack White.

Elsewhere there were special events in the north and south: the North western League performed during Friday, Saturday and Sunday in a series of exhibition races at the prestigious Cholmondeley Pageant of Power where, despite a wet start, they promoted Autograss well in front of the large crowds attending the event. Rolling Thunder Show racers joined other oval and circuit racers, for a special two-day meeting at LYDDEN circuit. Back to the regular race programme: DOWN AUTOGRASS  ran another two day meeting, although CENTRAL SCOTLAND's racing ended up being rained off on both days. The rest of the action all took place on Sunday with Saturday occupied by NASA committee meetings. INVICTA, CONCORD, GLOUCESTER, LUDLOW, NORTH WALES and WEST WATERFORD's meetings were cancelled, but STURTON & STOW and SCARBOROUGH both enjoyed good conditions for their successful final national qualifiers. PENHOW were the only club in the west to survive the weather and laid on a successful and well attended meeting. PENNINE recovered from a wet start to have a good day's racing. SEGTO meetings took place at TONGHAM and STANDLAKE.

PENNINE RESULTS:

CLASS 1: 1st P65EM Steve Heath 2nd SR340 Dave Roberts 3rd SR28 David Thomas. CLASS 2: 1st P12EM John Gadsby 2nd P7EM Ben Gadsby 3rd BC60 Daz Hockly. CLASS 4: 1st P33EM Jason Clews. CLASS 6: 1st P3EM Louis Gutteridge 2nd P2EM Dave Gutteridge 3rd SR85 Gareth Morgan. CLASS 7: 1st P502EM Mark Guy 2nd M87 Bob Rouse. CLASS 8: 1st SR88 Drew Butters 2nd P503EM John Leighton. STOCK HATCH: 1st L644 Mick Wood 2nd N183 Lee Dexter 3rd N363 Barry Wasley. JUNIORS: 1st P70EM Jordan Hampson 2nd N47 Aiden Derry 3rd P53EM Shaun Nelson. CLASS 11: 1st P29EM Charlotte Rice 2nd P191EM Kirsty Frost 3rd N38 Claire King.

Sturton attracted 149 entries, the strongest classes being F600, with 17 cars contesting the latest British Championship round, and Class 4, also with 17 cars; the entry was boosted by this being one of the “official” awaydays for the Whiterose club.

STURTON RESULTS:

CLASS 1: 1st ST19 Simon Farrar 2nd WR27 Sam Hughes 3rd ST119 Jack Mullen. CLASS 2: 1st SC600 Anthony Conway 2nd T132 Conrad Noble 3rd SC64 Tom Bryant. CLASS 3: 1st Y51 Phil Thompson 2nd SC131 Mark Houlton 3rd ST24 Jon Farrar. CLASS 4: 1st ST13 John Howseman 2nd ST18 Chris Wood 3rd ST52 Alex Fretwell. CLASS 5: 1st ST69 Wayne Yeardley. CLASS 6: 1st SC33 Rob Milbourn 2nd Y205 Scott Macaulay 3rd SC808 Tony Jobson. CLASS 7: SC167 Marc Clayton 2nd ST50 Dave Fretwell. CLASS 8: 1st SC95 Chris Atkinson 2nd WR32 Bryn Hawkins 3rd SC67 Marc Clayton. CLASS 9: 1st SC14 Russ Thompson 2nd Y393 Ben Wilson 3rd SC150 Anthony Read. CLASS 10: 1st SC3 Ken Salt. FORMULA 600: 1st ST1 Terry Cox 2nd LM1 Zoe Leyland 3rd LM40 Andy Dingley. CLASS 11: 1st M90 Nicola Bettoney 2nd WR55 Jemma Griffiths 3rd WR165 Gina Bird. CLASS 12: 1st ST6 Sarah Chilvers. CLASS 13: 1st WR33. CLASS 14: 1st WR21 Lindsay Stephenson 2nd SC393 Katie Lockwood 3rd ST305 Georgia Holloway. JUNIORS: 1st WR192 Joe Jopling 2nd ST70 Will Hunt 3rd SC43 Dec Jackson. JUNIOR SPECIALS: 1st SC22 2nd Y218 3rd ST60 Matt Barnbrooke. FATHERS’ DAY RACE: 1st SC393 John & Jake Lockwood

MAP MAKE THE EARTH MOVE

The MAP LEAGUE against all the odds pulled off a hugely successful MAP Open meeting. The event came very close to cancellation after torrential rain on Thursday and Friday. Just minutes before the final decision was made at noon on Friday it was at best 50:50 whether the event would go ahead, but MAP made the brave decision to press on, and then a team of Evesham and Radford members moved in with an impressive array of machinery, and worked non stop through the day and night, despite more heavy rain, to carve a race track out of a sea of mud. Their efforts were rewarded as, by the end of the weekend, many onlookers were hailing this as one of the best MAP Opens. The confirmation that the meeting was on came too late for many long distance drivers to make it, but the eventual entry, with 450 drivers signed on, was ideal for an event of this stature, and the meeting benefited from the manageable numbers. And, by some miracle, it stayed dry, and largely sunny, throughout the racing!

There were several rollovers and other accidents, but not nearly as many as would be expected at such a big meeting, and the racing proved excellent as the track dried out, culminating in an action packed set of finals - with overtaking!

Although the hard pressed league members were the true heroes of the event, on track Mark "Blobby" Grice was the star - a week after taking the North of England title he won both Class 5 and 8 before taking his Class 5 to victory in the Eric Carlin Memorial Champion of Champions race. The concurrent Ladies' Champion of Champions went to Nicola Mackenzie.

The British Junior Championships produced deserving winners in Jake Bartlett and Matt Booth. The Class 9 final was the first running of the Phil Dyke Memorial Trophy, won by John Whitehouse. Carl Ray took the Fred Jupe Memorial Trophy, presented by another Class 10 legend, Dave Fernihough, for his Class 10 win, and the other major trophy, the "Spirit of MAP" award, went to Junior racer Shaun Elliott Jackson, who bounced back after rolling his Mini on Saturday.

Full MAP results can be downloaded here - thanks to Robyn King, Andrew English and their helpers for again providing a results service worthy of the event.

Unluckiest driver at MAP was possibly former SEGTO racer Sean Collin, who made his first major final in Class 9, only to be launched in the first corner of a rerun into a roll violent enough to dent his crash helmet. Also unlucky were Gary Wetherick, the Isle of Wight Class 10 man being the weekend's first winner in what would be his only race, and young Louis Gutteridge, who had a great Class 6 final win taken away by a green flag. The marshals' favourite was Tom Bendell, the only driver to clear the infield mud banks, who then drove across the infield and waited until his rear wheels were perfectly in line with the marshals' post before flooring the throttle. Thanks Tom!

There were very few other events scheduled this weekend. YORKSHIRE DALES managed to run a successful meeting after a wet start put the event in doubt. Steve Belcher was photographing the Sales meeting - www.southyorksphotography.co.uk.  CARLOW's Jim Dimond Cup meeting had to be postponed due to the weather and will now be run on 8 July.  The postponed first round of the SEGTO CHAMPIONSHIP took place at Horndean.

FINE START FOR ALL IRELAND

The 2012 All Ireland Autograss Series got off to an excellent start at Down Autograss' Maghaberry track on June 2/3. 112 entries included strong representation from every club in Ireland and the competition was somewhat fraught in several classes, resulting in quite a few race stoppages. However, there were few major incidents apart from two rolls in Class 2 for Carlow's Shane Farrell and young Cork driver Steven White. The Class 5 final ended in a controversial clash between John Haffey and John Wilde while two other classes in which the action came thick and fast were Class 7, won by Evan Wylie, and Class 8, in which Ciaran "Mousey" Creane took the honours. Pembroke-based Paul Pearce crossed the sea yet again to take a clean sweep in Class 1. The Champion of Champions went to West Waterford Class 2 man Damian Houlihan.

Full results can be downloaded here:

The All Ireland round started in fine sunny conditions on Saturday and although Sunday's weather was chilly and overcast, most importantly it stayed dry, as it did for the meeting at CENTRAL SCOTLAND. Further south the weather again played havoc and CONCORD sadly had to abandon their new 2 day South of England Championship with very few races run. The other two major two day events, YORK's North of England Championship and SEVERN VALLEY's "Summer Showdown" were disrupted by heavy rain on Sunday, but both clubs pulled their meetings round to a successful conclusion in much better conditions on Monday.

Severn Valley, with an unconfirmed total of around 350 signed on, enjoyed good conditions for most of Sunday before torrential rain caused the finals to be abandoned; the rain persisted all night, but it didn't take long for the track to be restored to excellent shape for Monday's meeting. Highlights included the debut of Shane Manley's new Class 3 DAF, which beat some top class 3 names to win its first ever race, while first time racers included Emily Barrett (R10).

York started on Saturday with 185 drivers signed on for a very full but relaxed day's racing. 315 drivers signed on for the North of England event, but persistent rain on Sunday meant only half of them raced in the two heats. On Monday conditions were soon dry and even dusty and a further two heats and finals were run, with Mark "Blobby" Grice, Vicky "Sooty" Appleton and Zack Booth taking the prestigious North Of England titles.

Also of note is that this was a special Jubilee weekend - Down Autograss was celebrating 25 years of NASA Autograss in Ireland. A very welcome guest was the man who started it all Cavan Ferrie, who made a flying visit from his home on Crete.

NORTH OF ENGLAND RESULTS

CLASS 1: 1st N295 Rob Drake, 2nd Y131 Joe Sharp 3rd S94Y Sean Benson 4th Y75 Ollie Burley. CLASS 2: 1st Y150 Alan Suttle 2nd Y41 Dave Smith 3rd S111Y Phil Wall 4th SN296 George Tillson-Smith. CLASS 3: 1st Y23 Rob Cooper 2nd WR26 Martin Sharp 3rd WR17 David Crowther 4th ST24 Simon Farrar. CLASS 4: 1st Y1 Adam Henley 2nd Y60 Mick Norgate 3rd ST52 Alex Fretwell 4th Y132 Sam Green. CLASS 5: 1st Y44 Mark Grice, 2nd NS76 Paul Darlington, 3rd YD916 Wes Green 4th SB69 Phil Peek. CLASS 6: 1st WR1 Chris Dunwell 2nd S76Y James Armstrong 3rd SL60 Andrew Davidson 4th Y308 Eddy Church. CLASS 7: 1st SC61 Andy Holtby, 2nd YD17 Martyn Smith, 3rd Y4 Russ Tinker 4th SC82 Karl Mosley. CLASS 8: 1st SC67 Marc Clayton, 2nd WR32 Bryn Hawkins, 3rd T7 John Whitehouse 4th SC235 Paul Johnson. CLASS 9: 1st S3Y Jem Snowden 2nd SC150 Anthony Read 3rd YD182 James Bowe 4th SB47 Allan Kerr. CLASS 10: 1st SL5 Mark Johnston, 2nd ARC9 Sam Hankey 3rd WR175 Dave Stokes. STOCK HATCH: 1st Y178 Tony Staples 2nd S227Y Peter Wilson 3rd Y105 Andy Kitchen 4th Y118 Pete Clegg. FORMULA 600: 1st SB20 Andy Watson 2nd N40 Ross Sinclair 3rd ST42 Gav Waby 4th ST48 Paul Moorhouse.  JUNIORS: 1st SC16 Zack Booth, 2nd Y144 Callum Hope 3rd Y182 Josh Watson 4th S35Y Josh Stonehouse. JUNIOR SPECIALS: 1st SC38 Zack Booth 2nd SL177 Matty Cobb 3rd NS88 Aiden Arrowsmith 4th SL118 Curtis McBride. LADIES 1: 1st Y55 Alice Hughes 2nd LM87 Louise Clancy 3rd SL274 Ashlea Cowperthwaite 4th Y194 Katy Cockshott. LADIES 2: 1st LM49 Annette McGrady 2nd SC126 Jess Roberts 3rd YD2 Angie Hilton 4th Y888 Beth Wood. LADIES 3: No starters. LADIES 4: 1st S92Y Katie Benson. LADIES 5: 1st YD916 Kim Green. LADIES 6: 1st S222Y Kay Clayton 2nd SC35 Abi Wade 3rd S66Y Sam Graystone. LADIES 7: 1st YD17 Jo Thompson, 2nd YD178 Sarah Haigh 3rd N60 Sue Thom. LADIES 8: 1st S2Y Vicky Appleton, 2nd ST121 Charlie Wright, 3rd WR2 Rosemary Glover 4th SC17 Clare Horner. LADIES 9: 1st YD171 Christine Raffel, 2nd S3Y Ann Marshall. LADIES 10: 1st SL5 Lynn Johnston, 2nd ARC9 Charlene Harrison. CHAMPION OF CHAMPIONS: 1st Y44 Mark Grice 2nd SB20 Andy Watson. LADIES’ CHAMPION OF CHAMPIONS: 1st S2Y Vicky Appleton 2nd SC17 Clare Horner.

Our thanks to Sandy Williams and Nicola Jesse for the information from York.

SEVERN VALLEY RESULTS (unofficial)

CLASS 1: 1st WS40 Dougie Atkins 2nd R183 Ollie Sole 3rd PAC10 Barry Lewis 4th SV69 James Mayo. CLASS 2: 1st PAC81 Will Elford 2nd P7EM Ben Gadsby 3rd C20 Dan Evans 4th PAC51 Matt Sawyer. CLASS 3: 1st ARC27 Lee Almond 2nd WS22 Adrian Joyce 3rd SN270 Barry Almond 4th SR55 Bob Matthews. CLASS 4: 1st S22D Luke Smith 2nd TA36 Trystan Daniels 3rd R201 Malc Fitzpatrick 4th BC25 Jumbo Williams. CLASS 5: 1st S45D Jeff Bateman 2nd S12D Katie Phipps 3rd S24D Jordan Candy 4th R420 Al Green. CLASS 6: 1st PHD57 Neil Morgan 2nd N25 Andrew Smith 3rd N10 Martyn Janes 4th SC50 Chris Juggins.  CLASS 7: 1st BC59 Simon Bentley 2nd MA18 Donal O’Brien 3rd SP3 Mike Mackenzie 4th S20D Steve Smith. CLASS 8: 1st LUD80 Jimmy Smith 2nd NS151 Tom Chadwick 3rd PHD47 Danny Thomas 4th LM9 Geoff Gallagher. CLASS 9: 1st S2D James Candy 2nd NS3 Rhys Williams 3rd TA55 Deri Davies 4th NS4 John Williams. CLASS 10: 1st PHD15 Gareth Paines 2nd SC21 Alex Kershaw 3rd BC19 Colin Court 4th NW117 Tony Jones. JUNIORS: 1st IK356 Mitch Wells 2nd P70EM Jordan Hampson 3rd SV4 Kieran Griffiths 4th N47 Aiden Derry. JUNIOR SPECIALS: 1st NS155 Matt Berrisford 2nd WS2 Jack Joyce3rd NW200 Kieran Sheffield 4th NW80 Trystan Roberts. LADIES’ CLASS 1: 1st PAC2 Alice Bevans 2nd L10 Ella Markham 3rd PAC10 Caroline Thompson 4th TA66 Fiona Thomas. LADIES’ CLASS 2: 1st R140 Sue Harris 2nd PAC81 Shelley Neale 3rd SV1 4th B12H Hannah Clague. LADIES’ CLASS 3: 1st ARC8 Jacquie Power 2nd SN270 Beth Flynn. LADIES’ CLASS 4: 1st NR9 Sarah Levics. LADIES’ CLASS 5: 1st S45D Sarah Bateman 2nd S12D Maisie Phipps 3rd T9 4th R420 Natalie Green. LADIES’ CLASS 6: 1st SR6 Jodie Faulkner 2nd N225 Kerrilee Wilson 3rd S2 Leanne Lewis 4th C121 Mandy Newman. LADIES’ CLASS 7: 1st SP141 Nicola Mackenzie 2nd TA31 3rd BC62 Claire Hockly. LADIES’ CLASS 8: 1st LM9 Mel Gallagher 2nd S50D Bev Candy 3rd NS55 Claire Cockerill 4th WR21 Lindsay Stephenson. LADIES’ CLASS 9: 1st WR20 Gemma Stephenson 2nd WS9 Jane Baynton 3rd S14D Nancy Hughes 4th YS37 Kelly Bishop. CHAMPION OF CHAMPIONS: 1st SV100 Conner Griffiths 2nd R140 Sue Harris 3rd WS40 Dougie Atkins. JUNIOR CHAMPION OF CHAMPIONS: 1st IK356 Mitch Wells 2nd NS155 Matt Berrisford 3rd YS73 Matt Bishop 4th NW80 Trystan Roberts.

Our photo galleries this week also feature short circuit action from Northern Ireland's two premier venues, the Ballymena Showgrounds and the superb brand new Tullyroan Oval, while we broke our journey home for some shale action at Stoke. Thanks to the promoters Aubrey Arbuthnot (Ballymena), Darren Black (Tullyroan) and Steve Rees (Stoke) and their staff for all their help.

MOONLIGHT MADNESS

The second running of SCUNTHORPE's annual night meeting at Blyton attracted 312 entries (approximately, as cars were still turning up after the evening programme started) and provided a very full day of action, most of it taking place in hot sunny conditions, with just the last hour or so of racing, featuring the A-finals, taking place under the floodlights.

The night meeting was followed up by a club meeting on Sunday but there was also a fine mixture of meetings is on offer for what, in a "normal" year, would have been Bank Holiday weekend. STAR stuck with this date for their two day MIDDLE OF ENGLAND CHAMPIONSHIP, while there were hot and sunny National qualifiers on Sunday at NOTTINGHAM, ST NEOTS, INVICTA, SOUTH WALES and WESSEX, with other meetings at CWMDU, FOREST OF DEAN and CORK.

Invicta's meeting showed the continuing strength of the Kent club, now the largest single club in the country, with 144 drivers signed on, every one of them being from the home club. Highlights included a return by Jason Ford, who proved that a traditional FWD Mini could still win in Class 5, while in Class 7 Ray Harrison battled with two true legends of Autograss, Chris Allanson and Terry Moore. Maybe the race of the day was the three way battle in Class 2, where Martin Beaney just beat Derek Linch and Steve Carpenter.

Wessex had a healthy turnout of 93 cars for their qualifier, but it wasn't so good for Chris Ellis, who managed another big roll in his Class 10 - photos below are from Pauline Street.

SCUNTHORPE A FINAL RESULTS

CLASS 1: 1st SV100 Conner Griffiths 2nd R54 Lee Deegan 3rd SC25 Ian Ullathorne 4th S116Y Jimbob Johnson. CLASS 2: 1st T132 Conrad Noble 2nd S71Y Rob Farrow 3rd SC85 Phil Clark 4th SC126 Craig Conway. CLASS 3: 1st Y51 Phil Thompson 2nd SC2 Martin Dalzell 3rd SC121 Mark Houlton 4th SC291 Tina Whittaker. CLASS 4: 1st N295 Rob Drake 2nd ST74 Glyn Bailey 3rd ST52 Alex Fretwell 4th M8 Jamie Lane. CLASS 5: 1st WR94 Mark Gascoigne 2nd E10 Julian Heath 3rd ST6 Colin Chilvers 4th S97Y Josh Simpson. CLASS 6: 1st LM410 Jake Calvert 2nd S16Y Andy Jognson 3rd SC33 Rob Milbourn 4th ST130 Pete West.  CLASS 7: 1st ARC5 Phil Cooper 2nd SC45 Carl Swift 3rd SC61 Andy Holtby 4th SC59 Martyn Dunmow. F600: 1st SL101 Jonny Dawson 2nd SB20 Andy Watson 3rd SC91 Gary Pugh 4th SL80 Phil Talbot. CLASS 8: 1st ARC4 Phil Cooper 2nd S19Y Tom Bendell 3rd Y7 Andy Hornshaw 4th Y34 Mark Grice. CLASS 9: 1st SC150 Anthony Read 2nd ARC6 Lynn Cooper 3rd WR111 Paul Wright 4th ARC7 Sean Power. CLASS 10: 1st SC12 Andy Patrick 2nd NS29 Mike Holroyd 3rd S74D Phil Young 4th SC21 Alex Kershaw. CLASS 11: 1st M89 Nicola Bettoney 2nd Y55 Alice Hughes 3rd Y14 Diane Tomkinson 4th SC851 Emma Hall. CLASS 12: 1st S92Y Katie Benson 2nd ST213 Jodi Rudkin 3rd E10 Diane Heath 4th SC72 Kate Dixon. CLASS 13: 1st Y51 Jo Thompson 2nd LM30 Charlotte Pugh 3rd SC121 Charlie Wright 4th YD71 Pam Blackburn. CLASS 14: 1st WR21 Lindsay Stephenson 2nd NS55 Clare Cockerill 3rd ST121 Charlie Wright 4th SL5 Lynn Johnston. STOCK HATCH: 1st 2nd 3rd 4th . JUNIORS: 1st SC16 Zack Booth 2nd R54 Rhys Griffiths 3rd SV4 Kieran Griffiths 4th YD343 Katie Wilson. JUNIOR SPECIALS: 1st NS15 Dan Owen 2nd SC38 Zack Booth 3rd NS155 Mat Berrisford 4th NS115 Matt Owen. MECHANICS: 1st 2nd 3rd 4th.

INVICTA RESULTS

CLASS 1: 1st IK3 Spencer Wanstall 2nd IK75 Kieran Cobb 3rd IK4 Jason Ward 4th IK444 Dee Ward. CLASS 2: 1st IK15 Aaron Selmes 2nd IK64 Andy Russell 3rd IK243 Shelly Carden 4th IK157 Paul Cottrell. CLASS 3: 1st IK316 Martin Beaney 2nd IK138 Derek Linch 3rd IK32 Steve Carpenter 4th IK21 John Berry. CLASS 3B: 1st IK339 Lee Pullen 2nd IK175 Terry Gillie 3rd IK388 Jason Anderson 4th IK321 Jim Anderson. CLASS 4: 1st IK34 Wez Johnson 2nd IK229 Dave Blackman 3rd IK555 Terry Parsons 4th IK28 Alan Lock. CLASS 5: 1st IK71 Jason Ford 2nd IK261 Pat Duncan 3rd IK26 Rob Duncan 4th IK194 Luke Hall. CLASS 6: 1st IK91 Steve Whipps 2nd IK274 Dave Todd 3rd IK909 Mark Cooke 4th IK86 Simon Bates.  CLASS 7: 1st IK19 Chris Allanson 2nd IK174 Terry Moore 3rd IK262 Ray Harrison. CLASS 8: 1st IK65 Tim Russell 2nd IK9 Dave Bird 3rd IK66 Paul Prior 4th IK116 Mark Weeks. CLASS 9: 1st IK121 Stuart Taylor 2nd IK176 Tony Hewitt 3rd IK96 Paul Prior 4th IK11 Alec Hollingsbee. CLASS 10: 1st IK56 Gary Wetherick 2nd IK77 Darren Cornwell 3rd IK10 Tony Wilson. CLASS 11: 1st IK355 Paula Wells 2nd IK37 Sarah Lovett 3rd IK236 Dawn Hewitt 4th IK236 Kayleigh Mucci. CLASS 12: 1st IK86 Jane Bates 2nd IK91 Sue Whipps. CLASS 13: 1st IK3176 Stacey Beaney 2nd IK262 Cathy Harrison. CLASS 14: 1st IK11 Dru Hollingsbee 2nd IK77 Libby Cornwell 3rd IK95 Emma Bullock. JUNIORS: 1st IK170 Robert Reed 2nd IK189 Hayden Montgomerie 3rd IK31 Jake Hemesley 4th IK212 Billy Rummery. JUNIOR SPECIALS: 1st IK187 Brian Steward 2nd IK99 Shanie Driver 3rd IK601 Roy Hyland 4th IK28 Callum Sweatman. MECHANICS: 1st IK60 Matthew Palmer 2nd IK117 3rd IK46 4th IK247.

WESSEX RESULTS

CLASS 1: 1st SS1 Justin Hardy 2nd WS40 Dougie Atkins 3rd NR75 Ashley Porter. CLASS 2: 1st WS44 Dougie Atkins 2nd SS147 Gary James 3rd WS80 Mark Neagle. CLASS 3: 1st WS22 Adrian Joyce 2nd WS5 Ian Fay 3rd WS85 Jon Napier. CLASS 4: 1st SS9 Nick Cleal 2nd SS4 Mark Hoppé. CLASS 5: 1st SS8 Graham Cleal 2nd S48D 3rd WS11 Jason Saunders. CLASS 6: 1st WS86 Ryan Napier 2nd SS23 Craig Tovey 3rd P6 Nicky Newton.  CLASS 7: 1st WS3 Henry Clamp 2nd WS34 Malcolm Cousins. CLASS 8: 1st NR12 Russ Shepherd 2nd SS13 Adam Elliott 3rd WS35 Derek Dyke. CLASS 9: 1st No finishers. CLASS 10: 1st A10 Ian Stott 2nd NR2 Paul Smith. LADIES’ CLASS 1: 1st WS73 Kirsty Mckenzie. LADIES’ CLASS 2: 1st WS81 Grace Alston. LADIES’ CLASS 3: 1st WS5 Lisa Hills. LADIES’ CLASS 5: 1st SS2 Amy Raymond. JUNIORS: 1st WS97 Luke Watts 2nd WS99 Ashley Cousins 3rd WS60 Matthew Ireland. JUNIOR SPECIALS: 1st WS2 Jack Joyce 2nd SS11 Dexter Hannant 3rd SS46 Molly Smith.

Although most leagues planned National qualifiers on May 13, the schedule was again decimated by the weather with cancellations at CAMBRIDGE, INVICTA, SPALDING, CWMDU, SOUTH WALES, WESSEX, YORK and DOWN. ABRAM successfully completed their first meeting for over 15 years, with a closed to league qualifier at North Wales' venue, while SOLWAY and SCARBOROUGH ran open meetings preceded by separate qualifying points races. MELTON was, for the second time this year, the only club in the southern half of Britain to overcome the weather and put on a well attended club meeting, while in Ireland CARLOW's meeting was a little short of entries but didn't let that stand in the way of a very enjoyable day's racing.

CARLOW RESULTS:
CLASS 1: 1st DA321 Kenneth Dougherty. CLASS 1A: 1st CW501 Jimmy Boland 2nd CW88 Vincent Hutton 3rd CW28 John Halloran. CLASS 2: 1st WW59 Damien Houlihan 2nd CW22 Shane Farrell 3rd DA119 Dylan Roche. CLASS 3: 1st DA199 Robert Lee 2nd CW25 Ed Sheehan. CLASS 4: 1st WW159 Mike Fuller. CLASS 5: 1st CW31 Kevin Carron 2nd CW12 James Brady 3rd DA49 James Kent. CLASS 6: 1st CW174 James Sinnott 2nd CK138 Liam Eyre. CLASS 7: 1st MA404 Mark Dolphin 2nd CW247 Keith Quinn 3rd CW90 James McDonald. CLASS 8: 1st DA821 Joe McGrath 2nd CW117 Paul O'Brien. CLASS 9: 1st PHD29 Paul Havary 2nd CW46 Martin Cunningham. CLASS 10: 1st DA51 Martin Wallace 2nd CW888 Phillippe Zone. JUNIOR CLASS 1: 1st DA322 Davon Henry 2nd CW2 Courtney Brady 3rd CW7 Lee Mulroy. JUNIOR CLASS 1A: 1st WW108 Cillian Doherty 2nd CW6 Joe Hutton 3rd CW791 Jamie Cullen. JUNIOR SPECIALS: 1st CW160 Liam Roche 2nd CW3 James Carron. LADIES: 1st WW319 Jessica Browne 2nd CW112 Chelsey Brady 3rd CW73 Laura Farrell. OPEN: 1st DA42 James Kent 2nd CW501 Mick Boland 3rd CW73 Jimmy Boland.

SOLWAY RESULTS:
CLASS 1: 1st YD35 Rachael Davis 2nd YD37 Paul Dowdle 3rd YD197 Alun Adams. CLASS 2: 1st YD65 Terry Alderson 2nd YD30 Dan Grufferty 3rd SL70 Andrew Davidson. CLASS 3: 1st YD200 Phil Sherwood 2nd SL68 Neil Barnes  3rd SL54 Bruce Bertram. CLASS 5: No finishers. CLASS 6: 1st SL22 Jason Ballantyne  2nd SL200 Dennis Charlton. CLASS 7: No finishers. CLASS 8: 1st YD76 Stephen Thomas. CLASS 9: 1st SB47 Allan Kerr CLASS 10: No finishers. STOCK HATCH: 1st SL90 Paul Harrington  2nd YD93 Darren Bryan  3rd YD194 Jason Bryan. F600: 1st SL102 Max Dawson  2nd SL101 Jonny Dawson  3rd SL80 Phil Talbot. JUNIORS:  Result to be confirmed after red flag. JUNIOR SPECIALS: 1st SL177 Matty Cobb 2nd YD64 Jason Alderson 3rd SL118 Curtis McBride. LADIES’ CLASS 2: 1st SL222 Leanne Huschka  2nd YD98.LADIES’ CLASS 5: 1st SL15 Julie Graham  2nd SL85 Gill Graham. LADIES’ CLASS 9: No finishers.

Click here to see Solway photos by Steve Sewell

All the Abram action can now be seen at www.absnapshots.co.uk

There were fifteen NASA meetings scheduled for the weekend of 21/22 April – ten in England, one in Scotland, one in Wales and three in Ireland. After wet weather earlier in the week though, the English and Scottish meetings started dropping like flies – cancellations came in from Invicta, South Somerset, Radford, Spalding, STAR, Leewood, Scunthorpe, Scarborough, Yorkshire Dales and Central Scotland, leaving MELTON’s East Midland League qualifier as the only event running. Although Melton were considered brave to go ahead and had to work hard to get vehicles on and off their Shepshed site, they were proved right with the track itself drying out to produce good racing through the heats, before the finals were slowed down a little by a heavy shower.

Ireland for once got the best of the weather, with DOWN organising a double-header at Maghaberry, while CORK staged a National qualifying meeting at Castletownkenneigh.

Conditions in SOUTH WALES remained fine and mostly dry right up to Sunday morning, when the Castle Lloyd Farm track was hit by the first of a series of very heavy showers that then continued all day. The track was able to take it though and the meeting was successfully completed with some close fought, if slightly mucky, racing from most classes. It was a significant occasion for Welsh Autograss with the South and West Wales leagues both taking qualifying points from the meeting – the total entry of 133 drivers included 79 from South Wales and 46 from West Wales. The uncertain weather prospects meant that only five visiting cars came from outside the two home leagues, and only two from outside Wales – Barry Almond/Beth Flynn from Northampton and Dieter/Kirsty Dehmel from Somerset. Class 7 was as usual hotly contested; Michaela Bevans was controversially excluded after a first corner incident and the rerun final was impressively won by Jake Roberts. Class 6 provided the closest racing with Damian Longotano making much of the running before Neil Reed eventually came out on top. Will Elford ran away from a strong Class 2 field to take a debut victory in the class.

SOUTH WALES RESULTS (unofficial):

CLASS 1: 1st CM22 Matt Scourfield 2nd PAC10 Barry Lewis 3rd TA66 Darren Thomas 4th TA26 Dafydd James. CLASS 2: 1st PAC81 Will Elford 2nd PAC51 Matt Sawyer 3rd C64 Lloyd Morgan 4th TA54 Barry Evans. CLASS 3: 1st CM4 Viv Cole. CLASS 4: 1st CM7 Huw Jones 2nd TA58 Stephen Jones 3rd TA86 Rhydian Evans 4th TA36 Trystan Daniels. CLASS 5: 1st TA30 Matthew Dance 2nd TA451 Lewis Richards 3rd TA114 Iwan Rees 4th PAC15 Gwyn James. CLASS 6: 1st TA221 Neil Reed 2nd PHD44 Damian Longotano 3rd PHD57 Neil Morgan 4th S2 Paul Meli.  CLASS 7: 1st PHD72 Jake Roberts 2nd TA43 Adam Jones 3rd TA11 Nigel Edwards 4th TA32 Alun Jenkins. CLASS 8: 1st PHD2 Phil Rogers 2nd PHD47 Danny Thomas 3rd PAC18 Luke Jenkins 4th TA3 Gareth Jones. CLASS 9: 1st PHD9 Wayne Llewellyn 2nd TA14 Islwyn Edwards 3rd TA17 Anthony Paines 4th PAC60 Simon Kemp. CLASS 10: 1st PHD12 Carl Ray 2nd TA49 Godfrey Thomas 3rd TA200 Aled Dark 4th TA747 Marc Jones. CLASS 11: 1st PAC2 Alice Bevans 2nd TA66 Fiona Thomas 3rd PHD11 Carla Roberts 4th TA80 Helen Thomas. CLASS 11A: 1st PAC115 Claire Hall. CLASS 12: 1st CM25 Danielle Phillips. CLASS 13: No finishers. CLASS 14: No finishers. JUNIORS: 1st TA18 Dafydd Jones 2nd TA116 Hedd Wilshaw 3rd PAC83 Chloe Parry 4th PAC249 Iwan Davies. JUNIOR SPECIALS: 1st PHD17 Ben Williams 2nd TA82 Dan Morris 3rd TA10 Dean Thomas 4th PHD98 McColey McGuire.