EMC Autotest Report
20 May 2017
Inaugural Keith Boyd Autotest a Great Success
Saturday 20th May saw Enniskillen Motor Club [EMC] run the first Keith Boyd Autotest sponsored by Lakeland Tours. On the day a tremendous field of 17 Championship runners took to the concrete yard at St Angelo kindly granted by owners Severfield [previously Fisher’s] with an additional 10 Clubman competitors in the new Clubman Class. From midday the brooding steel girders on the edges of the yard were witness to terrific tyre-screeching action as competitors hurled their Mini-Specials, Sports cars, Minis, Novas, Micra, Saxo and MX5 plus various spectacular kit car derivatives such as Stryker and Westfield in their efforts to beat the clock. After the three tests were run four times the overall winner was championship leader Paul Mooney who seems unbeatable in his extremely rapid and reliable Vauxhall-powered Mini Special. His winning margin over previous champion Steven Ferguson in his BMC-engined Mini Special was some 21.4 seconds with Paul Blair a mere 0.1 seconds behind in third in his Stryker.
In the Class battles Class 1 [Mini-Specials- FWD] was of course claimed by Paul Mooney with Steven Ferguson second and Peter Grimes third. Class 2 [Sports Cars-RWD] victor was Paul Blair with Ashley Lamont second in his glorious-sounding Westfield and Tom Devaney third in his immaculate Stryker. Class 3 [Minis –Small Saloons FWD] was won by Robin Lyons despite a scare on Run 8 when he broke a CV joint on his Mini. Second in Class 2 was local man Jonni McDaid in his immaculate Mini with Norman Ferguson taking third place. Mark King took his Nova to first in Class 4[Large Saloons] with second going to Andrew Blair, the youngster some 72.2 seconds back but 13.9 seconds ahead of George McMillan in a similar machine. In the new Clubman Class which is new for 2017 and set up to encourage newcomers into the sport some 10 challengers braved the changeable conditions which ranged from deluges of rain, which made it difficult to see the exact parameters of some tests, to dry and dusty which brought different problems later in the day. The Clubman Class competed over the same areas as the ‘experts’ but with more open test set-ups. The competition was no less fierce and Jack Gillis took the honours by a margin of 13.1 seconds from Gary Campbell with Brendan Mooney third a further 41.8 seconds in arrears - all in Novas. This Class was especially favoured by the late Keith Boyd and it was very poignant to see such a large entry in the first running of the class in Enniskillen in 2017.
At the finish in the Airport Café Brian D’Arcy thanked all the competitors for a very enjoyable and competitive day’s motorsport in somewhat trying conditions. . He then welcomed Midge Newman, partner of the late Keith Boyd, to assist with presentation of the trophies. After this procedure D’Arcy thanked Severfield for the use of their yard and the Airport Café for the use of their premises and excellent service. He had a particular mention for his Autotest organising team, all the marshals and a special thanks to Ian McCutcheon of Lakeland Tours for their continued and valuable support.
Posted by PMcCollum on 22/5/2017; Last updated by PMcCollum on 22/5/2017