Atherfield has always been a popular venue for unsealed surface events and there was a great turnout of competitors and helpers for Round 7 of the Isle of Wight Car Club Unsealed Championship.
With little rain over the past few weeks, the ground was dry and the final races of the day saw huge plumes of brown dust obscuring the view of drivers, marshals and spectators. Despite this, the competition was tight and the social aspect of watching motorsport at club level in the summer sun made for a great day.
Class 1 is for unmodified cars under 1400cc. You can have so much fun in these standard classes and in the right hands it can be very competitive. James Robbins proved the point not only by winning his class, but by finishing in 5th place overall.
Class 2 is for unmodified cars over 1400cc. Lewis Whittington in his rear-wheel-drive MX5 was trading times for the class win with Kevin Richardson in his front-wheel-drive Suzuki Ignis Sport. At the end of the game, Kevin had just propelled Lewis to the top of the class standings by 2 tenths of a second.
Class 3 is for modified cars over 1400cc. Charles Gilby and Joel Gilby have made the jump from class 1 to class 3 and it has made a huge difference, their car is significantly faster and with Joel developing and improving his driving he was awarded the most youthful award fast of the day and finished 8th place overall. However, Steven Staff had such a good time in round 4 with his Nissan Micra that he finished fastest in class 3 and took 3rd place on the podium.
Class 4 is for modified cars over 1400cc. At the start of the day, Kathy True clocked such a good time she almost had one foot on the podium; however, in the afternoon, a few mistakes dropped him down the standings to 9th overall. Louise Wren in her 4 KA class finished 7th overall and won the award for fastest lady of the day. Luke Everson improved steadily throughout the day, finishing 6th overall in his Corolla, and Shane Parry finished 4th overall in his KA. But it was Wayne Hole in his rally Ford Focus, who took the Class 4 title and was crowned the winner of our event.
Class 5 is for non-serial production cars and specials. Robbie Cooper finally managed to complete an event without crashing or anything falling off his old grass mini-track, finishing in 14th place overall. Andy Williams in his single-seater special finished 1st in class and 2nd overall, just 3 tenths of a second behind Wayne.
The club return to Atherfield for round eight on September 11. Atherfield is popular as an unsealed surface venue, as the flat grass and lots of runoff make it a great opportunity to use a road car and experience rallying.
This Sunday (August 21) sees the return of the Isle of Wight Rally stages in the form of the Jon Dyer Memorial Island stages. The event can be viewed online as it is streamed live through the Rally Replay event sponsors. Visit the club website www.iowcc.co.uk for details.
