Conditions during Round 2 of the 2018 BARC Speed Championship at Abingdon Long Course were wet! And when I say six saloon cars featured in the top ten overall results, you’ll probably appreciate just how wet. Light drizzle for Practice 1 developed into heavier rain, followed by a downpour with standing water for the timed runs.
The classes for Sutton and Cheam Motor Club events are slightly differing from normal, so I’ll report using their format.
Class A2 included our reigning Champion Steven Riddle in the Clio Cup. He managed a fine third place out of eight competitors on 117.52 seconds.
Class A3 saw Andrew Till picking up fourth in the MG ZR 105 on a best of 121.48 seconds out of seven runners. We’d normally expect Mike Edwards Mini to feature here, but this event saw him in a later class.
Class A4, for the larger capacity cars, had the Martorana brothers split by just two one hundredths of a second to take superb third and fourth places in this ten competitor strong section – Adriano on 118.7 seconds versus Leo with 118.9 seconds. A truly great result! Helen Currie in her Renault Clio Trophy recorded 123.43 seconds for eighth place.
Class A5, the biggest capacity class, had four BARC Speed Championship runners. Newcomer Scott Hughes ‘s well driven BMW 135i took fifth place on 108.81 seconds, followed by James Hunt‘s BMW in eighth on 120.21 seconds. Then came Emma, of the same parish, whose Golf GTI recorded 124.89 seconds for eleventh and finally Ed McDonough whose Alfa 156 GTA put in 126.77 seconds for twelfth.
Moving on to more modified vehicles, Class A5 had Stephen Moore in his Mitsubishi Evolution VI taking a fine second place on 106.40 seconds in this eight strong section.