On Sunday over the glorious Easter weekend I attended Evesham Autograss Club, who will be host to the Men’s National Autograss Championships in August. The meeting was the first national qualifier for the MAP league, Evesham and Radford, but there were also visitors from Cambridge, Concord Essex, Forest of Dean, Hereford, Invicta Kent, North Shropshire, Spalding, South Somerset, Star, Wessex and Yate and Sodbury with a total of 139 drivers signed on.
Once again there was plenty of close competitive racing, and although there were a lot of reruns in the finals, there was still some great racing as there were throughout the heats. Here are just a couple of finals highlights.
One of the stand out finals for me and a great example of clean wheel-to-wheel racing was that of the Junior Specials. From the first turn James Dorsett (NS292) and James Pinches (R1) ran side-by-side. Going into the first turn it looked like Dorsett had the upper hand but Pinches had taken the lead on the exit and was the one with his nose in front up until the last lap where Dorsett was able to pass and take the win. They weren’t the only ones in the race who were racing side-by-side, the battle for third was also just as close, between the two Invicta Kent boys, Reece Wetherick (IK99) and Luke Stiles (IK30), and James Wallis (E260). It was Wetherick who had the upper hand throughout the race to take the position ahead of Stiles and Wallis.
Class six was a class just of the league cars and we saw how close their national qualifying is going to be with four cars fighting for the win in the final. It was Mark Gilder (R161) who took the lead going into turn one with Dave Houghton (R27) and Barry Holloway (E6) hot on his heels. Gilder, however, dropped back with Houghton taking over the lead, however, Holloway was trying hard to find a way past although while allowing Micky Manning (E5) to close down on them. Houghton continued to take the win from Holloway, Manning was third ahead of Gilder.
Below is a list of the full final results. These results are unofficial.
Final results
Class 1
1st E100 2nd NS157 3rd R137 4th E1 5th R193 6th IK187 7th R209 8th R78
Class 3
1st E34 2nd R169 3rd CA1 4th R515 5th R168
Class 5
1st WS1 2nd WS23 3rd IK72 4th R19 5th E10 6th E9 7th E51
Class 7
1st E152 2nd R421 3rd E7 4th E122 5th R5
Class 9
1st SS81 2nd E26 3rd R252
Junior Saloons
1st WS255 2nd E1 3rd E86 4th R176 5th H60
Junior Specials
1st NS292 2nd R1 3rd IK99 4th IK30 5th E260 6th E? 7th E57 8th E223
Class 2
1st E219 2nd R3 3rd R2 4th WS222 5th E126 6th R82 7th R171
Class 4
1st E220 2nd R47
Class 6
1st R27 2nd E6 3rd E5 4th R161 5th R190 6th E19
Stock Hatch
1st R80 2nd R115
Class 8
1st R411 2nd E93 3rd CA44 4th R35 5th E25 6th E2 7th R62
Class 10
1st E230 2nd E111 3rd R7 4th R200
Ladies 1
1st R78 2nd R209 3rd R178
Ladies 2
1st E219
Ladies 3
1st CA1 2nd E214 3rd R168
Ladies 5
1st E10
Ladies 6
1st R771
Ladies SH
1st R80 2nd R115
Ladies 7
1st E122 2nd CA12 3rd R10
Ladies 8
1st 8F 2nd C21E
Ladies 9
1st E26
Ladies 10
1st E111 2nd E777