Author: Simon Whittick

THE BRIGHT SPARKS PCA AUTOTEST

SUNDAY 21 OCTOBER 2018 – CURBOROUGH

A moderate 33 entries took part in this quality event, down on the previous year.

This PCA has a really good reputation of providing fast, exciting and flowing tests. As usual, there were plenty of smiling faces all day long.

This year Melvyn Cox acted as Clerk of the Course and he did a fine job.

There were pre-event worries concerning the numbers of marshals but fortunately the troops rallied. Special thanks goes to Will Barnes for acting as Scrutineer and to Cannock Car Club for allowing us to use their cones.

The quality line up included last year’s winner Tom Bishop (Micra), Kevin Hardwick (MX5), Phil Lawson (Peugeot 205), and the ever improving Ashley Pearce ( Micra) immaculately prepared by his father Steve.

Great to see many Owen crews along with crews from Redditch, Shenstone, Cannock and Loughborough.   

The weather was very kind to us throughout the day with plenty of sunshine.

Starting at 10.15am, as usual, there were 2 large tests each taking approximately 11/4 mins to complete.

Each test consisted of 3 runs with the worst score being dropped. A second car was started when the first was about ¾ way distance to reduce queueing time.

Initially some crews had difficulty following the test diagrams resulting in wrong tests, but eventually seemed to get it right.

By the lunch break Tom Bishop had led from the start but Ashley Pearce and Clive Woodhouse were not that far behind.

The afternoon session started at 1.30pm with a few minor course alterations.

As the afternoon progressed Tom started to pull further away. The drive of the day came from Ashley Pearce. He improves with each event and maybe will obtain an FTD in the not too distant future. Charlotte Woodhouse performed extremely well in a Peugeot 206 and managed an excellent 6^th overall.

The whole proceedings ran very smoothly controlled by very efficient marshals.

Special thanks goes to Clare Bird who marshalled, looked after the signing on, entries and other secretarial duties. Also to Dave Allitt (results) and David Allman who in the end managed to obtain a good number of marshals, including  Nick Pollitt, Derrick Wallbank, Mark Barnes, Paul Langford, Sue Walmsley, James Nicholls, and Simon Whittick. Anton Bird kindly acted as Steward.

Many thanks to Barri Wilmot for helping Melvyn and myself on the Saturday.

At the finish 11 seconds separated Tom Bishop from Ashley Pearce to win the Bright Sparks trophy for the third year running.

Final Top ten positions:-

1.Tom Bishop (MIcra)  – 650 (FTD)

2.Ashley Pearce (Micra) – 661 (1^st Class A)                                                          

1. Grant Victory (Saxo) – 680
2. Phil Lawson (Peugeot 205) – 682
3. Giles Gregory (Peugeot 205) – 683
4. Charlotte Woodhouse ( Peugeot 206) – 687
5. Kevin Hardwick (MX5) – 689 (1^st Class C)

8=. Clive Woodhouse (Peugeot 206)/Barry Mansell (Micra) (1^st Class B) – 691

1. Craig Tock (MG ZR) – 696

Phil Peer (Escort) (1^st Class D/E)

Ashley Pearce – Best Owen                                                                                                                

Owain Thomas (Peugeot 206) – Best Junior

Craig Tock – Best Novice

Charlotte Woodhouse – Best Lady

BOB COTTERELL