A great morning, weather wise for a play on the Old State Highway One road, with the first competitor arriving at 7am to get a great pit possie.

All twenty eight are raring to go after doc and drivers briefing followed by the customary indian file. 

After run one it is looking like a battle between the Evo's of Mark Higgins and Nick Donaldson followed by the two Starlets of Stu Carter and Riley Stubbs with Justin McLean in the RX7. It was good to see Phil Sloan back out in the very nice Impreza. Geoff Combe was sharing his Starlet with Dwight Parlane.  There were a few nice/unusual cars, a Suzuki Cappuccino, Fiat Bambina, a X1/9 and David Hudson in his very fast Datsun 1200  being the only one to have a problem after his run with the starter not disengaging when the motor fired up and having to disconnect the battery to turn the motor off.

Run two and everyone keeps it on the tarmac to improve times by 1 or 2 seconds the biggest improver by 6 seconds is Steven Pinfold in the Skyline doing his first event, Scott Johnson in the Supra leaving the longest black tyre mark with a front left front wheel lockup from the finish line to the bend before finish control who thought it was a blown motor. Six set their fastest time on this run. Everything is running smoothly and there is time for the Marshals to take a lunch break.

Runs Three and Four, all going well and nine set their fastest times on this run. Mark is  holding a two second lead over Nick but has to retire as the Evo will not start with a mysterious computer fault.

Run five is the last run and there is no change with the top three placings. Only six set their fastest time on this run. The five placings ninth to thirteenth have only 0.58 seconds separating them, with the closest being Darryl Smith, Willy Hawes and Alan Groves with only 0.05, that's 5/100th of a second! All over by 3pm and back at the Cheviot Hotel for prize giving after a hot and at times windy day..  

Another hot windy day is forecast for Sunday and the early arrivals are there just after 7am. The road was looking good after Saturday's event cleaned up most of the small twigs and stones from the course. All ready to go after the usual paperwork and drivers briefing out of the way. As usual there is always a very nice line up of beautiful cars, vintage as well as some more modern ones, like David McKee's Alfa 8C Competizione.

The first three places overall were set on run one, Paul McCulla, Peugeot 205 GTI ahead of James Hopman's Porsche 911S and a quite surprised David Owen in the C type holding on for third place for the day.

Runs two, three and four all run well apart from Greg Noller in the MGA who has a wee lockup at the point one hairpin, actually it was a big lockup to put him into the paddock. Lucky he was able to drive out undamaged. Most of the fastest times were set on these runs.

It is down to the last run of the day and ten decide not to run and nine set their fastest time of the day. Kent Larsen in the E Type was one not running and was beaten into seventh place by Craig Pidgeon in the Avenger by 9/100 of a second. Five cars on 1:20 seconds were separated by only 0.44 seconds. It is all over by just after 3pm making for a leisurely clear-up and trip back to the Cheviot Golf Club for a meal and prize giving 

A great thanks to all the helpers who endured sitting out in the heat both days and to the competitors for leaving the pit area rubbish free. We will do it all again next year.    

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Article added: Saturday 11 November 2023