Going into the last round any one of 3 drivers were in with a chance of winning the championship – Gordon Clendinning, Gary Clark or James Morrison.
The last round was hosted by East Ayrshire Car Club at Kames on 23/10/23 and attracted a good entry of 15 cars to the PCA / Autotest, unfortunately we were short of some regular competitors with Oly McCollum competing on the Solway Targa and Ronnie and Martin Gillespie attending Rally Catalunia. It was good to see so many juniors competing in the PCA, it would be great if some of them may compete in some of next years Autotests.
On arrival the weather was cold but dry, this soon changed to either a light drizzle or a heavy downpour, this lasted most of the day, which made the tests very slippery and unpleasant driving conditions for the open top cars.
The 3 championship contenders were very close all day with Gordon Clendinning taking FTD, closely followed by James Morrison whose Mini Special was just a bit more nimble than Gary Clark's MX5.
Although Gordon took FTD on the day, Gary Clark was crowned the 2022 RALLYSCORE Scottish Autotest Championship by 1 point with James finishing 3rd in the championship.
It was good that the final result was down to the last round, this shows that it has been close throughout the year. I must mention the improvement throughout the year of Gary, Oly and Martin, thanks must also go to Gordon for mentoring the drivers and also assisting with the design of the test layouts.
I am planning to have a meeting with some of the drivers/ organizers prior to next years championship to discuss ways how we can go forward and encourage more drivers into the sport of Autotesting.
The 2022 Final results are -
1st Overall and 1st in Class – Gary Clark
2nd Overall and 1st in Class – Gordon Clendinning
3rd Overall and 1st in Class – James Morrison
Most Improved Driver – Martin Gillespie
Bill Creevy
Championship Coordinator