Without the pressure of being a championship round the event was a much more laid back day, with two thirds of the field being either novices or beginners with a significant number entering their first event.
They enjoyed the opportunity to learn the discipline when otherwise they may not have managed to get a drive.
However the friendly rivalry amongst the regular drivers was not far below the surface throughout the day and overall it was a very enjoyable day despite the cold and miserable weather.
In Class A Bob Milligan, as the only expert, led the class all day with the little Mini missing out of Fastest Time of the Day by just under 6 seconds.
Although sharing his car must have passed on some skills to James Phillips who was a very creditable second in class on his first event albeit by over a minute.
In fact 5 of the 9 in this class were on their first event.
Class B with 4 experts out of 6 was won by Vic Craven by 6 seconds over Mark Nicoll.
Class C, normally the least populated class, had a number of first timers who had their own battles but the class was dominated by expert George Zippo who won by over 70 seconds.
Class D was yet again the most popular and again the Mazda MX5 was the most popular car but it was 2 Toyota MR2’s that took the honours. Mathius Hansen won the class and was Best overall but only by just 6 seconds after 12 tests.
Class E was a battle of the Caterham’s with Neil Costen just pipping Jason Brown. As we had amalgamated class D & E these two also took 2nd and 3rd awards.
Class F, the Production Car Autotest [PCA], was mostly a family affair. Stuart Gilks in his Westfield as first with daughter Louise in 4th place and Tom Banks second with dad Richard in5th place.