This report is reproduced from Motorweek 4th June 1970
Report and Photos by Esler Crawford.
Hagan Pulls Ahead
LAST FRIDAY night the driving test “circus” descended on the Manor House Hotel, Killadeas for the fifth round of the Ulster Driving Test Championship which was organised by Enniskillen Motor Club. The entry of 28 was of the usual high standard seen in this year’s events although for the first time Eire Champion Dermot Carnegie was not present. The tests were laid out at various junctions in the spacious hotel grounds and as such were a reasonable substitute for road tests although not as good as those last year at the same venue.
On test one, Robert Woodside started as he left off in the previous round at Dungannon the week before with FTD in 32.0 driving his VW1500. In second place was brother Ian and third Harold Hagan, both driving Midgets as usual. However, the “King’s” reign was short-lived for in test two there was a great crunch and the VW set off home with only third and top gears operative. This test went to Hagan by just a fifth of a second from Roger Cree (Sprite), Billy Morrison (Cooper S) and Derek Boyd who was driving the Woodside Beach Buggy. The third test also went to Hagan followed by Boyd and Cree while Ronnie Mullen continued to be consistent at least by having clouted a pylon in every test so far!
Test four, the last of the first lap, was the most interesting, requiring very precise driving and here Charles Crawford was best – a tenth faster than Charlie Irwin (Cooper) and Cree. At this point, Hagan was in the lead by two seconds from Cree with Boyd third and Charlie Irwin fourth.
Lap two started with Derek Boyd and Charles Crawford sharing the first test and then it was the turn of Hagan to beat Cree in test two. Derek Boyd then showed that he was enjoying Beach Buggy motoring by winning test three by a clear second from Hagan. At this point, Billy Morrison decided to call it a night as his gearbox was making some very peculiar sounds and it is an awful long way home to Belfast from Enniskillen.
In test four the Midgets of Woodside and Hagan shared the honours but two of the top runners were out of luck here. Ken Shields lost nearly ten seconds when his throttle stuck open but Cree was even worse off when he incurred a fail and this put himself out of the running completely. It was noticeable in this test that the Ferguson brothers, Norman and Ian, were very neat but they must have made a mess somewhere else for they did not appear in the top placings.
Finally came a third go at the first test, to give a total of nine tests. Here the times were very close indeed with at most a fifth of a second separating Ian Woodside, Cree and Crawford in that order.
The results, worked out very efficiently by Doreen Frazer, showed Harold Hagan to be the clear winner. Derek Boyd was a good second and Charles Crawford continued his steady ,rather than spectacular, improvement by taking third place.
This means that Harold Hagan adds another ten points to his Championship total giving him a score of 43. Roger Cree did not add to his score which remains at 28 and therefore Hagan is in a very strong, but not impregnable position to take the title he first won two years ago. Charles Crawford has moved up to third with 23 points followed by Ian Woodside (21), David Grant (18), Dermot Carnegie (17), Robert Woodside (15) and Charlie Irwin (14).
Results:-
- W. H. Hagan (MG Midget) 344.3;
- D. D. Boyd (GP Beach Buggy) 347.9;
- C. S. Crawford (MG Midget) 353.9;
- K. Irwin (Cooper S) 354.6;
- C. Irwin (Cooper) 355.1;
- I. Woodside (MG Midget) 356.2;
- W. K. Shields (VW 1500) 368.9;
- W. D. C. Grant (Cooper S) 371.5;
- R. Mullen (GP Beach Buggy) 378.6;
- E. A. Lucas (Vauxhall Viva GT) 383.1.
