Ferguson Makes it Championship Number 8.
Report by Grace King
In what can only be described as a sensational end to the season at the tenth round of the 2022 Northern Ireland Autotest Championship, sponsored by McMillan Specialist Cars of Antrim, the reigning Champion Steven Ferguson secured his eight win of the season, as well securing him the 2022 Overall Championship win, making it his eighth time of taking the title. Organised by the Autotest Drivers Club and hosted at Transport Training Services, Nutts Corner the competition was fierce throughout the classes and categories with competitors forced to work hard on the tight and tricky tests.
With Ferguson taking the Overall win, Peter Grimes made a sensational return to autotesting and was elevated to first place in Class A with the others to battle it out for the remaining two places. This battle would be between James Wilson and Chris Grimes, but it would be Wilson who top the runner up spot in the class by 0.5 seconds from Grimes, who settled for third.
In Class B, Willie Kenning had made the trip over from Scotland for the event, which proved worthwhile as he took the class win, with the father-son pairing of Andy and Paul Blair taking second and third spot respectively.
Robin Lyons and Andrew Earney were the sole competitors in the small saloon class in their Minis. Robin continued his dominant return to Class C, taking the class win and finishing fifth overall.
In Class D, David Thompson claimed the class win, the Large Saloon Champion honours and second place overall in Championship, with Mark King settling for the runner up spot in both class and Large Saloon Championship and taking the third spot overall in the overall championship. Gary Campbell third spot on the podium at the ADC event, in doing so the young Dungannon man finished out his season as the Semi-Expert Champion, third in the Large Saloon Championship and tenth position in the Overall Championship. A phenomenal result for someone who only joined the main championship a mere two years ago!
In the Clubman Category, Ben McKee was the man to beat, with Adam McMullan coming home in second and Lawrence Baird third in the category.
Adam McMullan in his Toyota Starlet Special took the Class A win.
Gordon Buckley would be the solo entry in Clubman Class B in his Westfield, leaving him to take the class win and finish fourth overall in the category standings.
In Clubman Class C, Ben McKee in his Nissan Micra took the class win, as well as the overall win in the category.
Clubman Class D was all Mazda MX5’s affair, with Lawrence Baird taking the class win and finishing third overall in the category. Derek Harrison took the runner-up spot in the class with Ian Lowry in third.
With five highly experienced competitors signed up for the Advanced Category it would prove to be an interesting days competition. Jack Gillis was easily the winner finishing 20.2 seconds ahead of Robert Robinson and Gareth Dillon.
With the season now at its finish, Championship Co-Ordinator Mark King would like to take the opportunity to thank all the clubs who ran events so successfully throughout the season, he highlighted that their support and effort to make the championship happen was greatly appreciated by all the competitors. He would also like to thank all the marshals for their hard work and dedication to the events, and to the competitors for their continued support of the championship. His final thank you goes to McMillan Specialist Cars for their kind sponsorship of the 2022 Championship and he looks forward to working with them again in future, as they continue to develop and evolve the championship programme.
McMillan Specialist Cars Northern Ireland Autotest Championship Round 10
Full results can be found here ===> Stopastride
Overall Winner – Steven Ferguson
Championship Category:
- Class A – Peter Grimes
- Class B – Willie Kenning
- Class C – Robin Lyons
- Class D – David Thompson
Clubman Category:
- Class A – Adam McMullan
- Class B – Gordon Buckley
- Class C – Ben McKee
- Class D – Lawrence Baird
Advanced Category:
- Class A – Jack Gillis
- Class B – Ken Irwin
- Class C – Robert Dickson
- Class D – Gareth Dillon
Full Championship positions can be found here ===> 2022 Autotest Championship