2024 DMC Championship Autotest

Drama-filled Autotest at Loughry College

Dungannon Motor Club were delighted to return to Loughry College for the running of Round 8 of the 2024 Northern Ireland Championship, the event being sponsored by Jewelry Repair Services, Cookstown.  One or two short showers of rain tried to spice things up a bit, and a rare car fault for series leader Steven Ferguson gave him a mountain to climb.  Despite his tremendous recovery ability he would lose out by just over 5 seconds to a smooth performance by Peter Grimes.

Almost one third of the cars on Saturday fell into the class for “special vehicles”.  Lightweight Minis with cut-down bodywork and highly tuned engines are exciting to watch, and the Master of them all is Stewartsown’s Steven Ferguson.  This just wasn’t his day however with his car cutting out unexpectedly on a test and incurring a 20 second penalty.

In the class for sports cars, a penalty-free day for Paul Lowther brought him a 3.1 seconds win over Trevor Ferguson.  In third place was Paul Blair, making a welcome, if perhaps one-off, return to competition in the family Westfield since his Son Andrew was away on holiday.

The Small Saloon class is the territory of the classic Mini, and setting the benchmark in this class is Robin Lyons.  His closest rival on the day was an ever-improving Jack Lowry, almost a minute adrift.  Andrew Earney finished in third place.

One of the biggest rivalries of the day was played out in the Large Saloon class.  The weapon of choice here is the Vauxhall Nova.  With all the glass and interior trim stripped out to reduce weight, both David Thompson from Manorhamilton and Mark King from Newmills traded times all day to finish just 3.8 seconds apart in Thompson’s favour.  Competing in this class was George McMillan, who’s company, McMillan Specialist Cars, is the Championship Sponsor.

Alongside the Championship classes there exists the Clubman and Advanced Categories.  These competitors tackle the same tests but with less demanding paths to be followed through the pylons, and in most cases, the tests are easier to remember!  This is a great place for beginners to set out on their Autotest career, as well as an enjoyable challenge for those experienced competitors who just want a day of fun. It is tougher on the marshals however as they have two different tests to manage on the one set of pylons.

Best of the Clubmen at Loughry was Lawrence Baird in his Mazda MX5, followed by Gordon Buckley in a Westfield sports car and in third place, Taylor Gribbon in his Nissan Micra. 

The Advanced Category may be billed as a day of fun, but Gareth Dillon and Ashley Lamont, both driving MG Midgets, were at it hammer and tongs.  They were separated by just 0.9 of a second after twelve tests, the difference coming down to pylon faults with Ashley having two and Gareth just the one.

Loughry College is an extremely popular venue with Autotest competitors, and everyone agreed it was great to be back there.  The weather was reasonably co-operatve although a couple of short showers threatened to cause the top competitors to run in the wet while others would have drier conditions.  In the end it worked out OK, and even Steven Ferguson should be happy as he still leads the 2024 Championship standings. 

You can see the full results here ===>  DMC Round 8.

Class Winners:

• Class A – Peter Grimes (FTD)
• Class B – Paul Lowther
• Class C – Robin Lyons
• Class D – David Thompson
• Clubman – Lawrence Baird
• Advanced – Gareth Dillon