After the suspension of Motorsport due to the coronavirus pandemic, it looked like Larne MC would not get to organise any motorsport events for the remainder of 2020. However, a few club members were looking for an evening of getting their car out of the garage and competing it again. With a social distancing regulations in place, it was decided to organise a simple Autotest and have minimal competitors so the club could adapt to the new processes.
To aid with social distancing all the usual official pre-event processes had changed to allow no paper or pen handling everyone was socially distanced. The test diagrams were emailed to each competitor to allow self-printing.
On the evening of the event, the competitors arrived and were able to start walking the test immediately allowing the event to start sooner than planned. With the daylight fading quicker in the late August evening and 17 competitors starting the event, it was decided to stick to the same test and do it 4 times. The daylight hours had gone by 9 pm and everyone had an enjoyable evening with a lot not having done any competitive Motorsport for six months.
The event winner was Andrew Earney, a regular competitor of the McMillan specialist cars Northern Ireland Autotest championship. Andrew was happy to get out to test his Mini and he put on a great display of car control for the club members and competitors watching on.
Gareth Dillon, Mark Francis and David Crothers where next in the final standings with all three in their Mazda MX-5s dancing around the pylons with ease. Another entrant who was entertaining to watch was WRC Co.Driver Chris Patterson who came along in his VW buggy. Chris set great times in his class bringing the buggy home first in the class.
Larne Motor Club would like to thank the landowner for his continued support and the competitors for supporting the event.
Thanks to Kerney Automotive Media for the pictures. (Copyright Kerney Automotive Media)