August 2008 Centenary Year - Plymouth Motor Club

ADE Tarmac Autotest2/7/2008Reading warnings of torrential rain for the Plymouth area onWednesday afternoon, I was a little doubtful as to whether thismonths evening autotest would go ahead, but it certainly did! Arrivedat ADE car park to find loads of competitors and spectatorsfilling the area, an impressive turnout!Despite the large number of entries, 21 in total, amazing organisationstill got us competing at 6.30, with everyone being a little hesitant tobe the first out there. A couple of familiar tests, and a couple I’d notseen before had been given to us, and it was looking to be a good evening.Things soon got underway, with the more enthusiastic drivers kickingup dust, sliding past the garages on the left. My first run was ok, althoughI struggled with the really tight section, but keen for anothergo. That ended up being a wrong test, but I always get one! A challengingfirst test, with some of the larger cars struggling, but good tokick things off.The next test laid out made me a little nervous at first, as we’re bothstill struggling to spin the 205, but it ended up being damn good fun!It consisted of three gates, which had to be entered backwards, thequickest way clearly using the handbrake, spinning the car in backwardsin one smooth manoeuvre. However, I was fully capable ofmessing this up, so would it be worth taking the slow and steady approach?Nick went for it though, so I was clearly going to try and do itbetter, and I’d seen John and Wayne do it easily in similar sized cars.After I required reverse for five gates, I managed the last gate in one,small achievement, but made me happy! (I glossed over the cone I hitearlier in that run!). Many people seemed to really enjoy this fairlyopen test, which gave everyone the opportunity to open it up a bit andreally go for it.August 2008 www.plymouthmotorclub.co.uk Page 11