FROM GOOD TO GREAT


With lessons learned from last year, 2015 is shaping up to be brilliant.

So, the time has come: the winter rebuilds are complete; the cars have been painted, stickered, tested and tuned; the series of preference has been chosen and we are only a few days away from the first round.
That round one of the Kent Cams/Simpson Race Exhausts British Autograss Series is at Stroud means we start 2015 at one of the very best venues with one of the sport’s most adept clubs. The UKAC had two excellent rounds there, and our third round meeting was virtually faultless – perhaps the best of the year.
Having spoken to a few Stroud club members, the formula remains unchanged, so that means slick organisation; a sensible and spacious layout; great facilities and an excellent quality track, which provided sensational racing last year in what was their first season back after a few years sabbatical.
The first two rounds last year were a little problematic, the negativity from which was countered by the quality of round three. We then looked forward to the closing two rounds continuing in the same vein, but the effects of Hurricane Bertha cut short the next event in Red Roses, leaving the Yorkshire Dales club to pick up the pieces, end on a high, and create a positive memory through the winter.
Even though they succeeded, the overall feel of the season as a whole was perhaps that it wasn’t as good as it could have been; certainly not as slick as it was hyped to be when the venues were announced in 2013.
As we’ve said before, we are in a new era of Autograss where smaller, more manageable entries create a more relaxed atmosphere, greater fluidity and better value for money, plus greater transparency in identifying punishable racing offences with the camera system.
However, though the theory wasn’t fully evident at the start of last season, we begin 2015 confident that all systems and practices are being used as they were in the latter half, which should make this season one of the best for many years.
There are few better ways to start a season for which we have high hopes than at the Stroud club, with the subsequent events falling to capable organisers.  We were confident that last year was going to be ‘epic’, to quote Becky Shaw, but as issues were rectified and creases ironed out, it seems like this could be the epic year instead.

2024 CHAMPIONS

TitleDriverNo.
Mens OverallConnor GriffithsTA16
Ladies OverallJess ConwaySC126
J/SaloonsRio SheehanPAC33
J/SpecialsOwen BradfordBC16
J/F600Alfie RossS717Y
Young GunsClaire ComptonNS434

Class One 
Conner Griffiths TA16 / Jess Conway C182

Class Two 
Craig Conway SC126 / Jess Conway SC126

Class Three 
Ryan Power YD98 / Becky Shaw BC111

Class Four 
Ben Gould NS434 / Claire Compton NS434

Class Five 
Adam Browne MA184 / Nicola Jesse Y44

Class Six 
Stephen Parsonage NS146 / Sophie Lewis TA36

Class Seven 
Phil Cooper ARC6 / Michaela Dance PAC53

Class Eight 
Mitch Wells E356 / Clare Horner-Williams M1

Class Nine 
Andrew Hornshaw Y78 / Clare Williams-Horner M62

Class Ten 
Lee Seagreaves ARC1 / Josie Tomkinson SC53

Stock Hatch 
Dan Ferguson CA34 / Emily Hutchings CA34

 F600 
James Brown SC811 / Tayla-Jade Paskell H50