Alistair Maxwell (Ancrum) has been a member longer than I have, and he tackled almost every form of motor sport that there is. He hasn’t done an autotest for a few years, but I reckon near-neighbour Rob Smith must have twisted his arm and offered him the use of a car, so he just couldn’t refuse, could he?

Father and son team of Peter and Dougie Humphrey (Dunbar) had Peter’s working car, initially with traction control until the penny dropped. Yes, it’s better to switch it off. They were going to bring the Healey 3000. I can’t remember the reason for the change of mind. Maybe it was because it needs to be driven by the scruff of the neck, which could have been too much for young Dougie. He’s not as heavily built as Peter and hasn’t yet trained the arm muscles to cope with the car. Give him time!

Another father/son pairing comprised Tommy and Gary Miller (Stow), whose 1.2 Nova can get off its mark amazingly well. Father is still managing to keep ahead of son – just.

Graeme Galloway arrived from Kelso just in time before the first test was dismantled, so he got his full compliment of runs in the venerable Anglia, which he always drives in flamboyant fashion. Whether that gives good times is open to question, but it always offers good spectator value.

Ex-member Rob Lyle, who now lives in Londonderry (and has quickly developed the local accent) was home in Hawick for the festive season, and was persuaded to double enter with local newcomer Scott Douglas, who also took some arm-twisting. Scott was a bit over-exuberant, but shows promise, if he learns to discipline himself. But then most of us have been there, haven’t we?

I’ve left the star of the show to the end. Chirnside’s Archie Simmonds had one of his many pristine Midgets, and showed everybody how easy it is to do autotests in a RWD car with an LSD. He uses them for Historic Rallies too. This time he wasn’t error-free, but he did put up a very good show. A while back I had a RWD Celica with a standard LSD, but I didn’t have it long enough to get the technique. It’s a bit more tricky to perfect than a FWD car, but when you get it right it’s great fun, and a joy to behold.

 

Updated 8 January 2006
Webmaster - Jim Paterson