The 2023 Turbo Dynamics Gurston Down Championship finished on a high after our August meetings.
Our overall champion was confirmed as Steve Butts. Steve has now one the Gurston Down Championship a record four times, quite an achievement.
CLASS RESULTS
Here are the class results in the Turbo Dynamics Gurston Down Championship.
Class 4MX5 – Road Cars – Mazda MX5
| Position | Driver | Car |
Points |
|
1 |
Chris Burch | Mazda Roadster RS |
301.36 |
|
2 |
Richard Morton | Mazda Roadster RS |
270.67 |
Chris Burch, who shares the Mazda Roadster with Richard Morton, has had a great season. The lead in this class, and the overall championship at many points, has been switching between the two throughout the season. Chris finished sixth overall and Richard was thirteenth overall in the championship.
Class 4a – Road Cars Series Production up to 1400cc
| Position | Driver | Car |
Points |
|
1 |
John Davey | MG Midget / Renault R8 |
266.24 |
John had a great season, at one point he was eighth overall and ended the season fourteenth. The MG Midget has been suffering from minor oil leaks all season. The leak forced him out of the Saturday in August, meaning he dashed home to get the recently acquired Renault R8.
Class 4b – The Road Cars Series Production 1401cc to 2000cc
| Position | Driver | Car |
Points |
|
1 |
Russell Davies | Honda Civic Type R |
307.64 |
|
2 |
Daniel Friel | Honda Civic Type R |
305.78 |
|
3 |
Gary Hull | Ford Fiesta ST |
53.24 |
Russell Davies and Daniel Friel, in their respective Hondas, have been swapping places in this class and the overall championship all season. Between them, they took third and fourth in the overall championship with Russell third and Daniel fourth.
Class 4c – Road Cars Series Production Over 2000cc, sponsored by Turbo Dynamics
| Position | Driver | Car |
Points |
|
1 |
Steve Cox | VW Golf R |
261.31 |
|
2 |
Simon Neve | Mitsubishi Evo |
234.51 |
|
3 |
Clive Stangle | Mitsubishi Evo |
87.45 |
Steve Cox in the VW Golf R has had a great season, not just winning the class but he qualified for a few Top Ten Run-offs too.
The results don’t show how close Steve and Simon Neve in his Mitsubishi Evo were all season. They have been swapping first and seconds in class for almost all of the year’s rounds.
Class 4d – Road Cars Specialist Production, any capacity
| Position | Driver | Car |
Points |
|
1 |
Adrian Lewis | Westfield |
309.88 |
|
2 |
Clive Skipper | Caterham |
275.71 |
|
3 |
Rob Brodie | Fisher Fury |
259.53 |
Adrian Lewis in his Westfield, had a great season. He not only won the class but came second overall, a great result. Here is another car and driver combination to watch out for in 2024.
Class 5 – Modified Limited Production Marque Sports Car Class up to 2000cc
Only championship entrant in this class was Steve Butts in the Lotus Elise. His performance throughout the season gave Steve the overall championship and his fourth Gurston Down Championship.
Class 6 – Modified Limited Production Marque Sports Car Over 2000cc
| Position | Driver | Car |
Points |
|
1 |
Graham Beale | Ginetta G33 |
288.65 |
|
2 |
Paul Slade | Jaguar XKE |
198.88 |
|
3 |
Mark Walker | Porsche Cayman |
137.19 |
Graham Beale in the Ginetta G33 had a great season. Qualifying for multiple Top Ten run-offs as well as taking the 2023 class championship and ninth overall.
Class 7 – Modified Series Production Class up to 1400cc
| Position | Driver | Car |
Points |
|
1 |
James White | Mini |
297.48 |
|
2 |
David Bean | Mini |
207.19 |
|
3 |
Neil Turner | Mini |
74.59 |
James White in his super fast Mini has made this class his own this season. He also finished eighth overall. In the early part of the season, Neil Turner was switching places and points with James but didn’t compete during the second half. These two would probably pushed each other and there may have been a very different result in the overall championship.
Class 8 – Modified Series Production 1401cc to 2000cc
Steve had this class to himself this year and scored 96.71 points.
Class 9 – Modified Series Production Over 2000cc
| Position | Driver | Car |
Points |
|
1 |
Stephen Moore | Mitsubishi Evo |
140.76 |
|
2 |
Jim Herbert | Mitsubishi Evo |
118.27 |
Stephen Moore and Jim Herbert in their respective Mitsubishi Evo have been fighting in this class all season. They have been breaking and re-breaking the class record all season.
Class 11 – Modified Specialist Production Class, supported by Online Cleaning Technologies
| Position | Driver | Car |
Points |
|
1 |
Steve Holland | Caterham Hayabusa |
300.28 |
|
2 |
Dan Young |
156.80 |
Steve Holland in his Caterham has had a great fantastic season. Not only leading the class championship, setting a new class record, winning the Tony Marsh Memorial Award, and winning the Online Cleaning Technologies Top Ten Challenge but he’s also finished 7th in the overall championship. Looks like the Awards Dinner will be a busy night for Steve.
Class 13 – Historically Interesting Class, supported by Kelvin Jouhar
| Position | Driver | Car |
Points |
|
1 |
Fyrth Cross | Dempster Ensign LNF3 |
283.84 |
|
2 |
Mike Broome | Alexis Mk17 |
147.11 |
Fyrth Crosse and his Dempster Ensign LNF3 have had another great season full of consistent performances and finishes giving him the class title.
Class 15a – Sports Libre up to 1400cc
| Position | Driver | Car |
Points |
|
1 |
Tim Pitfield | DJ Firecat |
82.59 |
|
2 |
Craig Russell | Westfield XTR |
66.70 |
Tim Pitfield and his DJ Firecat had significant issues during the season which held his championship and top ten challenge back.
Class 15b – Sports Libre Over 2000cc
Mike in the Force SR8 had a very good season after acquiring the SR8 late last year. He finished fifth in the Online Cleaning Technologies Top Ten Challenge and it will be an interesting next season now Mike is getting used to the car.
Class 19 – 601cc to 1100cc Racing Car Class
| Position | Driver | Car |
Points |
|
1 |
Ben Bonfield | Jedi Mk4 |
303.24 |
|
2 |
Luke Trotman |
265.23 |
|
|
3 |
Stephen Loadsman | OMS |
241.88 |
Ben Bonfield has had a great season. He has finished second in the Top Ten Run-off and fifth in the overall championship. Various issues with the Jedi he shares with Tony, did not seem to affect his class results. There were great performances by the entire class.
Class 20B – Racing Cars Built up to 1985
Class 20 – Racing Cars 1101cc to 1600cc
| Position | Driver | Car |
Points |
|
1 |
Andrew Forsyth | OMS |
258.53 |
Andrew Forsyth entered just eight weekend events in 2023. He competed alone in the class. He was third in the Online Cleaning Technologies Top Ten Challenge, had he competed at more events, he may well have been the 2023 Challenge winner.
Class 21a – Racing Cars 1601cc to 2000cc (Normally Aspirated) supported by New Techniques
| Position | Driver | Car |
Points |
|
1 |
Tony Wiltshire | Ralt RT34 |
123.33 |
Tony Wiltshire and his Ralt did not compete for the full season but finished 11th in the Challenge.
Class 22 – Racing Cars Over 2000cc
Paul Crute in the lovely OMS28 Jaguar is on his own in this class. He finished with 261.76 points and fourth place in the Online Cleaning Technologies Top Ten Challenge. A great season for Paul.
We thank Turbo Dynamics for their continued support of our championship in 2023.
E&OE