THE first Teifi Valley Motor Club Autotest of 2024 was held on Sunday, 7 April at Ffynnongain, Clarbeston Road and what a turnout! Nearly 40 competitors battled it out on very muddy, slippery terrain with Aled Jones taking his third win on the trot and the first this year.

Three very challenging tests made the drivers and navigators work hard, and the mud underfoot saw several cars slipping and sliding as they navigated cones, slaloms, figure of eights and garages.

“I was very pleased to have won and I’m really looking forward to the next event. It was great to see the Autotest so well attended, and I’d like to thank everyone involved for their hard work. Diolch,” said a delighted Aled.

The top five positions were hotly contested with Aled taking the lead by 13 points. He was closely followed by the ever-consistent Amy Owens with Gary Owens (Amy’s father) in third, Wyn Mathias in fourth and junior Henri Cynwyl in fifth and hot on their tails.

The junior section saw Henri win with a 23-point lead to Llyr Mathias in second. Dion James was attending his second event with improving times during the day. Three new juniors also took part – Owen Hand (third Junior), Lucas Collins and Poppy Collins. Navigating for the first time was Harvey Jukes who finished the event all smiles.

The Ladies saw five competitors, with Lowri Phillips winning the class, Anwen Francis in second and Katrina Davies in third. Taking part for the first time was Jasmine Seton who had two good runs.

The Over 50's class was won by Gary Owens, with Alex Garton in second spot.

Clerk of the Course, Wyn Lewis said: “Personally, I didn’t know what to expect seeing as we’d moved to hosting an Autotest rather than a Gymkhana. It’s all been a bit of a blur and I really thought we would be back to eight-10 entries where people were put off and unsure what the competition entailed. But, we had an overwhelming amount of entries which included new faces and this was great to see.

“I’d tried to make it more technical than before and from feedback everyone enjoyed. Our morning teething problems will be ironed out by the next one and hopefully we can get more runs completed! All in all, a delight! Huge thank you to everyone who entered, marshalled and to the Warlow family for letting us use their farm once again.”

TVMC Chairman Peter Lewis was taken aback with the number of entries across the board: “We not only had a lot of competitors, but we had lots of junior entries and new faces as well as five ladies taking part.

“Autotests are really on the up and proving popular by all. As a Club we’d like to thank all landowners for their support and for allowing us to use their premises as without them we wouldn’t be able to host these events at grassroots level.”

The TVMC would like to thank Arjay Factors Ltd, Cardigan, Sue Davies and Katrina Davies for their support. The next TVMC Autotest will be held on Sunday 12 May at Rhosfach, Efailwen.