Red Roses Ready For National Autograss Championships

By Paul Evans

The biggest autograss race meeting of the year takes place this weekend, when 400 cars assemble at Castle Lloyd Farm in Carmarthenshire for the annual National Autograss Championships.

A vast variety of highly modified saloons and custom-built specials will race around a dirt oval on 4-5 August. It’s one of the biggest and most spectacular motorsport events of its kind, and it takes place on a track located between Red Roses and Pendine.

Such is the huge demand for places on the grid that the number of competitors is capped to 40 per class – meaning that only the very best drivers in the country will battle it out to become 2018 Class National Champion.

And two weeks after the Men’s National Autograss Championships, the country’s best Ladies and Junior drivers will race at Castle Lloyd Farm in their National Autograss Championships. Over 200 of the country’s top female drivers, together with over 100 juniors drivers aged between 12-16, have entered that race meeting, which takes place on 18-19 August.

Both race meetings begin with an opening ceremony at 09.15, with racing from 10.00.

Several local drivers will be aiming to defend their National Autograss Championship titles, including Pembrokeshire Autograss Club’s Rob Corbett (PAC 3) in Class 4 and Carmarthen Autograss Club’s Dalton Thomas (CM 8) in Class 6. Alice Bevans (PAC 2) and Nicola Davies (CM 47) will be out to defend their Class 5 and 6 Ladies titles respectively, while many other local South Wales League qualifiers will be hoping for trophy winning success.

The racing will consist of two qualifying heats on each Saturday, together with a third heat on Sunday morning, followed by the 10 individual class finals in the afternoon – consisting of the top eight drivers in each class. The class winners will then be entered into the prestigious Champion of Champions race.