THE ‘REAL NIGHT OUT’ AWARDS 2015

The Annual ‘Real Night Out’ Dinner Dance at the end of January saw the presentation of all the awards for the 2015 CNC Heads Championship. It was great to see nearly all the class winners in attendance, the only missing driver being on a pre-arranged skiing holiday (or is a secret mountain training camp!). Elsewhere on this site you can find photographs of all the class winners and those finishing second and third (when I learn how to load them!).

After the presentations the class winners gathered for a group photograph. Our champion, Joe Spencer (Class C), is seen proudly holding his trophy, flanked by Helen Allen (Class F), Garry Watson (Class B), Ilsa Cox (Class D), Stuart Pearson (Class E) and Garry Wardle (Class A). For the first time in the history of the championship not one but two of the classes were won by ladies, congratulations to Helen and Ilsa. Joe follows in his father, Rob’s, wheel tracks as an overall champion. Rob took the title in a similar Stuart Taylor Locosaki back in 2009. In addition to the class and overall award winners all drivers who had started in at least 9 rounds of the championship were presented with an award for their loyalty. All the presentations to the drivers were made by our championship sponsor, and owner of CNC Heads, Ric Woods who was present at the event with his family. Our 2015 Class Winners (Photo : Peter Scherer)

Following on from the class awards several individual championship awards were made on the night. The first being the David Gledhill ‘Driver of the Year’ award. This award is in honour of long time marshal and championship sponsor, David Gledhill, who supported the championship over many years. At each Oulton Park and Anglesey round of the championship all the marshals ‘on the bank’ vote for the driver they deem to have been the best on the day. At the end of the season our Chief Marshal, Margaret Simpson, collates the votes and determines the overall winner. This year the award goes to a driver who was perhaps not involved in the most hectic of mid grid battles as he was out in front battling for the lead more often than not. The 2015 award of Driver of the Year went to one of our Scottish drivers, Garry Watson. Garry can be seen below receiving the trophy from the new Chief Operating Officer of BARC, Drew Furlong. Drew was our guest of honour at the Real Night Out and presented some of the individual trophies. Garry Watson receiving the David Gledhill 'Driver of the Year' Trophy from Drew Furlong (Photo : Peter Scherer)

The next trophy to be announced was the Spirit of the Championship. This is awarded, if there is a suitable candidate, to the driver that embodies most the spirit and friendliness of the championship. It is decided on by the championship committee at the end of the season. Being such a friendly championship there was much discussion before the eventual winner was agreed upon. This year the award goes to a driver who was perhaps never going to win his class but is out competing come rain or shine, home or away. Since he joined the championship in 2012 he has only missed 2 rounds (both at Donington) and this year he started, and finished, all twelve rounds in his immaculately turned out car. In the paddock he is always willing to lend a hand to those in trouble. At Cadwell Park in 2014 after practice he led the troops in re-building Oliver Thomas’ Subaru after he had comprehensively modified it in practice. Early on last year he took out Kevin Cryer and when it looked like he was about to do the same at Rockingham he took the option of going at the wall instead. The winner of the Spirit of the Championship for 2015 was Steven Parker. The presentation was again made by Drew Furlong. Steven Parker receiving his Spirit of the Championship award from Drew Furlong (Photo : Peter Scherer)

The next trophy presented was the Jock Sinclair ‘Newcomer of the Year’ trophy. This is presented, as the name suggests to the newcomer of the year. Whilst there were several newcomers in 2015 there was one who, in anyone’s view, stood out head and shoulders above all the others. He found his feet immediately in his first race at Oulton Park but was a bit adrift of the class leader, who was the experienced, quick, but still young Joe Spencer. By the middle of the season he had had become quicker and quicker and was within a few seconds of Joe, who was by then heading for the overall championship and challenging regularly for overall wins. By the end of the season our newcomer was challenging Joe for class honours. In 2016, with more experience he will be a challenger regularly for class C honours and maybe overall as well. Congratulations go to Dave Harvey, our Newcomer of the Year for 2015. Dave Harvey receiving the Jock Sinclair trophy from Drew Furlong. (Photo : Peter Scherer)

The next two trophies are prestigious trophies which have been kindly donated over the years. The first being the ever popular and very heavy Dave Simpson Memorial Trophy donated many years ago by Margaret Simpson our Chief Marshal. The trophy is presented each year at our ‘summer’ race meeting at Oulton Park to the driver winning his or her class by the greatest time margin. This year there was little competition once Graham Saul had entered his Class F Fiesta for a swansong driver. Whilst the other classes had close battles for their leads, Graham being determined to win the trophy managed to lap all his class colleagues and thus convincingly won the trophy. The trophy was initially presented at the event back in August but was re-presented on the evening by Margaret Simpson. As well as receiving the main gold trophy Graham also received a small replica to keep.
Graham Saul receiving the Dave Simpson Trophy from Margaret Simpson and Ray Sumner (Photo : Peter Scherer)

The next award was the new for 2015 Cam Forbes Memorial Trophy donated by Cam’s wife Dawn who was here on the night to make the presentation. This trophy was in honour of Cam who was a regular competitor for many years who sadly passed away early in 2015. Cam embodied the spirit and friendliness of the championship whilst he was competing and he, with others made sure that the championship has become such a friendly and entertaining championship for drivers, marshals and spectators. Dawn asked that the trophy be awarded at an Anglesey round (Cam’s favourite circuit) to a driver who progressed the most between practice and the race - something for which Cam was rightly famous. Together with Duncan Aukland I was able to draw up some fiendishly complicated rules to determine who had improved most over the event. Once any anomalies had been removed (sand-bagging in practice, incident in practice) the runner up was Kevin Cryer but the overall winner was our 2014 champion Steven Hibbert. Dawn can be seen above making the presentation along with a replica to Steven. Steven Hibbert receiving the Cam Forbes Trophy from Dawn Forbes (Photo : Peter Scherer)

The last awards of the evening as far as the drivers were concerned was the presentation by Drew of the ‘Long Service’ awards for starting 50 or 100 rounds. There were no 100 round winners this year but there were 5 recipients of the 50 round awards. These being, Jamie Cryer, Peter Davies who were both present to receive there salvas; unfortunately Paul Sampson, Danny Keenan and Alastair Chalmers were unable to be with us and will receive their salvas at a future race meeting (or in Alastair’s case when Duncan and I get out to New Zealand!).

Jamie Cryer (top) and Peter Davies (bottom) receiving their 50 Starts awards from Drew Furlong (Photos : Peter Scherer)

John Leck