Honiton teenager, Kieran Anderson has been crowned the 2015 REIS Southern Counties Autocross Championship.

The 17-year-old needed to pick up maximum points at the Torbay MC Autocross, held at Fairmile, to secure the championship and delivered a well calculated drive over the two days of weekend racing, to lift the title for the first time.

In 2013, Kieran started out in Junior Autocross with a standard 1400 SEAT Arosa. Although the number of junior entries is low in the sport, the times that he was setting towards the end of the season were becoming comparable to the 1600 cars in the senior classes. Staying with the same car in 2014, his abilities and confidence grew with one highlight being a fourth overall finish at Southsea MC event in August against many more powerful cars and season competitors. This also contributed to winning the Home Counties Autocross Championship which involved a trip to Much Hadham in Essex and Bucknell in Oxfordshire. With these events also being part of the Southern Counties Championship, a sixth overall position was hard earned.

At the age of 16, competitors are allowed to drive any vehicle class in the sport and the decision was made to part with the Arosa and embark on a project: a modified production class car.

The donor vehicle, a Smart Roadster Coupe, was sourced and strip down began. A bespoke space frame chassis was fabricated to fit the shell and the familiar SEAT Arosa 1400 engine and gearbox grafted into the build. Unfortunately, we missed the first event of the 2015 season but, with the chassis being powder coated at 1st Choice Finishes, Exeter, the final build turned out above and beyond expectations. With no time to practice or test the new car, North Devon MC event was a nerve racking time. Having never driven the car or rear wheel drive before, it was an exceptional performance with second in class and seventh overall.

Again, time in the car did nothing but improve ability and confidence. In all, 18 rounds have been contested this season, resulting in fourteen class wins and two second places. The championship finished with three competitors on a tied score with six rounds dropped and, on countback, Kieran was deemed the champion.

Kieran said, “I have really enjoyed my first few years competing in the Autocross Championships and the cars that we’ve built and developed this year has been awesome. I would like to take this opportunity to thank John Gay at XCworx, Sidbury for his valuable input in the project, Partservice Ltd Exeter/Honiton, Paul Coles of K.S Coles Wellington and 1st Choice Finishes, Exeter for all their help and support. Hopefully we can find a bit more power over the winter for next season and defend the title, there may also be a British Championship to compete in again.”

Autocross is an excellent way for both the young and the not so young to get involved in motorsport. It is comparatively cheap to compete in with the bonus of more than one driver being able to compete in the same car. Events run between April and October throughout the UK with the REIS Southern counties championship covering the South West, West Wales, Central and Eastern England.

More details can be found on www.aswmc.org.uk or contact Colin Anderson, Championship Coordinator on 07813 769213 or colinanderson@tesco.net