BRISTOL MOTOR CLUB
The Chepstow Racecourse AutoSOLO, a venue which the club is returning to this year
Tackling the John Walker, the final hill of the Allen Classic Trial
Andy Laurence
“ You must be really dedicated to get your kids into it and it turned out there aren’ t many people who are – so I decided AutoSOLO was probably more suitable. I started gathering people together and found a core group that were interested – some existing club members and some new ones – and we set up the championship.”
Bristol has not actually run its own AutoSOLO for four years since losing its venue – although that will be changing this year. Instead, it has again relied on other local clubs’ events, through an arrangement for automatic invites to all members of the regional associations.
Again, the innovation was not in the series itself, but the way it was run, with the Generation Cup set up alongside the main junior championship.“ People compete as a team, combining a parent, guardian or relative with a child,” he explains.“ The two scores add up to define the result – and it creates a great family connection.”
Revolution- March 2026
The club now runs a long list of events, including sprints at Castle Combe and Llandow, a Wiscombe Park Hill Climb( as one of four organising clubs), the Allen Classic Trial, the Roy Fedden Sporting Trial, and several navigational scatters around Bristol. It also has a very strong social element.
It is no coincidence, then, that the club is still thriving after all these years. Although Laurence acknowledges it could do with some new faces and innovative minds – a challenge faced by most sports clubs across the country – it is delivering precisely what every motorsport club needs to do.
Getting‘ more people doing more motorsport more often’ is Motorsport UK’ s simple premise, and Laurence concludes:“ That is exactly what we do! We want motorsport to be accessible to everyone and there’ s a common theme to everything we do, which is how can we do this in a way that the most people can benefit from it …”
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