Ashburton Car Club take lead in Canterbury Inter-Club Series

Six rounds of the 2024 Canterbury Inter-Club Series and the fight for the Dave McCahon Trophy have taken place with the Ashburton Car Club holding a solid lead over the Canterbury Car Club.

The Canterbury Car Club hosted the fifth round, the Dual Car Sprint on Sunday 1 September 2024 which attracted 37 entries.

**Jeremy Lush (Canty) Lotus 7 – Photo Cindy Lovett**

Canterbury Car Club took a 1-2 result with Ross Bristol (Westfield SE) just beating Jeremy Lush (Lotus 7) and in so doing gave their club a healthy 87-points, allowing them to sneak a three-point lead over Ashburton Car Club on 310-points.

Two of the favourites, Greg Cross (Ashburton) and Stefan Moser-Rust (Ratec), both dropped out with mechanical issues early. This left Nathan Clark (Ash CC – Subaru Impreza), Michael Smith (Canty Nissan Pulsar) and winner of the Canterbury Car Club – Club Championship Trophy, John Rathgen (Canty -Toyota GR Yaris), to take the rest of the top five places.

The sixth round of the Inter-Club Series saw the Ashburton Car Club host the Scott’s Shingle Sprint on Le Bretons Rd in the Wakanui district, east of Ashburton, on Saturday 14 September 2024.

**Stefan Moser-Rust (Ratec) VW Polo – photo James O’Connor Photography**

After a very wet Friday, the road had some small lakes and slippery patches creating a great battle arena. The chip off the old block, Thomas Muckle’s (main photo) (Ashburton) Evo 3 managed a three-second win over Stefan Moser-Rust (Ratec) in a rally-spec VW Polo. The Ashburton brothers, Scott and Nathan helped the Club retake the Inter-Club lead with Josh Keighley (Autosport – Subaru Imprezza) snatching fifth by 0.2 of a second.

There has been a road closure glitch for the RATEC Little River Hillclimb scheduled for 20 October. There is also a hillclimb planned for the preceding day that may be substituted if the glitch cannot be sorted.

The Autosport Autocross is yet to be confirmed for the eighth round.