By 
STEVEN Ferguson picked up where he left off at the end of last season by winning the first round of the 2024 McMillan Specialist Cars NI Autotest Championship at TTS, Nutts Corner, on Saturday.
The Stewartstown man won every round of last year’s series to be crowned Northern Irish champion for a ninth time and if the weekend’s action is anything to go by it looks like it will take a monumental effort by the rest of the field to stop him making it a perfect 10.
Behind the wheel of his trusty Mini Special, Ferguson produced a fault-free run over the 12 tests to win round one by almost 15 seconds from Peter Grimes, while Andy Blair was a distant third.
Vauxhall Nova driver, David Thompson picked up fourth place overall on the day to finish ahead of James Wilson, Chris Grimes and Newmills’ Mark King who picked up a fail on test 1C, after a gear selection issue in his Vauxhall Nova left him with only first gear, to scupper his hopes of challenging for a podium finish.
Ardboe’s Damien Mooney was eighth, ahead of William Keaning, with Mini Special driver, Castlederg’s Adam Lowry rounding out the top 10 ahead of Andrew Earney, Coagh’s Trevor Ferguson and his brother Jack Lowry, who suffered brake failure in his Mini Saloon, leaving him to endure a less competitive outing than he had hoped.
Paul Lowther, Mark Ferguson, George Hamilton and Ryan Catterson rounded out the main field.
In the classes, Steven Ferguson, Grimes and Wilson sealed the top three places in class A, while Blair, Keaning and Trevor Ferguson did likewise in class B.
Earney and Jack Lowry finished first and second in class C respectively, while Thompson, King and Mooney were the class D podium finishers in a trio of Novas.
Jimmy Dougan won the clubman section on the day, finishing almost 58 seconds ahead of Ian McCann, with Lawrence Baird third.
And Ashley Lamont won the advanced category from Robert Dickson with Adam McMullan third and Dungannon’s Jordan Burns fourth in his Fiesta Special.