For the third year in a row Courtenay Sport powered cars have come away victorious from Thunder Road, which this year was held on Saturday 8th August at the former RAF Woodbridge airbase.

The Thunder Road event is aimed at Performance VAUXHALL road going cars including all VXR models and is only open to road legal, taxed, tested and insured road vehicles. The competition comprises of 5 x 1 Mile Speed runs along the the 2 mile runway with the highest Terminal Speed at the 1 mile mark to count.

Congratulations to Andy Carr and Ben Gibson, who took first and second place in Class B for cars between 1601-2000cc and Tim Crane who won Class B for cars up to 1600cc. All three cars have been mapped by Courtenay Sport.

Andy driving his Courtenay Sport mapped Garrett equipped (GTx3076R) Astra G GSi 2.0 Turbo achieved a top speed of 173.86mph to win the class, beating the 2014 winning time for Class B.

Ben’s Courtenay Sport mapped Zafira B VXR with Garrett GT2871HTA turbo took second place at an extremely respectable top speed of 160.26mph; not bad for a 7 seat bus!

2015 was the third year that a Courtenay Sport car has won Class B. 2014 saw Rob Dennis run his Courtenay Sport mapped Garrett Turbo quipped Astra G across the line at 171.59mph, and 2013 the outright Class B winner was Wayne Townsend’s Courtenay Sport Astra H VXR.

Tim Crane was the winner of Class A, for vehicles up to 1600cc. His Stage 4 Corsa D VXR Sprint crossed the timing line at 138.73mph.

To show what an achievement Andy’s ‘almost’ 174mph top speed actually was, he would have also won Class C (2001-2800cc) and Class D (2801cc and above). It would have also placed the Astra in 4th place in Class E (for cars above 2800cc Turbo or Supercharged).

Overall 173.86mph placed Andy 4th overall (only loosing out to a couple of Monaros and a VXR8!), and Ben’s 160.26mph saw him 12th overall.