Michaela Bevan roars to National success

Resident Columnists

Written by Gaz

Monday, 18 January 2010 14:35

After competing for the past three years in the super saloon class seven, Michaela Bevans 21, has achieved her goal by becoming the 2009 National Autograss Champion.

Last year Michaela from Cosheston, Pembrokeshire, came close by taking the runners up spot behind Jo Thompson from Yorkshire and crossed the finish line just a few inches behind her in second place.

This year the Ladies and Juniors National Autograss Championships where held up in Cambridgeshire and promoted by the East Anglian Autograss League.
After competing in her three qualifying heats, Michaela entered the grand final in joint first place with two firsts and a second, with her rival Jo Thompson again obtaining the same results.

Michaela races a rear wheel drive Mini shell with a 1500cc Suzuki Hayabusa motorbike engine positioned in the rear and Michaela actually sits in the centre of the Mini.

Her race car is prepared by WL Racefab from Johnston, Haverfordwest, and her engine is prepared by Powertec Engineering in Peterborough. Wayne Llewellyn always ensures that Michaela’s car is in top condition for all race meetings and is one of the first there if a problem arises, along with the engineers from Powertec. Michaela also enjoys the mechanical aspect to maintaining her Mini’s top spec alongside her Dad.

From nearly forty competitors in class seven, the top eight entered the final on the Sunday afternoon. It was a very close start, with Michaela just entering the first corner ahead, but slipped wide which allowed her rival to pass, but by the second of the eight laps Michaela was back in front and never looked back, increasing her lead after each lap and finished a good third of a lap ahead of second place.

This was Michaela’s fourth National Title; her first was in 2005 at the age of sixteen in class six, driving a front wheel drive nova powered by a two litre Vauxhall engine.

The following year she obtained the double, by winning class six again, but also class one, which is the standard class and drove a 1000cc Mini. However, this year was Michaela’s most memorable and was delighted when she stood on the podium at the trophy presentation.

As soon as Michaela came off the track, her thrilled Dad, Mike Bevans was first to congratulate her, along with motorsport’s famous Barry Lee from Sky Sports who interviewed Michaela straight away before she had chance to get out of her race car. This coverage was shown on Sky Sports recently on a programme titled Summer Motorsport.

Apart from her National Class Seven Title, Michaela also raced her boyfriend Dan Mackenzie’s class eight gratefully at this year’s championships and won all of her three qualifying heats. Class eight is a very competitive class and always has a large entry. Class eight is one of the ‘specials’ classes in Autograss, and the one Michaela raced is powered by a Powertec 1350cc Suzuki Hayabusa engine. Michaela had to fight more in this final and was at one time in fifth position, but after a few laps overtook some competitors with some fantastic driving moves, and finished the final in a creditable third place. This was Michaela’s first real go in the open wheel specials and thoroughly enjoyed it, so much so that she would consider competing in this class in the future. www.girlracer.co.uk