Draft:Sandown Sprint

The Sandown Sprint is a closed-road motor sport event. that was first run on the Isle of Wight over the weekend of 2nd & 3rd April 2022. It used legislation passed in 2017 that enables a local Highways Authority to issue a Motor Race Order as provided for by the Road Traffic Act 1988. The event was founded and promoted by Tim Addison and organised by the Isle of Wight Car Club. Originally it was scheulded to run in 2020, but was postponed twice due to the national lockdowns that were imposed. The event used a sprint format on a special constructed 750m track at Culver Parade in Sandown on the Isle of Wight. Sandown was the preferred choice of venue; 'as it has a couple of important advantages. Firstly, there are not many people living along the proposed track and, secondly, it has an elevated sea wall which makes a good spectator enclosure.' An initial entry of 100 cars was approved by Motorsport UK of which 96 actually cars started practice on the first day. The entries were organised into several classes with each driver having a number of practice runs followed by timed competitive runs. The driver's fastest times on each day were added together to give an overall combined fastest driver which was Will Nicholls driving a Ford Fiesta R5 M-Sport in a time of 69.23sec. The fastest single timed run was by Damian Bradley driving a Subaru Legacy who achieved a 34.17sec run on the Sunday. A full list of entries and the results can be found on the Isle of Wight Speed Trials website.

The Sprint was enhanced by the entry of Italian rally driving ace Miki Biasion, winner of two World Rally Championships in 1988 and 1989 driving for the Lancia works team. Car maagazine (October 2022) covered this: 'Sandown (is the ) backdrop to Miki Biasion’s reunion with his 1989 WRC-winning Integrale. Both Italians are guests of honour at the inaugural Sandown Sprint, the first major motorsport event on the Isle of Wight since the Island Rally Stages in the early ‘80s.' He drove a Lancia Delta Integrale 16V Group A car, an exact replica of his 1989 Sanremo Rally winning car. It was built to celebrate Biasion's world titles and entered by Rally Replay.

A crowd of around 3000 spectators turned out to support the inaugural Sandown Sprint, the first event to be run as part of the Isle of Wight Speed Trials. The Sprint was well received by local media and there is talk of it becoming an annual event; local news website Island Echo said:'The Island Car Centre Sandown Sprint has been hailed a success by organisers as thousands enjoyed an action-packed weekend of high-octane motorsport, with many calling for the return of the event in 2023'

The Sandown Sprint was welcomed by Isle of Wight's tourism sector which recognised its potential for attacting out of season business to the Island. The dates had been purposely chosen two weeks before the traditional start of the tourism season at Easter.