Autograss: Leewood's 2024 champion of champions

Helen’s LM 173 will be LM 2

Zoe Leyland and Helen Walsh have been named Leewood Motor Club’s new club ‘champion of champions’ by the local autograss club.

The pair have been named for the 2024 season, with Zoe racing as LM1 and Helen as LM2. Both have strong Heywood connections and their dads also raced autograss, whilst Helen’s still does.

Zoe’s racer is bike-powered with an engine size of around 1300cc, and Helen’s similarly bike-powered engine is 600cc.

Steve Hayward, of Leewood, congratulated the pair, adding: “Both families will be very proud, rightly so.”

Autograss is a non-contact hobby motorsport which takes place on an oval (approximately 400 metre) track using a natural soil surface. It’s made up of 10 different classes: class 1 is usually the cheapest and class 10 features open-wheel buggies with an unlimited engine size, often using twin motorcycle engines.

Leewood’s previous track was near Manchester Airport where it had raced for 20 years. Prior to this, the club mainly raced in the north Manchester area. Leewood itself was founded in the 1970s and was an amalgamation of Lancs & Cheshire Autograss and Leesona-Holt rally club.