AN INVERCLYDE group dedicated to improving safety on the roads held another successful competition for car drivers.

Phoenix Car Club’s annual ‘Drive Safe’ event attracted competitors with a range of ages and experience, as well as several Malcolm Group truck drivers, in their cars.

Club vice president Raymond McElroy explained that there used to be separate contests for car and commercial vehicles.

He said: “The commercial competition was dropped when the council stopped their involvement, but some of the Malcolm drivers still take part in their cars and compete against each other.

“Malcolm drivers have been part of this event for over 30 years They had an extremely close contest with a father and son, both called Roddy Duncan, taking the top places.

“This section is always intense, and there were calls for a distinct commercial competition, with a greater involvement from drivers of different ranges of commercial vehicles.” Meanwhile, Raymond won the club members’ Phoenix Cup in a nail-biting drive-off.

The two leading competitors, with the same penalty points, were required to take the course for a second time, and in the end there was very little to separate the finalists.

Jim Joyce was only just beaten into second place by Raymond.

The young drivers who took part were praised for their performance.

Raymond said: “As always, young drivers do well — reflecting their control skills and up-to-date theory.” Inverclyde Phoenix is the only local road safety charity which runs a drive safe event for car drivers, and it has been doing this every year since 1969.