A MOTORING enthusiast was killed when he lost control of his vintage sports car and crashed into a ditch in York, an inquest has heard.

Charles Boyd Mason, 34, died on August 14, 2016, while driving in Intake Lane after competing in a driving skills event in his 1972 yellow MG Midget.

The inquest, at New Earswick Folk Hall on Monday, heard Mr Mason - a landscape gardener from Newton-on-Ouse with links to Hovingham - was on his way to Newton-on-Ouse when he turned into Intake Lane at about 11.40am.

Gary Hudson, director of Acaster Marine, spoke with Mr Mason just before the crash, and as he drove away commented to a colleague that the tyres on the MG had “almost no tread”.

York Press:

Mr Hudson said he “got the impression the car was for track racing, not for the road”, and “it was so loud, we could hear every gear change”. Stuart Smith was driving in the opposite direction in Intake Lane with his partner Jennifer Haley, when they saw Mr Mason’s car approach them, then hit an undulation in the road, bouncing into the wrong lane. Mr Smith swerved to avoid the front end of Mr Mason’s vehicle, then watched it “fishtail” in his rear mirror before it crashed off the road into a ditch.

Jennifer Haley said she remembered Mr Smith saying “he’s lost it”, then reversing to the scene of the crash. She got out and phoned the emergency services. Two first-aid trained women from the marina arrived at the scene, before paramedics arrived minutes later.

The inquest heard Mr Mason was not wearing a seatbelt, and had been partially ejected from the vehicle during the crash, which caused the front offside wing to be ripped off, and bent and twisted the roll cage. Cause of death was given as brain stem disruption resulting from road traffic trauma. Speaking after the inquest, Diana Mason, Mr Mason’s mother, from Hovingham, said: “Charlie was funny, creative, bright and loyal. He had a great dry sense of humour, and had friends from school and university and made throughout his life that he was exceptionally close to and all of whom he made laugh. He loved being on the water and renovated boats from scratch. Charlie’s death has left a hole in so many people’s lives. It is all the more heartbreaking for the family as for the last few months of his life he was the happiest we had seen him for a long time. All of us had commented on it, and We are so grateful for the many opportunities we had just before the accident to all be all together eating, laughing, and just relishing being in one another’s company.”

A crash investigator said a number of defects with Mr Mason’s car - lack of tread, over-inflated tyres, and a roll-bar which prevented the use of a seatbelt - and the undulation in the road were factors in Mr Mason oversteering and crashing, but would not have been enough individually to cause the crash.