Harvest
A crop of OMS drivers took class positions at Gurston Down over the August Bank Holiday weekend. The Nicholson McLaren British Hillclimb Championship along with the Leaders Hillclimb Championship visited the venue for the last time this season.
Following heavy rain on Friday evening Saturday practice commenced with a slightly damp track, but quickly dried to provide ideal conditions for the duration of practice. Further rain on the Saturday night through into Sunday morning brought a more wet & challenging track for the final practice before timed runs commenced.
In class I racing cars up to 1100cc, Olivia Cooper finished in 3rd and her husband Liam Cooper 4th in the ex Mark Lawrence Leaders Championship winning OMS CF1100. This is their last season in the OMS in which they have had some excellent results & the car is now for sale. Following them in 5th was Simon Andrews with the ex Trevor Willis OMS 2000M that he shares with Bernard Kevill. This was another points scoring position for Simon at a national event.
Class J racing cars up to 1600cc contained the usual suspects from the national championships. This fiercely competitive class saw James Blackmore in his OMS 25 finishing in a fine 3rd position setting a personal best fastest time at the venue of 28.87 seconds a mere 1/10th of a second behind Will Hall, who finished 10th overall in the 2010 British Hillclimb Championship. Other OMS drivers in the top 6 places in this class were Tim Wilson in 5th and Steve Owen in 6th, both driving OMS 25 cars.
In the larger capacity racing car classes, OMS 25 driver Andy McBeath finished 3rd in class J racing cars up to 2000cc with his Hayabusa supercharged car, setting a personal best time of 29.72 seconds. Trevor Willis the final OMS points scorer in the Leaders Hillclimb Championship, finishing 3rd in class L racing cars over 2000cc.
Being one of the fastest hillclimbs in the UK, the venue favours cars with the greater horsepower engines to qualify for the British Hillclimb Championship Top 12 run offs. OMS driver Trevor Willis qualified strongly for both run offs. In the first he was second fastest qualifier but was unable to maintain this position, three drivers were split by 3/100ths of a second and Trevor finished with a time less than 2/10ths behind them. In run off two Trevor qualified third fastest and maintained this position in the final results.
At this point in the British Hillclimb Championship 28 rounds have been contested. The final championship positions are calculated on the best scores acrued by each driver in 28 rounds from a maximum of 34. At the Prescott meeting that follows Gurston Down, those drivers who have already scored in 28 rounds will drop their lowest scores if they score more highly at the final 6 rounds. There is still much to play for, though the championship winner has already been declared as his points total cannot be beaten. Congratulations to Scott Moran on his third Nicholson McLaren British Hillclimb Championship title.
Date: 4/09/2011 | Author: L.Owen