Too Much Too Little Too Late
The heat wave seen in Jersey continued on Guernsey as the British Hillclimb Championship rolled into town. Visitors to the event were welcomed by a magnificent display of photographs depicting cars and drivers that have competed on the hill during the past 40 years the venue has hosted rounds of the British Hillclimb Championship. To commemorate the anniversary, Guernsey Motorcycle and Car Club in collaboration with Comprop and Tall Pictures had placed the huge display adjacent to the Old Brewery on the start line. Work will commence soon to re-develop the brewery and the display will stay in situ for the duration of this building work.
Conditions were set for some pretty quick climbs up the twisting, granite walled hill at Le Val des Terres. Guernseyman Mark Le Cras in the very pretty 1000cc OMS SC1 sports car gave it a bit too much on his first timed run, hitting the banking whilst exiting the corner onto the long straight. Having damaged the upright on impact, Mark was sidelined for the rest of the meeting.
Ricky Le Cheminant was on a roll following his record breaking class win in Jersey. Setting a new personal best time in the 1100cc OMS P/R of 29.67 that placed him second in his class. Alan Prevel finished 3rd in class in the Auto repair Centre OMS 1100. Not to be outdone Ricky's brother in law Chris Guille climbed the hill in 29.58 seconds driving the 2.0 Ltr OMS CF04 he was sharing with his father Geoff.
Ladies hill record holder Sarah Gaudion was on the pace from the off, dropping into 30 second climbs during practice. During first timed runs she once again smashed her own Ladies Record with a time of 30.01 seconds. A fabulous time but just too little to drop into the coveted 29 second bracket.
Congratulations Sarah
Sarah Gaudion OMS CF08
Trevor Willis had a challenging meeting in his OMS 28 V8. Following his success on Jersey he was struggling to be competitive at Le Val des Terres. He appeared to be stuck on 28 second climbs leaving him adrift of the front runners. With championship rival Scott Moran running in the 27's Trevor needed to dig deep & pull one on those special runs out of the bag. Too late in the day did he hit on what would give him the result he was looking for, getting down to a personal best time of 27.85 seconds in the final run off of the day to snatch 3rd place and much needed championship points.
The British Championship moves to Wiscomb Park for the next round, where Trevor holds the outright hill record and took two run off wins last season. Scott Moran is not competing, giving Trevor a further chance to close the points gap once more.
Full results can be found here.
Date: 24/07/2013 | Author: L.Owen