On The Road Again
Only four days after returning from the Channel Islands, contenders of the Avon Tyres TCC Group MSA British Hillclimb Championship were back on the road to the next round at Wiscombe Park in Devon. With a mixture of showers and thunderstorms forecast for the South West of England there was every chance that qualification for the two run offs would ultimately be a lottery dependent on the weather.
Saturday practice saw Trevor Willis leading the way with a time of 35.09 seconds, no surprise really as he is the current hill record holder and Wiscombe Park is one of Trevor's favourite hills. First timed runs saw Trevor take the top qualifying spot and if the form he had shown thus far held out he would also take the win. Sadly for Trevor this was not to be and he finished 2nd to Wallace Menzies, losing out by a mere 9/100ths of a second. During the afternoon runs rain fell as the unlimited capacity single seaters were taking their class runs leaving Wallace Menzies out of a top 12 qualifying position. Trevor only just made the cut, having put in a heroic climb in difficult conditions. In the second British Championship run off Trevor nailed the win, a full second clear of next man Alex Summers.
Joining Trevor in both run offs was 1600cc OMS 2000M owner Mike Lee who finished 9th in run off one and 7th in run off two, netting Mike 6 British Championship points.
It was good to see new OMS CF04 owner Neal Coles out in the ex-James Blackmore/Glyn Davies car. Neal is settling into the car and posted respectable times in the B Licence holders’ class.
Neal Coles OMS CF04
Another blast from the past was the OMS SC1 being driven by its new owner Andrew Short. Carrying chassis plate number 21, this is the ex-Lynn & Steve Owen Sports Car. It is one of only six manufactured by OMS Racing in the 1990's to comply with the MSA Leaders Championship Sports Libre Class for cars up to 1300cc as was.
Andrew Short OMS SC1
Graham Smith's OMS 2000M still sporting its Cadbury's livery has found a new owner James Moore; since Graham emigrated to Australia. James has competed at a few South West meetings this season including Gurston Down a couple of weeks ago and is setting some good times in the 1100cc racing car class.
James Moore OMS 2000M
Racing car class up to 1600cc fielded two further South West OMS drivers Ian Tucker in the beautifully presented OMS CF07 and Ian Cameron with the OMS Hornet, the quicker of the two drivers in today’s conditions.
The OMS 'Pool Car' was once again out and about, this time in the hands of co-owner Gary Hill and Mike Fitzsimons. As is the norm for drivers of this little car fun was the order of the day, with both drivers having a great time. Gary had a moment in the first class runs leaving Mike to snatch the lead, but the tables turned in the second runs leaving Gary the winner ahead of Mike.
Full results and times can be found here.
British Championship table can be found here.
Date: 28/07/2013 | Author: L.Owen