It's All Over Now
The 2013 Avon Tyres/TTC Group MSA British Hillclimb Championship was settled at Doune Hill Climb over the weekend of 14 and 15 September. With conditions for Sunday's timed runs being changeable; intermittent heavy rain showers and a difficult track surface, each of the two run offs became a lottery for those drivers fighting for vital championship points.
Scott Moran went into the weekend in a strong position needing only to finish 5th or higher in the first run off to take the championship. His only challenger 2012 champion Trevor Willis, had an outside chance of taking the fight down to the wire at Loton Park's finale meeting, in his bid to retain the title should Scott not score sufficient points.
Trevor out qualified Scott, so Scott ran first in the wet & slippery conditions. Eight competitors had already set times of between 45 and 43 seconds when Scott notched up his time of 42.91 seconds putting him firmly in the lead at that point. Next up was Trevor, and if he were to beat Scott he would have to do something special to outpace him. Up until this point all the cars had run on full wet tyres, but Trevor believed the conditions favoured a rear slick tyre & much to everyone's amazement he lined up at the start on a front wet/rear slick combination. There was a gasp as the clock stopped indicating he had reached the finish line - 41.59 seconds: an outstanding performance from the 2012 champion, underlining his mastery of car control in difficult conditions. Next man up Jos Goodyear couldn't quite match Trevor's pace with his 1600cc car and finished 3/100ths behind Scott on 42.94 seconds. Top qualifier and last man to run was Alex Summers, having seen the times other drivers were achieving he gave it everything to win the first run off on 40.78 seconds, a fabulous effort from this young driver.
With Scott Moran finishing 3rd in the run off it secured him the 2013 British Hillclimb Championship title. Congratulations to Scott on his title win.
The weather influenced qualifying for the second of the two run offs, shuffling the qualifiers around following rain at mid-point during the second timed runs. Unusually Roger Moran out qualified his son Scott, leaving Scott to run first as the only shared car in the run off. Despite having the best conditions when he ran, as heavy rain began to fall after his return to the paddock when the other drivers were lining up, his time of 45.73 was somewhat disappointing given his morning run time.
OMS driver Pat Roche had qualified his 1600cc OMS CF07 for the second run off and was the first man to run after Scott, finishing 7th with a time of 46.87 seconds.
Once again Trevor Willis raised a few eyebrows with his tyre choice, despite the rain falling heavily for his climb he was running slicks all round. There were roosters of spray as he left the line and sped along the lower reaches of the hill and everyone waited to see what time he would set - 43.54 seconds, over 2 seconds quicker than champion elect Scott Moran and in tougher conditions. Hot shot Jos Goodyear got within half a second of Trevor's time on 43.92, with only Alex Summers left to run. He set an incredible time of 42.30 seconds to take his second British Hillclimb Championship run off win of the meeting, each time from Trevor Willis in second place. Well done Alex.
For a full run down of the run off times and the British and Leaders Hillclimb Championship tables, please click here.
Date: 18/09/2013 | Author: L.Owen