Days Like This
Today was such a day at Loton Park Hill Climb in Shropshire. Hagley and District Car Club were hosting the third round of the BMTR Midland Hill Climb Championship and the Top Ten Challenge. This track winds its way through a wooded deer park and today the venue was bathed in sunshine, much to the delight of all concerned following the rain and wind at Harewood Hillclimb in Yorkshire last weekend.
Racing cars up to 1100cc fielded 16 cars, the largest single seater class at the meeting. Mark Goodyear debuted his Suzuki K7 powered Hornet that was formerly Hayabusa powered. Mike Fitzsimons completed the engine installation during the winter and was rewarded for all his hard work when Mark finishing 3rd in class on a 51.40 The new OMS 28 of Simon Andrews and Bernard Kevill held its own against the more established runners, on their first visit to Loton Park with the car. Simon finished in a class points scoring position, taking 5th place with his 51.82 second run. Bernie's time of 52.80 placed him 8th out of the sixteen class runners. Both were running close to their personal best times set in the OMS 2000M they campaigned previously and are certain that they will be much quicker once they have settled into their new 28.
Steve Owen was once again heading up the 1600cc racing car class, running consistently in the 47's in the timed runs. His time of 47.64 took the class win from Steve Day's Raptor that was running in the 48's and then dropped into the 47's on the second timed run. Lynn Owen finished 3rd in class on 51.28 ahead of Tina Hawkes 51.48 and OMS driver Lee Griffiths 51.95; who once again share drove with John Stockley (53.49) in the OMS 2000M. Also driving this weekend were Steve Spiers in his CF04 and Mark Dalton in his 2000M.
This season the up to 2.0 litre class is mainly populated by cars that are either supercharged or turbo charged motorbike engine cars. The new OMS 28 of Neville Rollason runs a supercharged Hayabusa engine as does the OMS 25 of Andy McBeath. Like Simon Andrews, Neville is still familiarising himself with his new car but Nev's time of 51.12 seconds placed him 5th in class just ahead of Andy McBeath on a 51.55 This was a personal best time for Andy and he hopes to lower this further at the next Loton Park meeting.
The Top Ten Challenge run offs included cars form each of the single seater classes plus sports libre. Trevor Willis was fastest qualifier in the first run off with Steve Owen third fastest qualifier. Trevor took the win to add a further 10 points to his tally, whilst Steve finished 4th.
Run off 2 had Trevor as second fastest qualifier, having been beaten to the top spot by Will Hall who unfortunately didn't reach the finish line on his run off run, leaving the door wide open for Trevor to take the second run off win and Fastest Time of Day with a time of 45.54 seconds. Steve Owen finished an impressive 3rd with his personal fastest time of the meeting 47.52 seconds.
A great meeting, great weather and some great results for OMS drivers - we could all do with a few more days like this.
Date: 18/05/2014 | Author: L. Owen