Human Racing
Yorkshire was in the grip of yellow fever on the weekend of 5th and 6th July for Le Grand Depart of Tour de France 2014. The opening two stages of this year's Tour started in Leeds on Saturday and York on Sunday, with crowds estimated at 2.5 million people lining the route to see the peloton race by over the weekend.
In view of road closures all around Leeds and Harewood on Saturday to accommodate the race route, BARC Yorkshire Centre decided to run rounds 15 and 16 of the Avon Tyres/TTC Group MSA British Hillclimb and Hillclimb Leaders Championships as a one day meeting on Sunday 6th July: the focus of the cycle race moved away from the immediate vicinity of the hillclimb for Stage 2 on Sunday.
Many championship contenders arrived at the venue on Friday to camp for the weekend. The hill was an ideal base to see the Tour start at Harewood House just along the road and a cycle ride from the finish in Harrogate later in the day.
The hillclimb meeting was a good one for OMS drivers. Simon Andrews won the 1100cc racing car class with the OMS 28: his first Leaders Championship class win in this new car. Co-driver Bernie Kevill took second in class, again another personal best finishing position in the OMS 28. Darren Gumbley rounded out the top three a mere 1/100th behind Bernie.
Ben Lovell finished second in the sports libre class with the ex-Les Procter OMS SC, a great result for Ben at a national championship meeting in only his first season with the car.
Racing cars up to 1600cc saw Steve Owen finish in second place with a time of 52.57 seconds, Paul Martin in his OMS 2000M snatched third in class from Lynn Owen by 3/100ths: Paul's time was 55.75 to Lynn's 55.78
Bernie Kevill, Simon Andrews and Steve Owen with OMS 28's
Trevor Willis and Steve Owen qualified for both British Championship run offs. In Run Off 1 only two drivers set a time below 50 seconds; Championship leader Scott Moran who took the Run Off win on 49.10 and Trevor Willis who finished second with 49.90 seconds. Steve took tenth position with his time of 53.06 and gained a further British Championship point to add to his tally. Both OMS drivers conceded that they had scrappy runs, Trevor with a grassy moment whilst Steve struggled to find grip from his rear tyres, sliding the car in flamboyant style but losing time.
However for the second Run Off Steve and Trevor both put in fabulous runs and each set their own personal best time for the venue. Steve finished on 51.32 seconds which placed him 8th in the run off ahead of four V8 powered cars: Steve's highest British Championship run off finish this season.
For Trevor his run off time of 49.06 was not only a PB but also within 4/100ths of the outright hill record. At this point Trevor was in the lead of the Run Off but with Scott Moran still to run, would Trevor have done enough to take the win? Last man to run Scott Moran stopped the clock on 49.03 just 3/100ths ahead of Trevor and 1/100th adrift of his own outright hill record. The win went to Scott who maintains his British Hillclimb Championship lead from Trevor Willis who holds a strong second place.
Allez Steve! Allez Trevor!
To see Harewood results, sector times and splits please click here.
To view the British Championship run off results, championship table and Leaders Hillclimb Championship table click here.
For Le Tour images, reports and latest information click here.
Date: 6/07/2014 | Author: L.Owen