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The BMTR Midland Hill Climb Championship and TTC Group Top Ten Challenge visited Loton Park for round three of the championships. With fourteen OMS drivers in cars ranging from 1100cc to 3.2 litres, OMS Racing was well represented across the racing car classes. But as the weekend progressed a few OMS cars fell by the wayside.
The first to encounter difficulties was Class J competitors Lynn and Steve Owen in the 1600cc OMS 28. Both drivers completed one practice run before electrical gremlins moved in. They spent Saturday practice chasing the fault which was eventually traced to an ECU to wiring loom connector that was giving intermittent false air temperature readings resulting in the ECU switching the engine on and off whilst on the hill, believing the engine was overheating. Neither driver managed to complete a timed run.
Fellow class J runner Steve Spiers OMS 2000M broke a CV joint on his first timed run leaving him unable to take a second run. John Stockley finished third in class with his best time 51.26 in his OMS 2000M and Mark Dalton took fourth place also in a 2000M on 53.90 seconds.
The newly created championship class in 2015, forced induction racing cars up to 2.0 litre had three OMS runners. Andy McBeath in his supercharged OMS 25, Lee Griffiths with a turbo charged OMS 25 and Neville Rollason also running a supercharged power unit in his OMS 28. Lee and Nev led the way in practice on 49.36 and 49.40 respectively. But the tables turned when Nev had a failed first timed run, making contact with the barrier at Keepers damaging the nose section and front aerofoil he retired from the meeting.
For Lee it was a great weekend. Despite losing the class lead to Simon Moyse, Lee set a new personal best time 48.57 on his second run. He also qualified for both of the Top ten run offs finishing fifth in each; Lee's best ever run off points tally at one meeting.
Joining Lee in each run off was 1100cc driver Simon Andrews with the OMS 28 he shares with Bernie Kevill. Simon led the class during Saturday practice but missed the top spot in the competition runs by 12/100ths. The 49.60 class run was Simon's fastest run of the day. Bernie finished third in class ahead of some strong competition with his fastest climb 50.26 seconds. In the runs offs Simon finished tenth and ninth to score championship points on each climb.
Trevor Willis took a comfortable Class L win with his morning run time 45.84 Joining him in the class was Jersey man Jason Mourant who share drove his OMS 25 V8 with Alex Summers. Alex had the upper hand finishing fourth in class on 47.40 less than two tenths behind John Bradburn in third. Jason finished fifth with his best time 48.57 seconds. As Jason wasn't a Midland Hill Climb registered competitor he couldn't qualify for the two run offs even though his times would have placed him well up the qualifying order.
Alex and Trevor were both registered and they qualified for each run off. Alex finished an excellent fourth in both run offs having never previously driven the car. Trevor won each run off one with a comfortable two second margin on each occasion and set Fastest Time of Day at 44.95 seconds with his final climb.
Even though four OMS drives retired from the meeting there was still a strong OMS presence in the classes. Four OMS drivers qualified and scored points in each of the run offs and with Trevor making Fastest Time of Day, on balance it was a pretty good day in the OMS camp.
To view individual times and splits click here and for the official results click here.
Date: 17/05/2015 | Author: L.Owen