Under Attack
The natural order of British Hillclimbing came under attack at Gurston Down Hill climb on the weekend of 23rd and 24th May. This was the first visit to the venue in the 2015 season by the Avon Tyres/TTC Group MSA British Hillclimb and Hillclimb Leaders Championships.
Competing in the closely fought 1100c racing car class were seventeen drivers; the largest class at the meeting. Regular class winners and top six drivers were ousted by a delighted Debbie Dunbar who took an impressive Hillclimb Leaders class win on 30.45 seconds, leaving the pack in her wake to fight over the next five points scoring places.
OMS 28 driver Simon Andrews was closest to Debbie's time with a 30.59 to take second in the class. His co-driver Bernie Kevill set a new PB at 31.15 to finish in fourth, 2/100ths behind third in class Liam Cooper. Class positions 3rd down to 7th were covered by just four hundredths of a second, leaving many regulars out of the points in this fiercely competitive class.
BARC SW Centre Members, National B licence holders’ class 3 record came under fire by a charging Peter Hammock in his 1600cc OMS CF04. He won his class during Saturday's single day meeting that ran alongside the national practise session, setting a new class record along the way. However on the Sunday he further lowered the record to 31.55 seconds on his first climb. Congratulations Pete.
Four OMS cars ran in the 1600cc racing car class. South West competitor Ian Tucker in his OMS CF07 took a more circumspect approach to the weekend, following a recent off at Wiscombe Park. Father and son Richard and Tom Brown also in an OMS CF07 though running a turbo charged 1137 engine, saw George finish in fourth spot with his best run time of 30.03 seconds. Steve Spiers in the earlier OMS CF04 rounded off the OMS class drivers with his fastest climb 31.46.
In the unlimited racing car class Trevor Willis with the OMS 28 V8 finished third behind a hard charging Alex Summers who now shares a car with today's class winner Scott Moran. Trevor finished 0.23 seconds adrift of Scott and 0.11 behind Alex. Also running in this class was Jason Mourant in his OMS 25 with a V8 power unit like Trevor's. Jason's best time over the weekend was 28.91 seconds.
Trevor was the only OMS driver to qualify for the run offs. In the first he finished 3rd on 26.37 just behind equal first place winners Scott Moran and Alex Summers who set an identical winning time of 26.25 seconds.
In the afternoons run off Trevor again finished 3rd with his 26.94 seconds climb. This time first place went to Alex with his co-driver Scott having to settle for second. New class runner Alex Summers took his first two wins in the Gould and will no doubt change the natural order within the coveted top ten places of the British Hill Climb Championship as it moves through the season.
To view the event results click here and to see the British Hill Climb and Hillclimb Leaders points tables click here.
Date: 25/05/2015 | Author: L.Owen