It's Tricky
An eventful weekend of action for British Hillclimb and Hillclimb Leaders Championship contenders at the north of England venues of Barbon Manor Hillclimb in Cumbria and Harewood Speed Hillclimb in Yorkshire. Mixed weather, mixed fortunes for the drivers and mixed outcomes a propos scoring championship points by the end of play on Sunday evening.
Trevor Willis won round 15 of the BHC run offs at Barbon Manor on the Saturday with his 20.56s climb, taking a maximum 10 point score in his OMS 28 V8. A damaged front aerofoil dropped him a few places in the second run off. Jos Goodyear wowed the crowds with his 20.08s run off time, setting a new outright hill record and winning the second run off.
At Harewood on the Sunday Trevor again won the first run off and then found himself finishing down in ninth position in the second run off. When torrential rain and a thunderstorm swept the hill in the middle of the run off, the share car drivers that ran first managed to ascend the hill on a dry track before the storm moved in for those still left to run. The conditions were impossible on slick tyres and those who had qualified on the fastest times suffered most from the changed weather conditions. The timing then failed for Alex Summers on his run off climb; the last climb of the meeting. Leaving him with no time recorded.
Adding to the weather and timing problem was an unfortunate medical incident in the paddock whilst the final cars were taking their run off runs. The ambulance was needed to attend to the person involved and the meeting drew to an abrupt end. With the ambulance not in attendance Alex could not take a re-run and the meeting closed: a rather tricky situation for the event organisers and British Hillclimb Championship Co-ordinator.
All the Hillclimb Leaders class runs were completed before the storm broke at Harewood. The OMS 28's running in the 1100cc racing car class had a good showing, with three drivers in the top six. Simon Andrews finished second in the Suzuki K8 powered model, Steve Owen finished fourth with the BMW S1000RR engine car, whilst Simon's co-driver Bernie Kevill was nudged into fifth by Steve. Simon and Bernie also set new personal best times 54.99s and 55.85s respectively.
Lee Griffiths scored class points at both venues in the turbo charged Hayabusa OMS 25. Steve Spiers visited Barbon and Harewood for the first time in his 1600cc OMS CF04, scoring 4 Leaders points at Barbon when he finished third in class.
Harewood FTD was claimed by Trevor Willis with his first BHC run off winning time of 49.21s from second FTD Scott Moran 49.49s and Will Hall 49.61s third FTD.
To view championship positions click here and for Harewood results click here. For the Barbon Manor results click here.
Date: 6/07/2015 | Author: L.Owen