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The fortunes of a handful of OMS drivers at Prescott Hill Climb followed a similar pattern to that of the previous weekend's events at Gurston Down. As the National Championships descended on the Gloucestershire hill, the "Owen's" had not resolved the engine problem in the OMS 28 BMW. Lynn and Steve had stayed in Hampshire between the Gurston and Prescott meetings, so they were unable to work on the car. Once again they had share drives with Andy McBeath (OMS 25 1300s) and Neville Rollason (OMS 28 1300s).

Andy and Lynn continued with development work started at the previous meeting, identifying modifications that will maximise the supercharger power output. Andy finished sixth in class 41.29s (as at Gurston) taking another Hillclimb Leaders Championship point, whilst Lynn finished eighth with her best run time 44.68 seconds.

The Rollason/Owen duo encountered a differential problem during Sunday morning practice runs, side-lining the car from competitive runs. A great shame as fellow class runners Nicola Menzies and Dave Uren's Force PC, along with the Force of Graham Wynn and his share driver Will Hall also ran into mechanical difficulties. Steve and Nev might have finished well up in the points and possibly qualified for the British Hillclimb Championship run offs as it turned out. In practice Steve ran a 40.22s and a sub forty second run could have been on the cards.

Lee Griffiths on the other hand had a trouble free and successful weekend with his OMS 25 1300t. He led the class at the lunch break with a 39.22s climb and qualified for the first of the run offs. Unfortunately he didn't improve his time in the second runs and slipped back into third overall in the class. Nevertheless a great result for Lee as he fine tunes the newly installed launch and traction control.

OMS 600 runners Gary Hill and Harry Pick resumed their season long duel in the Hornet they share drive. Once again the more experienced driver had the upper hand, with Gary beating Harry by two hundredths with his 42.54s to take the class win. Harry's best run time 42.56s placed him second in class.

Trevor Willis also had his troubles to contend with during Saturday practice. Having agreed to try some new Avon development tyres, he had an off at Ettores bend that took out the front aerofoil and nearside front suspension. Fortunately Trevor had spares with him and managed to fully repair the car. Despite the setback, Trevor finished fourth in his class and qualified the OMS 28 V8 for both BHC runs offs. He finished third in each run off, adding a further 16 points to his British Championship tally: Trevor has no scores to drop so any points scored will be added at each of the remaining rounds.

To view times and splits click here and to see the championship points tables click here.

Date: 8/09/2015 | Author: L.Owen