Golden Years
MSA British Hill Climb and Hill Climb Leaders Championship contenders visited Doune Hill Climb In Scotland for the penultimate round of the Championships on 19th and 20th September.
Only a handful of OMS drivers made the journey up to Scotland and the usual Scottish OMS contingent were few in number. OMS SC1 driver Richard Matossian from Forfar won the up to 2.0Ltr sports libre class. Racing cars up to 1100c, the class that usually has a large number of OMS single seaters, was supported by just the one Colin Graham in his OMS PR.
Two OMS cars and three drivers made up the 600cc racing car class after Gary Hill had to withdraw from driving due to a shoulder injury. Harry Pick and Lynn Owen drove the OMS Hornet whilst Steve Owen again drove the OMS 500 he ran last September. Class honours went to Harry 45.73s with Steve in second place 48.14s and Lynn third 52.66s on only the third time Lynn has driven at Doune.
The record for racing cars up to 1100cc has been held since September 2002 by 2003/2004 British Hillclimb Champion Adam Fleetwood, who set a time of 40.78s in the Kawasaki powered OMS 2000M he shared with his father Roger. After thirteen years it has finally been lowered by Steve Marr in the PCD Saxon to 39.43s.
John McKenzie set a new PB in the class runs 40.68s with the ex-Brehaut/Rollason OMS 2000m. His time also qualified John for the second of the BHC run offs. Although John improved on his qualifying time to set a new PB 40.03s he missed out on a points scoring position, finishing eleventh overall.
Only one OMS driver competed in the 2.0Ltr racing car class: Geoff Guille from Guernsey in the ex-Trevor Willis OMS CF04. Geoff's best run of the weekend 45.30s placed him fourth in class.
BHC top three contender Trevor Willis had a weekend of mixed fortunes. On his morning class run he was second fastest qualifier sandwiched between Wallace Menzies and Alex Summers. In the run off he ran onto the grass coming out of East Brae loosing valuable time and finishing 8th overall. On returning to the paddock problems were identified with the gearbox and fixed as best as possible for the afternoon runs. Trevor qualified for the second run off but was only eighth fastest qualifier. As he approached the line for his second run off climb, he spun up the rear tyres only for the offside rear CV to fail. Helpers swarmed to his assistance and the defective joint was replaced for Trevor to take his run: 36.58s to take third place overall.
The man of the meeting though must be Steve Owen. At the drivers briefing on Saturday morning, Tim Thompson Chairman of Lothian Car Club, presented Steve with a memento to acknowledge it was the 50th consecutive British Hill Climb Championship meeting Steve has competed in at Doune. He first visited in June 1990 driving chassis fourteen a 2.0 litre turbocharged OMS single seater, then he returned in the September driving a space framed 1600cc BDA powered OMS. This weekend Steve was once again reunited with chassis number three which he drove at Doune in September 2014. The ex-Ian Cruickshanks OMS 500 (running a 600cc Honda engine) is now owned by David Oldridge who has fully restored the car.
To view the meeting results click here and to view BHC and Leaders results tables click here. In-car footage from the 600cc class can be viewed here. Below are some archive photographs of Steve in some of the cars he has driven at Doune.
OMS SF 1600cc September 1990
OMS Lola 2.5 Ltr 1991
OMS SC1 1300cc 1992
OMS PR 1200cc Blackbird 1999
Date: 23/09/2015 | Author: L.Owen