Take Five
Trevor Willis's run of outright wins in the British Hillclimb Championship came to an end this weekend at Harewood Hillclimb. With temperatures closer to those usually seen in February, Trevor ran out of grip under braking at Farmhouse Bend on his first timed run. Ending up in the gravel trap and narrowly missing the tyre barrier before re-joining the track, he completed the run in 59.89s and was a non-qualifier for round five of the BHC run offs.
The OMS 28 driver stayed on track in round six, taking a fifth outright win of the season and maintaining his lead at the head of the BHC points table, with a comfortable margin over second placed Richard Spedding.
Trevor Willis OMS 28 RPE: photo T Wilson
Although Trevor's OMS was absent from round five, two run off first-timers qualified for the morning run off. Harry Pick with his 1100cc OMS 2000M qualified in 11th and multiple Harewood FTD Champion John Chacksfield with his supercharged OMS 28 in twelfth place.
John Chacksfield OMS 28 1300s: photo T Wilson
As Trevor before him, John too was caught out by the combination of a cold track and cold tyres, running out of grip on the approach to Orchard Corner and skating over the gravel trap. Fortunately there was no damage to the car, but he did fail to get on the scoreboard.
Harry's hard charging run secured him the final points scoring position, giving him his first ever British Hillclimb Championship point for tenth place. A memorable weekend for Harry, having also won the MSA Hillclimb Leaders class in the morning runs with a PB time of 54.50s and then finishing second in the afternoon class runs.
Harry Pick OMS 2000M 1100cc: photo T Wilson
Lynn and Steve Owen drove the works 1100cc OMS 28 in the Harewood Hillclimb Championship event on the Saturday and also in the British and Hillclimb Leaders Championship meeting on Sunday.
Steve Owen OMS 28 1100: photo T Wilson
On the Saturday with his first timed run 55.24s, Steve took a comfortable class win and set second fastest time of day, a quarter of a second adrift of FTD man John Chacksfield on 54.98 seconds. In Sunday's Hillclimb Leaders event, Steve finished fourth and third in the class runs and Lynn finished in sixth on both runs to take the final points scoring place in the class. Her best run time 57.72s was a PB in the 1100cc OMS 28.
Former OMS 2000M driver Dave Banner returned to single seater racing this weekend, aboard the ex-Neville Rollason OMS 28 that is now powered by a 1600cc Hayabusa. Dave won his class in the Harewood Hillclimb Championship meeting on Saturday with his best run time 56.86s. In spite of the conditions he further improved to 56.37s on the Sunday and commented "What a cracking piece of kit the car is to drive" and added "he can't wait to drive it again very soon".
Up against Dave in the 1600cc racing car class were two more OMS drivers: Stuart Dow and Simon Ambler. Stuart had a spin on the first timed run on Sunday morning in his OMS CF04, and then set a new PB 57.09s on his afternoon climb. Simon in his 2000M finished on a best run time of 59.72 seconds.
Simon Ambler OMS 2000M: photo T Wilson
Final results available here and BHC results here.
Date: 8/05/2017 | Author: L.Owen