A bumper entry of Britain’s leading Hillclimb competitors made the most of the beautiful weather over the weekend at Prescott Hillclimb to produce a thrilling event and keep the big crowds thoroughly entertained.
The Bugatti Owners’ Club organised event saw two drivers put in identical performances to share Best Time of the Day while Wallace Menzies did enough to retain his title as British Hillclimb Champion.
In addition to the on-track action there was the additional attraction of a flypast by an iconic Battle of Britain Memorial Flight Spitfire.
The first top 12 run off saw Matthew Ryder and Scott Moran, both behind the wheel of Gould GR59 single seaters, set times of 34.95 seconds, just three tenths of a second outside the outright hill record, to share best time of the day. Second best time of the day went to yet another Gould, this a GR55 in the hands of David Uren while Scott Moran claimed top honours in the second top 12 run off.
The various classes produced many thrilling battles including the category for production cars under 2 litres, where the Lotus Elise 135R of Jonathan Landmead was little more than one tenth of a second quicker than Peter Siddle, driving a Renault Clio. The gap in the over 2 litre category was just two tenths with Rodney Eyles in his Alfa Romeo 4C just outpacing the Porsche Cayman GTS of Robbie Birrell.
Things were even closer in the class for modified cars over 2 litres where the Mitsubishi Evo 6 of Stephen Moore took victory by just one hundredth of a second from Damien Bradley’s Subaru Impreza.
There was another victory, among the 4WD production cars, for a Mitsubishi Evo 6, with Isabella Lawrence taking the honours.
Steven Garner, driving a Westfield Sei, and Richard Price, in a Caterham 7, fought it out in the specialist production car category with Garner getting the upper hand, this time by three hundredths of a second.
The gap between first and second was identical in the class for Sports libre cars up to 2 litres where Allan McDonald in his Force SR4 just edged the OMS SC1 of Richard Matossian while Duncan Barnes took a rather easier win among the over 2 litre Sports libre cars in his Norma M20FC.
Victory in the class for racing cars up to 1100cc went to Dave Tatham in his DJ Firehawk while Caroline Ryder claimed the honours in the Formula Ford class driving a Van Diemen RF86.
David Warburton won the up to 1600cc racing car class in his Gould GR59 while in the up to 2 litre normally aspirated class it was Jonathan Varley in his GWR Predator who outpaced Eynon Price driving a Force TA by three tenths of a second.
There was a victory for Gould in the forced induction class, Paul Haimes winning in his GR59 while the Newbury based manufacturer took a 1-2-3 in the class for over 2 litre race cars with David Uren beating Wallace Menzies by less than two tenths of a second with Scott Moran a further one hundredth of a second back.
The Bugatti Owners’ Club handicap produced class wins for Martin Saunders in a Ford Escort Mark 1, Oliver Slater driving a Ginetta G15 and Rebecca Crocombe in a Van Diemen RF84.
The event also featured the latest round of host club’s New Barn RS Interclub Speed Championship, where top expert driver was Richard Morris in his Mazda MX5 ahead of the Suzuki Swift Sport of Tim Stokes. Novice honours went to George Perks in a Renault Clio 182 from Jonathan Ellwood driving a Honda Civic Type R.
The next Hillclimb action at Prescott comes on September 23rd when the venue hosts the Vintage Sports Car Club for their long course meeting while the Bugatti Owners’ Clubs’ Championship Finale takes place on October 7th.
