Some challenging weather conditions did nothing to discourage a strong field of competitors or a bumper crowd of spectators turning up for Rallye Prescott as the Bugatti Owners’ Club’s unique event goes from strength to strength.
Competitors tackled a practice run and two competitive runs in daylight followed by a further practice run and two more competitive runs with lights fitted. With weather conditions improving through the day many competitors set their best times in their final run of the day, held in complete darkness.
The battle for best time of the day was inevitably waged between the modern four-wheel drive R5 specification World Rally Cars. Former British Rally Champion Roger Duckworth put in a good performance in his R5 Ford Fiesta but was pipped to third place overall by just three hundredths of a second. It was multiple British Autotest Champion Alastair Moffatt who was sharing the Skoda of Scott Moran that took the place.
Former British Hillclimb champion Roger Moran was second quickest overall in his R5 Skoda but it was his son, multiple British Hillclimb Champion Scott Moran who set fastest time of the day for the second year in succession.
Among the classes, Ross McDonald claimed the honours in the road rally category in his Porsche 911 2.7 RS replica ahead of the rather more modern Toyota Yaris GR of Malcolm Evans. Third place went to Thomas Twemlow in his Subaru Impreza.
In the Historic two-wheel drive class for cars up to 1600cc it was Matt Clarke who topped the times in his 1460cc Mini ahead of the Hillman Avenger of Steven Powell while Richard Derrick finished third in his 1275GT Mini.
There were other class wins for Garry Cox in his Reliant Scimitar GTE, Josh Humpriss driving a Mik1 Volkswagen Golf GTi and the Escort RS1600 of Simon Braithwaite.
Another class win went to Nick Whale who edged it over another MkII Escort driven by Kevin Rault while Stuart Baker also claimed class honours in his original shape Mini.
Among the modern-day machinery, Tom Weaver’s Citroen Saxo VTS got the better of the Peugeot 206 Cup car of Malcolm Hurn in the 1401 to 1600cc normally aspirated class while in the 1601 to 2000cc category the Welsh built Darrian T90 of Tim Porter outpaced Peter Siddle’s Renault Clio by just four hundredths of a second to take top honours with third place going to David Wilson behind the wheel of his Peugeot 205.
The battle in the over 2001cc class was almost as close, Peter Hedges taking top honours in his 2.4 litre MkII Escort by fifteen hundredths of a second from the modern shape Alpine A110 of Robert Lancaster Gaye. Third place went to another Ford Escort in the hands of Roger Taylor.
There is no doubt that Rallye Prescott has established itself in the venue’s calendar and next year’s event will take place on November 2nd.
The full programme of events for 2024 will be available on the website, prescotthillclimb.co.uk very shortly.
