- event weekend of September 8th & 9th
Work is now almost complete to repair the recent storm damage to the World Famous Shelsley Walsh Hill Climb in rural Worcestershire. The Midland Automobile Club’s (MAC) local contractor has completed the work in time for the next meeting on the 8th and 9th of September which is now less than a week away. Only some tidying up now needs to be carried out in the days before the meeting which is a round of the Midland Hill Climb Championship and features a host of top line speed event cars driven by experienced hillclimb campaigners.
In addition to modern hillclimb cars there is a mouth watering array of classic racing and sports cars entered for the event. The immortal Spider II and the historic GN ‘Martyr’ racing cars that are indelibly associated with Shelsley Walsh will be driven by their respective regular pilots, Martin Spencer and Nev Churcher. Also there is the events furthest travelled competitor, Scotty Taylor from Tasmania who is entered in his 1958 Cooper racing car that was first driven by the legendary Jim Russell in the 1950’s. Russell invented and pioneered the original concept of the racing driver school now in use throughout the world. Also present in the classic racing car division will be Fyrth Crosse in his classic 1970’s Ensign created by Midlands racing notable Mo Nunn as will be Ledbury’s Barrie Lines in the rumbling grumbling Rover V8 powered Argo JM8 that he acquired last winter.
Vying for Best Time of the Day (BTD) will be large capacity modern racing cars driven by the likes of Simon Durling who lives at Shelsley, Deryk Young from Yarkhill, Chris Merrick from Stroud and 30 year veteran Rob Turnbull from Sutton Coldfield. These all drive various models of Gould racing car which have dominated the top end of the sport since the late 1990’s. Also with something to say will be Trevor Willis of Aylesbury in his OMS and Jos Goodyear from rural Warwickshire in his brand new Pilbeam.
Fireworks can be expected from smaller capacity racing cars driven by young chargers Robert Kenrick of Llangollen in his Force and Chris Pickering of Warwickshire in his Vision. Both these cars are powered by screaming Suzuki motorcycle engines and battle out the 1600cc class around the British Hill Climb scene with other 1600 drivers also entered such as former rally star Eynon Price of Llandeilo and Steve Owen of York who constructs the race proven OMS cars that they both drive.
Regular spectators, enthusiasts and new visitors alike should make sure they do not miss this event. Shelsley Walsh is AA signposted approximately 10 miles North West of Worcester. Practice is on Saturday and the event starts at 10:00 on Sunday. Admission is £8 on Saturday and £12 on Sunday while accompanied children under 16 get in free. This includes parking, transfer to the paddock, and seated trackside enclosures. Excellent catering and light refreshment facilites are available as are a range of souvenirs and regalia.
