Blazing sunshine and huge crowds greeted a capacity list of competitors in the ‘Best of British’ hill climbing event at Shelsley Walsh over the weekend.
A wide variety of sports, classic, saloon and racing cars took part in class events for the MSA British Hill Climb Championship, The Hill Climb Leaders Championship and the ever-popular Midland Hill Climb Championship.
Fastest time of the day went to Southam driver Jos Goodyear with a blistering run of 23.03 seconds in his diminutive yet amazing supercharged 1340cc GWR Raptor racing car, appearing more like an oversized Scalextric car as it shot up the narrow course to thrill the 1000’s of spectators.
Wins for Jos Goodyear and reigning champion Scott Moran in the Top 12 run offs saw the points table positions remaining the same for the British Championship, with Tenbury Wells driver and Moran’s co-driver, Alex Summers still leading the field as they head to Loton Park next weekend.
Ben Tranter, from York, set a new class record with a time of 31.89 seconds driving his Vector TF93K in the Formula Ford Racing Car class.
Reigning Midland champion Mike Turpin of Hereford took the honours with his Vauxhall VX220 in the Modified Production Car class while former champion Rob Stevens added to his points by winning the Sports Libre class in his Force SR4.
Colin Satchell of Holsworthy, driving a Peugeot 205, took the 2 litre Modified Production class by two one-hundredths of a second from hard-charging Sarah Bosworth, of Sheffield, in her Lotus Elise, who also managed to spin the car on her final run.
Other class wins came for Paul Jones in a Lotus Elise, Tony Bunker in a Nissan GTR, Allan Warburton in a Caterham 7, Charles Williams in an OMS SC1, Chris Aspinall in an Empire Wraith, Eynon Price in a Gould GR59 and Howard Savage-Jones in a Lola Colgan.
Shelsley Specials, both pre war and post war, produced wins for Michael Sythes in the Freikaiserwagen and Peter Speakman in the Fisher Spyder Special, respectively.
Motoring journalist David Finlay from Scotland, entered the very latest hybrid technology BMW i8 futuristic looking car and managed to record a best time of 35.267 seconds while John Marshall with his F430 Scuderia won the class for cars entered in the Ferrari Hill Climb Championship.
One well-known face amongst the crowds was television presenter and motoring enthusiast Jon Bentley, of The Gadget Show, who commented: “I came to Shelsley Walsh on occasion as a boy but to see the change in design and power of these current machines is simply amazing and their performance is truly breathtaking.”
This coming weekend sees the return of the popular Shelsley Walsh Breakfast Club where people are invited to bring along their cherished cars and mingle with like-minded enthusiasts.
Next hill climb event is the Reg Philips Trophy Meeting on the 4th July and the Vintage and Post Vintage Thoroughbreds on the 5th July.
Advanced tickets available via the website www.shelsley-walsh.co.uk
