This weekend sees the opening meeting of the 2005 season at Shelsley Walsh Speed Hill Climb in Worcestershire as the celebratory 100th year of hill climbing at the venue gets underway. With the high point of the season being a special three day meeting in August, this weekend’s bumper entry will see cars and drivers bed themselves in to the famous 1000 yard hill before what promises to be the best season of hill climbing ever on the hill.
Saturday May 14th will see a variety of cars, the majority of which are modified road going cars, but that in no way means that they will be speeding up surrounded with wafts of air conditioning and music on inside! Audi Quattros, Metro 6R4 rally cars, Mitsubishi Evos, Caterhams and Westfields all will supply the action.
The Michelin Porsche Club Speed Championship sees 24 cars all jostling for class position over their two timed runs on Saturday afternoon. Porsche 911s, 924s, Carreras and the stunning Porsche 993RSR will all be on show from the Stuttgart manufacturer. For earlier motoring and Monte Carlo Rally wins, the Austin Healey 3000 cars will stir some memories together with the Frazer Nash class that will include the GN Spider that held the outright record at Shelsley in the 1920s.
Sunday looks equally as interesting with classes for TVRs, Westfields, Triumphs, modified road cars and some very quick single seater racing cars too.
Deryk Young from Hereford is a former Best Time of the Day driver at Shelsley Walsh, and this year he has a new Gould racing car in his garage. It is actually the car that held the record on the hill in the hands of Graeme Wight Jnr, but now Young has bought the car, he has put another engine in it that is a 4.0 V8 with about 600hp. His wife Sue will drive the car too over both days. She is the current ladies hill record holder in 26.98 seconds after an awesome run last September that humbled most of the boys!
Practice on both days is at 9.30am with the timed class runs starting at 2pm. Entry is £10 each day, or free to Midland Automobile Club (MAC) members.
NEW SHELSLEY BOOK OUT
There is a brand new Shelsley Walsh book hitting the shelves in the next few days. The Shelsley Walsh Story – A Century of Motorsport has been written by Simon Taylor who has been editor of Autosport, BBC Radio’s commentator on F1, ITV’s F1 pundit. Simon has seen a great deal in Motorsport all over the globe, but his favourite venue has always been Shelsley Walsh where he continues to compete in his historic HWM Chevrolet.
BIG ENTRIES FOR THE BIGGEST MEETING
Entries are already pouring in for the August 21st meeting at Shelsley Walsh with the cream of the modern F1 powered cars, former hill climb champions and snapshots of cars from every era since Shelsley Walsh started competition runs in 1905.
Big Screen TV and mouth watering car displays in the paddock and car park are also booked.
