BRITISH HILL CLIMB CHAMPIONSHIP - REPORT ARCHIVE

MENZIES' TITLE AT DRAMATIC LOTON FINALE

Event 16 at Loton Park on 25/09/2022
One of the closest fought British Championship series for years ended in drama. Coming to Loton Park’s finale after their year-long duel, either Wallace Menzies or Alex Summers could win the title.
          The odds were marginally in favour of Menzies, and he had qualified top for the opening run-off ahead of Summers. With both still to run in the shoot-out itself, third fastest qualifier Scott Moran led the way with a mid-32. Next up, Summers was on a real stormer, the hill record looking under threat with a run almost seven tenths up on Moran by the end of Cedar Straight. Then coming into Museum, Alex lost the back end and spun on to the grass, the Firestorm striking the tyre barrier a glancing blow before coming to a halt. The car was undamaged but with no score, Alex’s title hopes had been dashed. Wallace was now champion. Not even a record run by Alex in the remaining shoot-out would be enough to overhaul his adversary’s points tally.
          Even with the Championship in the bag Menzies, typically, still gave it everything on the final run. Half a second clear of Moran, he underlined his claim to a third successive title with FTD and his twelfth run-off win of the year.
          With the Championship outcome already decided, the final run-off of the year could have been something of an anti-climax. Far from it. The leading duo continued their battle right to the end, Menzies shading out Summers for the win by a mere five hundredths despite his GR59 running wide on the exit of Fallow. Fittingly, the 2022 Championship top three finished in order as Moran chased Summers home to round off a superb year of competition among the front runners.
          Trevor Willis consolidated his third place on the series table with a strong run to third place in the morning shoot-out, but he was denied fourth place in the afternoon by 2022’s ‘coming man’ Matt Ryder, who had missed the earlier points battle after skating the GR59-Judd straight on at Hall bend during qualifying. Nonetheless, the youngest member of this year’s ‘top ten’ had completed an excellent first year in the big league by qualifying for a number 5 on his car next year. Fifth on the series table, Dave Uren, after a year of highs and lows in the Gould GR55B, ran third in the morning, clocking well over 130mph up Cedar Straight. But with Summers and Ryder back in the afternoon he dropped to sixth place. Safe in a Championship seventh place, Richard Spedding’s Raptor was not seen in either run-off after brake problems had caused an unscheduled trip into the Fallow outfield during qualifying. Nose, front wing and steering arms were the only casualties but with his series placing secure, Richard decided on an early bath. Perhaps his major disappointment was that the miniature raptor he’d carried on the car’s front wing strut for years had lost its head!
          Sixth and seventh in successive run-offs, Paul Haimes will be starting 2023 with a number 8 on the supercharged Gould-Suzuki, one place ahead of Dave Warburton in his normally aspirated version who gave a stirring performance at Loton. He not only beat Haimes to take fifth place in the opening run-off, equalling his best of the year at Doune, but twice dispatched Jos Goodyear’s 10-year old 1600cc class record in qualifying. Also enjoying a great weekend, Johnathen Varley twice improved on what was his own 2-litre class record in the Predator-TKD, as well as scoring points in each run-off.
          Eighth each time, Sean Gould also figured in both run-offs with the ‘semi-works’ GR59, while two of our quickest lady drivers, Olivia Cooper and Nicola Menzies, made the morning cut, Olivia just in the points ahead of Nicola as Eynon Price headed them home for ninth place. Unfortunately, the Welshman would lose his number 10 for next year as it was taken over by delighted Stuart Sugden. Although he failed to qualify at Loton, it was a great effort by the former Mini driver, a relative newcomer to the big league aboard the Raptor shared with fellow Scot Les Mutch.

Avon Tyres Motorsport UK British Hillclimb Championship, Loton Park

FTD: Wallace Menzies (3.3 Gould-Cosworth XD GR59M) 42.19s

Championship run-off, round 29: 1 Wallace Menzies 42.19s; 2 Scott Moran (4.0 Gould-Judd DB4 GRW59) 42.67s; 3 Trevor Willis (3.2 OMS-RPE 28) 43.22s; 4 Dave Uren (3.5 Gould-NME GR55B) 43.80s; 5 David Warburton (1.6 Gould-Suzuki GR59) 44.47s; 6 Paul Haimes (1.3t Gould-Suzuki GR59) 44.68s; 7 Johnathen Varley (2.0 GWR Predator-TKD YV8) 45.01s; 8 Sean Gould (4.0 Gould-Judd DB4 GR59BJ) 45.22s; 9 Eynon Price (1.7 Force-Suzuki TA) 46.43s; 10 Olivia Cooper (1.6 Force-Suzuki TA) 47.09s; 11 Nicola Menzies (3.5 Gould-NME GR55B) 47.92s; Alex Summers (2.7 DJ Firestorm-Cosworth XD) DNF.

Championship run-off, round 30: 1 Wallace Menzies 42.41s; 2 Summers 42.46s; 3 Moran 42.83s; 4 Matthew Ryder (4.0 Gould-Judd DB4 GR59BJ) 43.21s; 5 Willis 43.74s; 6 Uren 44.21s; 7 Haimes 44.46s; 8 Gould 44.70s; 9 Warburton 45.05s; 10 Varley 45.22s; 11 Price 46.37s; 12 Graham Wynn (4.0 Gould-Judd DB4 GRW59) 46.70s.

British Hillclimb Championship – final positions: 1 Wallace Menzies 234 pts; 2 Alex Summers 220; 3 Moran 212; 4 Willis 164; 5 Ryder 154; 6 Uren 134; 7 Richard Spedding 95; 8 Haimes 60; 9 Warburton 52; 10 Sugden 27; etc.

 

Wallace Menzies takes a third consecutive British title (John Hallett)


The moment that decided the Championship (John Hallett)


It was a record-breaking day for Dave Warburton (John Hallett)


The Championship top ten at the end of a hard fought season (John Hallett)

DRAMATIC DAMP PRESCOTT

Event 15 at Prescott on 04/09/2022
On the penultimate weekend of their season-long British Championship battle, Wallace Menzies and Alex Summers staged another close head-to-head duel. This time it was Menzies’ turn to come out on top, setting FTD by just six hundredths of a second from Summers in a dramatic second shoot-out. Earlier, rain had begun halfway through the opening bout to leave both drivers, together with the majority of the BHC top runners, finishing near the tail end of the field with highly discardable scores. But fittingly, this tight title chase would now go down to the wire at Loton Park’s traditional season finale.
          Dave Uren, for one, benefited from the rain during the opening run-off as from an unaccustomed ninth place qualifying spot he took full advantage of the still dry track, taking the Gould-NME to its second win of the season. Paul Haimes, too, just missed the rain and set a time good enough for second place. It was by far his best result in the often recalcitrant Gould-Suzuki turbocar and his own best finish since his V6 Dallara win at Doune in 2004. But the fickle weather played against him in the afternoon, and he failed to qualify for the closing run-off. Stuart Sugden, sharing the Raptor with fellow Scot Les Mutch, had the best weekend of his BHC career, finishing a best-ever third in the opening run-off and making the cut in the afternoon for an eventual sixth place. The combined result would put the former Mini ace firmly into the top ten on the Championship table after scoring in just six rounds this year.
          Chased home by Darren Gumbley, Johnathen Varley finished fourth with both drivers scoring their best-ever British run-off finishes. Dave Warburton scraped home in the top six just as the rain started, although none of the three would make the afternoon cut. Despite a big lift after running wide on Esses exit, Jack Cottrill scored a best-ever seventh place in the DJ Dallara-XD and finished ahead of Menzies, Richard Spedding, Summers and Trevor Willis, all of whom caught the rain. Top qualifier Scott Moran saw no point in running and remained in the paddock.
          It was an entirely different story in the afternoon as the rain returned during the qualifying runs. This meant that the advantage lay with the earlier running single-seaters. Notable run-off absentees this time were Haimes and Spedding, but a gradual improvement in the weather saw Uren scrape into Q12, while key runners Willis, Moran, Summers and Menzies also found enough dry road to make the cut. Of the top six Championship contenders, only Matt Ryder was absent as the Gould-Judd’s gearbox had expired during Sunday morning practice, leaving both him and Sean Gould sidelined for the day.
          The changeable weather during the afternoon also meant that three members of the same family, Alex Summers, his wife Debbie and his father Richard, all qualified for the second run-off. A rare occurrence, but not unique as the Ulster-based Woodside and Morgan families had both fielded three members in Craigantlet run-offs in 1997 and 1998 respectively. However, it did mark the first British run-off appearance for Richard, a feat matched by both David Tatham and Nigel Pitt, with Tatham bringing his 1-litre OMS Hornet-Suzuki home in the points with eighth place just ahead of Liam Cooper, who scored his first points of the year in his Force-Suzuki TA.
          Behind the duel up front, Willis led home Moran, with Uren having to settle for fifth place this time ahead of the flying Sugden. Debbie Summers completed the family trio’s appearance by chasing the Raptor home in the smaller-engined Firehawk, scoring her own first points of the year in a run-off unlike any other we’ve seen this year.

Avon Tyres Motorsport UK British Hillclimb Championship, Prescott

FTD: Wallace Menzies (3.3 Gould-Cosworth XD GR59M) 35.05s

Championship run-off, round 27: 1 Dave Uren (3.5 Gould-NME GR55B) 37.09s; 2 Paul Haimes (1.3t Gould-Suzuki GR59) 37.38s; 3 Stuart Sugden (1.6 GWR Raptor 1-Suzuki) 38.05s; 4 Johnathen Varley (2.0 GWR Predator-TKD YV8) 38.32s; 5 Darren Gumbley (1.6 Force-Suzuki TA) 38.69s; 6 David Warburton (1.6 Gould-Suzuki GR59) 39.75s; 7 Jack Cottrill (2.7 Dallara Cosworth XD) 40.05s; 8 Menzies 41.93s; 9 Richard Spedding (1.6 GWR Raptor 2-Suzuki) 42.40s; 10 Alex Summers (2.7 DJ Firestorm-Cosworth XD) 42.44s; 11 Trevor Willis (3.2 OMS-RPE 28) 44.98s; Scott Moran (4.0 Gould-Judd DB4 GRW59) DNS.

Championship run-off, round 28: 1 Menzies 35.05s; 2 Alex Summers 35.11s; 3 Willis 35.61s; 4 Moran 35.65s; 5 Uren 37.31s; 6 Sugden 37.49s; 7 Debbie Summers (1.1 DJ Firehawk-Suzuki) 39.17s; 8 David Tatham (1.1 OMS Hornet-Suzuki) 39.74s; 9 Liam Cooper (1.6 Force-Suzuki TA) 40.00s; 10 Harry Pick (1.0 OMS-Suzuki 3000M) 40.10s; 11 Richard Summers (1.1 DJ Firehawk-Suzuki) 40.13s; 12 Nigel Pitt (1.0 OMS-Suzuki 3000M) 40.97s.

British Championship positions after round 28: 1 Menzies 230pts; 2 Summers 225; 3 Moran 208; 4 Willis 160; 5 Ryder 147; 6 Uren 122; 7 Spedding 95; 8 Haimes 51; 9 Warburton 44; 10 Sugden 27; etc.


 

Walace Menzies edged out rival Alex Summers for FTD by six hundredths (John Hallett)


Summers fought hard to take the title to a Loton Park decider (John Hallett)


Dave Uren took his second win of the year (John Hallett)


With third place in the opening run-off, Stuart Sugden moved into the Championship top ten (John Hallett)

HEAT BUILDS UP AT SHELSLEY

Event 14 at Shelsley Walsh on 14/08/2022
Matt Ryder took the second run-off win of his BHC career at a sweltering Shelsley in a time just seven hundredths of a second shy of Sean Gould’s hill record, set exactly a year ago in the same car. A number of factors, not least temperatures in the mid-nineties all weekend, caused the meeting to run well behind schedule and with time running short it was abandoned after the first BHC run-off. The entire set of second runs, including the second run-off, were therefore cancelled.
          But what a run-off we’d seen earlier. Behind Ryder’s stellar performance in the Gould-Judd, in which he topped 160mph over the line to carve almost a second off his fourth placed qualifying time, the Championship front-runners’ relentless season-long battle raged on. Three of the top four were starting to drop points, the exception being Alex Summers following his no-show at July’s opening Harewood round. But with series leader Wallace Menzies and Scott Moran both setting identical times in pursuit of Ryder, an understeering moment in the Esses left the Firestorm driver having to settle for fourth place despite joining the top three in the 22 sec bracket. Nevertheless, his deficit to Menzies in the Championship was now just five points. Despite Moran chasing the two leaders hard, the series now looks to be a two-horse race and with just four rounds remaining, two each at Prescott and Loton Park, and Summers set to drop fewer points than Menzies, this nail-biting contest looks likely to go down to a showdown in Shropshire.
          Two drivers fought it out in the 23s at Shelsley with Dave Uren slightly increasing his qualifying advantage over Trevor Willis, although the RPE V8 driver will have to work hard in the remaining rounds to fend off a last-ditch attack on his Championship fourth place by the steadily advancing Ryder, only nine points behind and not dropping points until Loton. Seventh in the run-off, current record-holder Sean Gould warmed up the Gould-Judd (as if it needed it!) for Ryder as the fastest runner in the 24s, keeping fastest non-V8 runner Richard Spedding’s bike engined Raptor at bay by a quarter of a second. Graham Wynn, also clocking 160 plus over the finish in the Gould-Judd shared with Moran, led home final points scorer Jack Cottrill by nine hundredths, the young driver from Upton Snodsbury making his seventh run-off appearance this year in the DJ developed Dallara-XD,
          Dave Warburton finished out of the points this time with the Gould-Suzuki, although with closest rival Will Hall 13 points behind and unlikely to make a further appearance this year, he is virtually assured of another ‘number nine’ for 2023. Whether he can make it to number eight is between him and Paul Haimes. The Gould-Suzuki turbocar driver had another troubled weekend at Shelsley, retiring the car after Saturday practice, and remains just three points clear of Warburton. Zach Zammit was the remaining driver to make the cut in his Empire Wraith. With plenty of startline grip available, the man from Malta was one of seven drivers in the run-off to achieve a sub-2sec launch on a day when the pace, as well as the temperature, was blisteringly hot.

Avon Tyres Motorsport UK British Hillclimb Championship, Shelsley Walsh

FTD: Matthew Ryder (4.0 Gould-Judd DB4 GR59BJ) 22.44s;

Championship run-off, round 25: 1 Ryder 22.44s; 2= Wallace Menzies (3.3 Gould-Cosworth XD GR59M) 22.65s; 2= Scott Moran (4.0 Gould-Judd DB4 GRW59) 22.65s; 4 Alex Summers (2.7 DJ Firestorm-Cosworth XD) 22.91s; 5 Dave Uren (3.5 Gould-NME GR55B) 23.31s; 6 Trevor Willis (3.2 OMS-RPE 28) 23.57s; 7 Sean Gould (4.0 Gould-Judd DB4 GR59BJ) 24.23s; 8 Richard Spedding (1.6 GWR Raptor 2-Suzuki) 24.48s; 9 Graham Wynn (4.0 Gould-Judd DB4 GRW59) 24.80s; 10 Jack Cottrill (2.7 Dallara Cosworth XD) 24.89s; 11 David Warburton (1.6 Gould-Suzuki GR59) 25.08s; 12 Zach Zammit (1.6 Empire Wraith-Suzuki) 25.24s.

Championship run-off, round 26: Cancelled due to time constraints

British Championship positions after round 26: 1 Menzies 228pts; 2 Summers 223; 3 Moran 207; 4 Willis 157; 5 Ryder 147; 6 Uren 106; 7 Spedding 93; 8 Paul Haimes 42; 9 Warburton 39; 10 Will Hall 26; etc.
 

Matt Ryder headed the Championship leaders for his second win of the season (John Hallett)


With joint second place, Wallace Menzies maintained his Championship lead (John Hallett)


Scott Moran tied with Menzies for the runner-up spot (John Hallett)


Even with fourth place, Alex Summers strengthened his attack on the Championship leader (John Hallett)

SUPER SIXTIETH

Event 12 at Wiscombe Park on 30/07/2022
Wiscombe Park celebrated its 60^th anniversary as a British Championship venue in style, the battle at the head of this year’s enthralling series intensifying with yet another meeting held at record pace. In an experimental format which saw each of the two British run-offs held on separate days, Alex Summers again narrowed championship leader Wallace Menzies’ advantage, taking the Devon parkland’s benchmark below 33 seconds for the first time on Saturday’s round to set his fourth new hill record of the season. In the latest instalment of their season-long duel, Menzies replied with a win the following day, hurling the red GR59-XD to the summit in a time that missed Summers’ new 32.94s target by just one hundredth of a second. So close was the competition up front on Sunday that after qualifying within two hundredths of his new record, even a low 33sec run just outside the old mark left the Firestorm driver having to settle for third place in the run-off behind a resurgent Scott Moran. After languishing in fifth place on Saturday’s run-off, the six-times champion now became the third driver to climb Wiscombe Park in the 32sec bracket.
         Former Wiscombe record-holder Trevor Willis chased home Summers and Menzies on Saturday, shadowed by his closest championship rival Matt Ryder. The Gould GR59-Judd driver produced an almost identical time on Sunday as he took his second fourth place finish of the weekend. Three hundredths clear of Willis this time, Ryder closed in on the OMS V8 driver on the series table. It was good to see Sean Gould out for the first time this year following his shoulder injury and sharing the ‘works’ car with Ryder. Although out of the points on Saturday, the Shelsley record-holder was quickly back to somewhere near his previous form and with a sixth place finish the following day, was looking forward to the next two rounds, when he would return to the scene of his 2021 success.
         Paul Haimes brought the turbocharged GR59 home for a top six finish on Saturday, a couple of places behind championship rival Dave Warburton but on Sunday, despite finding a tenth of a second more, he dropped to ninth. However Warburton had narrowly failed to qualify for the run-off and the net result was that Haimes moved ahead on the series table to relieve him of eighth place overall. Splitting the pair on Saturday was Richard Spedding with seventh place in the GWR Raptor-Suzuki but the following day he was edged out to ninth place by the man just ahead of him on the table, Dave Uren. The Gould-NME driver was relieved to be back in the running after being sidelined on the Saturday when the car’s battery cover caught fire as he was leaving the paddock for his first qualifying run.   
         Eynon Price and Johnathen Varley rounded off the scorers on Saturday, but both failed to get to the top during Sunday’s run-off. Varley’s Predator understeered into the bank at Wiscombe’s sting in the tail, Martini, while the Hayabusa engine in Price's Force TA cut out on Castle Straight almost within sight of the finish. After trailing the field the previous day, Darren Gumbley stepped in to bag the final point in his own Force TA.

Avon Tyres Motorsport UK British Hillclimb Championship, Wiscombe Park

FTD (Saturday): Alex Summers (2.7 DJ Firestorm-Cosworth XD) 32.94s (outright hill record)
FTD (Sunday): Wallace Menzies (3.3 Gould-Cosworth XD GR59M) 32.95s

Championship run-off, round 23: 1 Summers 32.94s; 2 Menzies 33.20s; 3 Trevor Willis (3.2 OMS-RPE 28) 33.57s; 4 Matthew Ryder (4.0 Gould-Judd DB4 GR59BJ) 33.69s; 5 Scott Moran (4.0 Gould-Judd DB4 GRW59) 33.75s; 6 Paul Haimes (1.3t Gould-Suzuki GR59) 34.93s; 7 Richard Spedding (1.6 GWR Raptor 2-Suzuki) 35.11s; 8 David Warburton (1.6 Gould-Suzuki GR59) 35.41s; 9 Eynon Price (1.7 Force-Suzuki TA) 35.48s; 10 Johnathen Varley (2.0 GWR Predator-TKD YV8) 35.59s; 11 Sean Gould (4.0 Gould-Judd DB4 GR59BJ) 35.61s; 12 Darren Gumbley (1.6 Force-Suzuki TA) 36.18s.

Championship run-off, round 24: 1 Menzies 32.95s; 2 Moran 32.98s; 3 Summers 33.16s; 4 Ryder 33.65s; 5 Willis 33.68s; 6 Gould 34.07s; 7 Dave Uren (3.5 Gould-NME GR55B) 34.42s; 8 Spedding 34.73s; 9 Haimes 34.83s; 10 Gumbley 36.76s; Price DNF; Varley DNF.

British Championship positions after round 24: 1 Menzies 225pts; 2 Summers 216; 3 Moran 204; 4 Willis 152; 5 Matt Ryder 137; 6 Uren 100; 7 Spedding 90; 8 Haimes 42; 9 Warburton 39; 10 Will Hall 26; etc.

 

Alex Summers took his fourth hill record of of 2022 with Wiscombe's first 32sec run (Nigel Cole)


Wallace Menzies closed to within a hundredth of the new record to take Sunday's win (Nigel Cole)


Scott Moran joined the two Championship leaders in the 32s (Nigel Cole)


Top 4 Championship runner Trevor Willis cuts it fine at Martini (Nigel Cole)

RECORD PACE IN GUERNSEY

Event 11 at Le Val Des Terres on 16/07/2022
With another fine performance at Le Val des Terres, Wallace Menzies increased his Championship lead. As ever, the level of competition was intense as in each run-off, the two front runners each gained the extra point for running inside Scott Moran’s 2015 hill record. This time it was Alex Summers that took top honours on the day with a record shot in the opening run-off of 26.56s, Menzies closing to within a hundredth for second place to stay within a point of his rival to leave Moran, although just outside his old record, in third place. Amazingly, the Championship leader set an identical time in the closing run-off to take the win, his third on this year’s Channel Islands trip, from Moran, who also ran inside his old record. But critically, Summers could do no better than fourth place as he struggled to find front-end grip. So as the season-long battle still rages at the sharp end, Menzies left Guernsey with a nine-point lead, although with Summers having failed to score at Harewood due to a fuel pump failure, the battling duo up front are effectively just about level. When competitors start to drop points after the next event at Wiscombe Park, the stage will be set for a tremendous battle over the remaining six rounds.
          Behind the trio up front, Richard Spedding chased hard for fourth place in the opening bout and found even more time in the second, edging out Summers’ understeering Firestorm  to bring the bike-engined Raptor home in third place, his best result of the season. Expected to fly on home ground, Nick Saunders did not disappoint, entering into a see-saw duel with Trevor Willis. Split by a tenth or so each time, Willis took the initiative in the first run-off with fifth place in the OMS-RPE, but the Guernseyman posted the best time of their two-round battle to snatch the place in the second shoot-out with his self-developed Reynick. Despite the Championship’s leading trio being somewhat out of reach, Trevor, consolidated his fourth place on the table and increased his lead over the fifth placed Matt Ryder. The Channel Islands newcomer was unfortunate to miss both run-offs, front end damage sustained following a spin during first qualifying eliminating his Gould-Judd.
          On their home tracks, on which they compete several times during the year, the local drivers always relish the chance to mix it with the top British hillclimbers and in a fine performance in his relatively underpowered 1-litre Empire another Guernseyman, Tim Tulie, shadowed the battling Willis/Saunders duo for seventh place each time. Local drivers Matt Bougourd and Steve Brehaut also got in on the act and into the points each time, Brehaut bagging the final point in each run-off aboard his Empire Evo 3-Suzuki and Bougourd going one better in the second run-off with his similarly powered Force HC. After an indifferent showing at Bouley Bay, Dave Uren was happy to get points for eighth place early on, ahead of Dave Warburton’s GR59, although it proved a disappointing Channel Islands foray for the Gould-NME driver as he finished out of the points in the closing shoot-out together with an equally disappointed Paul Haimes. The same fate befell BHC regulars Darren Gumbley and Lee Griffiths in the opening run-off.

Avon Tyres Motorsport UK British Hillclimb Championship, Le Val des Terres

FTD: Alex Summers (2.7 DJ Firestorm-Cosworth XD) 26.56s (outright hill record)

Championship run-off, round 21: 1 Summers 26.56s; 2 Wallace Menzies (3.3 Gould-Cosworth XD GR59M) 26.57s; 3 Scott Moran (4.0 Gould-Judd DB4 GRW59) 27.06s; 4 Richard Spedding (1.6 GWR Raptor 2-Suzuki) 27.31s; 5 Trevor Willis (3.2 OMS-RPE 28) 27.52s; 6 Nick Saunders (1.6 Reynick-Suzuki) 27.63s; 7 Tim Tulie (1.1 Empire-Suzuki) 28.15s; 8 Dave Uren (3.5 Gould-NME GR55B) 28.40s; 9 David Warburton (1.6 Gould-Suzuki GR59) 28.59s; 10 Steve Brehaut (1.4 Empire Evo 3-Suzuki) 28.66s; 11 Darren Gumbley (1.6 Force-Suzuki TA) 29.52s; 12 Lee Griffiths (1.7 OMS-Suzuki 25) 29.59s.

Championship run-off, round 22: 1 Menzies 26.57s; 2 Moran 26.86s; 3 Spedding 27.12s; 4 Summers 27.25s; 5 Saunders 27.48s; 6 Willis 27.62s; 7 Tulie 28.08s; 8 Warburton 28.14s; 9 Matthew Bougourd (1.3 Force-Suzuki HC) 28.66s; 10 Brehaut 28.68s; 11 Uren 29.03s; 12 Paul Haimes (1.3t Gould-Suzuki GR59) 29.72s.

British Championship positions after round 22: 1 Menzies 205pts; 2 Summers 197; 3 Moran 188; 4 Willis 138; 5 Matt Ryder 123; 6 Uren 96; 7 Spedding 83; 8 Warburton 36; 9 Haimes 35; 10 Will Hall 26; etc.


 

Alex Summers hit record pace on the climb out of St Peter Port (Andrew Le Poidevin)


Richard Spedding again hit top form for his best combined result of the season (Andrew Le Poidevin)


Nick Saunders mixed it with the established front runners on his local hill (Andrew Le Poidevin)


Another local driver, Tim Tulie, challenged hard each time in his 1-litre Empire-Suzuki (Andrew Le Poidevin)

MENZIES' BOULEY DOUBLE

Event 10 at Bouley Bay on 13/07/2022
With a double run-off win on the British Championship’s first visit to ‘Les Charrieres du Boulay’ since before the pandemic, Wallace Menzies strengthened his grip on the series. Over 20 contenders made the crossing from the mainland to find the weather warm and dry, although track conditions on the tortuous Jersey road course that winds up from the picturesque but claustrophobic Bouley Bay paddock left many drivers struggling for grip. In a year that has so far seen a host of new records, on a run where ‘minimising mistakes’ was the key even Menzies fell short of Trevor Willis’s 2015 record by 0.37sec on the hairpin-strewn course whose average speed, at just over 56mph, is the slowest of the Championship’s eleven hills.
          Menzies’ opening run-off shot was a mere hundredth clear of Scott Moran’s, with his Championship rival Alex Summers a further four hundredths adrift, but in the second run-off, as Menzies powerslid the Gould-XD through the top hairpin on the way to his second win of the day, Summers found his best form to grab second place ahead of Trevor Willis, although his series deficit to Menzies had increased to five points. Moran couldn’t match his earlier run-off pace and was denied even fourth place by the flying Richard Spedding, the fiercely determined Yorkshireman mixing it with the established front runners all day. Fourth and fifth places in his diminutive GWR Raptor-Suzuki represented his best combined result of the season so far.
          Chasing home Spedding for sixth place in the opening run-off was Matt Ryder on his first visit to the Channel Islands. His GR59-Judd proved quite a handful on the twisty course but he managed to hold off Paul Haimes’ turbocharged, bike powered version by three hundredths. In the run-off each time, Guernsey hillclimb ace Nick Saunders pursued them both at close quarters for eighth place in his self-developed Reynick-Suzuki, going one better in the closing run-off to finish behind the sixth place Ryder, after Haimes had failed to qualify. A mistake at the tight Radio Hairpin eliminated Dave Uren’s Gould-NME V8 from the opening shoot-out, but to his relief he got into the second shootout, albeit finishing  a disappointing eighth, pipped by Saunders by over half a second. Uren’s co-driver Nicola Menzies put up another fine showing, chasing home David Warburton’s GR59 and finishing just in the points each time. A delighted Nicola thus became the first lady driver to qualify and score BHC points at Bouley Bay since Agnes Mickel in 1970.
          Although a consistent qualifier in recent months, Lee Griffiths failed to score with his OMS-Suzuki and was joined by firstly Jerseyman Glyn Moignard, then by Guernseyman Andy Bougourd who did well to qualify his Force PT but unfortunately recorded a failed run.

Avon Tyres Motorsport UK British Hillclimb Championship, Bouley Bay

FTD: Wallace Menzies (3.3 Gould-Cosworth XD GR59M) 36.85s

Championship run-off, round 19: 1 Wallace Menzies 37.39s; 2 Scott Moran (4.0 Gould-Judd DB4 GRW59) 37.40s; 3 Alex Summers (2.7 DJ Firestorm-Cosworth XD) 37.44s; 4 Trevor Willis (3.2 OMS-RPE 28) 37.57s; 5 Richard Spedding (1.6 GWR Raptor 2-Suzuki) 38.05s; 6 Matthew Ryder (4.0 Gould-Judd DB4 GR59BJ) 38.86s; 7 Paul Haimes (1.3t Gould-Suzuki GR59) 38.89s; 8 Nick Saunders (1.6 Reynick-Suzuki) 39.09s; 9 David Warburton (1.6 Gould-Suzuki GR59) 40.02s; 10 Nicola Menzies (3.5 Gould-NME GR55B) 40.38s; 11 Glyn Moignard (1.6 OMS-Suzuki 2000M) 41.35s; 12 Lee Griffiths (1.7 OMS-Suzuki 25) 41.56s.

Championship run-off, round 20: 1 Wallace Menzies 36.85s; 2 Summers 37.02s; 3 Willis 37.41s; 4 Spedding 37.56s; 5 Moran 37.60s; 6 Ryder 38.39s; 7 Saunders 38.57s; 8 Dave Uren (3.5 Gould-NME GR55B) 39.02s; 9 Warburton 39.91s; 10 Nicola Menzies 40.04s; 11 Griffiths 41.07s; Andy Bougourd (1.6 Force-Suzuki PT) DNF.

British Championship positions after round 20: 1 Menzies 184pts; 2 Summers 179; 3 Moran 170; 4 Willis 127; 5 Ryder 123; 6 Uren 93; 7 Spedding 68; 8 Haimes 35; 9 Warburton 31; 10 Will Hall 26; etc.

 

Wallace Menzies turns the Gould-XD into Radio Hairpin (Andrew Le Poidevin)


Scott Moran closed to within a hundredth of Menzies in the opening shoot-out (Andrew Le Poidevin)


Hill record holder Trevor Willis chased home the two leaders in roound 20 (Andrew Le Poidevin)


Richard Spedding harried the front runners in his Raptor-Suzuki (Andrew Le Poidevin)

RYDER'S RECORD HAREWOOD

Event 9 at Harewood on 03/07/2022
As Carlos Sainz Jr was taking his first ever Grand Prix victory after qualifying fastest at Silverstone, a similar drama was being played out 120 miles to the north. On the final run of the day, having qualified top for the closing shoot-out at Harewood, Matt Ryder fulfilled the promise he has shown all season with his first ever British run-off win, setting a new hill record in the process aboard the ex.works Gould-Judd.
         The event matched Harewood’s May BHC meeting for competitive action as Wallace Menzies had won the opening run-off, also with a new hill record. He lowered his own May target by a tenth while Ryder had run an unspectacular fourth, slower that his second place qualifier. But on that memorable final run, after a mediocre launch the 25-year old made up time hand over fist with a run that would carve another 0.36sec off Menzies’ latest record, leaving the defending champion to finish in second place.
         After Championship leader Alex Summers had withdrawn from the opening run-off with fuel pump problems en route to the startline, missing out on a scoring round for the first time this season, he had tied on overall scores with Menzies at the halfway point in the meeting. But by the end, Menzies was back in the Championship lead for the first time since Gurston Down in May. With the car repaired, Summers failed to get back on terms in the second run-off. Posting his worst score of the year, he was edged out of third place by seven hundredths at the hands of a flying Trevor Willis. Revelling in Harewood’s tortuous layout, the OMS-RPE driver topped all the qualifying times – including Ryder’s – on the way to his best combined result of the season, with two podium finishes.
         In the second battle for points, Scott Moran for once failed to stay with the leaders. Having chased Menzies home in the opening shoot-out, albeit over half a second adrift of the Scot’s record pace, an uncharacteristic tailslide coming out of Country Corner inevitably cost him dearly in the face of such close competition and he had to settle for fifth place.  
         Another driver to score his best combined result of the year so far was Harewood ace Richard Spedding, two 48sec runs in the bike-powered Raptor shadowing the ‘big guns’ each time as he held off first Dave Uren’s Gould-NME and then Johnathen Varley, who was enjoying a record-breaking weekend in his Yamaha V8 engined Predator. Varley demoted Uren to eighth place in the closing shoot-out, having set new 2-litre class standards at both today’s event and Saturday’s Harewood Championship counter, which had been contested by a large proportion of the BHC contingent.
         Lee Griffiths continued to rack up points in his ‘stretched’ Hayabusa powered OMS 28, although eased down to the final scoring place in the closing run-off by Stuart Sugden, whose co-driver Les Mutch also made the cut in their Raptor-Suzuki. A fine weekend for Nicola Menzies saw the defending champion’s wife on top form in the Gould-NME shared with Uren. Having broken her own Ladies’ record the previous day, she qualified the car for the opening run-off with another new record over a second and a quarter inside the time she set in May. Unable to match that in the run-off she was demoted to last place by Graham Wynn, but still scored a point as two of the qualifiers, Summers and Paul Haimes, with a broken differential in his turbocharged Gould-Suzuki, had pulled out.

Avon Tyres Motorsport UK British Hillclimb Championship, Harewood

FTD: Matthew Ryder (4.0 Gould-Judd DB4 GR59BJ) 46.39s (outright hill record)

Championship run-off, round 17: 1 Wallace Menzies (3.3 Gould-Cosworth XD GR59M) 46.75s; 2 Scott Moran (4.0 Gould-Judd DB4 GRW59) 47.35s; 3 Trevor Willis (3.2 OMS-RPE 28) 47.93s; 4 Ryder 48.18s; 5 Richard Spedding (1.6 GWR Raptor 2-Suzuki) 48.80s; 6 Dave Uren (3.5 Gould-NME GR55B) 49.09s; 7 Johnathen Varley (2.0 GWR Predator-TKD YV8) 50.36s; 8 Lee Griffiths (1.7 OMS-Suzuki 25) 51.47s; 9 Graham Wynn (4.0 Gould-Judd DB4 GRW59) 51.52s; 10 Nicola Menzies (3.5 Gould-NME GR55B) 52.15s; Paul Haimes (1.3t Gould-Suzuki GR59) DNS; Alex Summers (2.7 DJ Firestorm-Cosworth XD) DNS.

Championship run-off, round 18: 1 Ryder 46.39s; 2 Wallace Menzies 47.27s; 3 Willis 47.32s; 4 Summers 47.39s; 5 Moran 48.21s; 6 Spedding 48.75s; 7 Uren 49.23s; 8 Varley 49.66s; 9 Stuart Sugden (1.6 GWR Raptor 1-Suzuki) 50.27s; 10 Griffiths 50.59s; 11 Nicola Menzies 52.38s; 12 Les Mutch (1.6 GWR Raptor 1-Suzuki) 53.03s.

British Championship positions after round 18: 1 Menzies 164pts; 2 Summers 162; 3 Moran 155; 4 Ryder 113; 5 Willis 112; 6 Uren 90; 7 Spedding 55; 8 Haimes 31; 9 Warburton 27; 10 Will Hall 26; etc.


 

Matt Ryder took his first BHC run-off win with a new hill record (Steve Wilkinson)


Trevor Willis enjoyed his best weekend of the year so far (Steve Wilkinson)


Local hero Richard Spedding chased the leaders hard (Steve Wilkinson)


Johnathen Varley had a record-breaking weekend in the Predator (Steve Wilkinson)

SUMMERS STORMS AHEAD

Event 8 at Doune on 19/06/2022
For the second day of the Doune weekend the wind had dropped, the sun came out and with expectations high for another record-breaking day, Alex Summers duly obliged. On the penultimate run of the day he established yet another outright hill standard at 34.21, edging Scott Moran off the top run-off spot for the second time that day. Last to run, Wallace Menzies could not reply and the defending champion had to settle for a second successive third place.
       For the opening run-off, Lee Griffiths had finally persuaded his OMS-Suzuki to run properly and made the cut. But he finished out of the points, joined by David Warburton who, after a great Saturday, was set to endure a bad day when the engine hesitated on the lower reaches.
      After qualifying well down, Matthew Ryder and Stuart Sugden bounced back to finish sixth and seventh respectively. Johnathen Varley had set another class record in the Predator, but even a seven tenths improvement was not enough to lift him above tenth place.
      Richard Spedding and Paul Haimes slipped down the order but in contrast, Dave Uren found a chunk of time overnight and brought the Gould-NME home fifth, while Trevor Willis finally got the OMS into the 35 second bracket for fourth place. Wallace Menzies, on the other hand, needed a 34sec run to take on the on-form Alex Summers. He just failed to do so and Scott Moran was left to throw down the gauntlet by dipping under the old record. But finally came Alex, and in sure enough it was another new record. A tenth shaved off the one set the previous day and 11 more points for the driver of the all-conquering Firestorm.
      In contrast to the previous day, it was not yet 4.00pm when Lee Griffiths led off the runners for the second time. There would only be 11 starters as a trail of fluid from Dave Warburton’s car told a tale of overheating and his weekend, which had started off so well, finished in a pool of water. There were nearly just ten after Stuart Sugden broke a chain warming his tyres, but with a new one rapidly fitted, Stuart took his run, lowered his personal best and finished seventh!
      Spedding progressed to sixth place, his best of the weekend and then Varley, who had reduced his class record by a further second, tagged the inside wall at Garden Gate and departed the scene with a deranged corner before Ryder ran wide at East Brae and dropped to ninth.
      Willis had qualified sixth, but found enough to get ahead of Spedding while Haimes went the other way and a superb fifth place qualifier translated into eighth at the end. Uren finished with a weekend best fourth on a good day for the team, in which his driving partner Nicola Menzies  had set yet another Ladies’ record in their Gould-NME, taking a tenth of a second off Olivia Cooper’s old mark. Now we were back to the ‘big three’ and first to go, Moran was just outside the old record. Summers made a storming start and his form continued progressively until the clocks stopped on yet another hill record. But after qualifying top, a relatively slow run for Menzies left him over a second behind Summers and he dropped to third.
      With the season now just past the halfway mark, a new championship pattern is evolving after Doune. Alex Summers has now increased his initial two point Championship lead over Wallace Menzies to double figures, while Scott Moran is waiting in the wings a further four points adrift.

Avon Tyres Motorsport UK British Hillclimb Championship, Doune

FTD: Alex Summers (2.7 DJ Firestorm-Cosworth XD) 34.21s (outright hill record)

Championship run-off, round 15: 1 Summers 34.28s; 2 Scott Moran (4.0 Gould-Judd DB4 GRW59) 34.61s; 3 Wallace Menzies (3.3 Gould-Cosworth XD GR59M) 35.01s; 4 Trevor Willis (3.2 OMS-RPE 28) 35.82s; 5 Dave Uren (3.5 Gould-NME GR55B) 35.97s; 6 Matthew Ryder (4.0 Gould-Judd DB4 GR59BJ) 36.85s; 7 Stuart Sugden (1.6 GWR Raptor-Suzuki) 36.87s; 8 Richard Spedding (1.6 GWR Raptor 2-Suzuki) 37.03s; 9 Paul Haimes (1.3t Gould-Suzuki GR59) 37.13s; 10 Johnathen Varley (2.0 GWR Predator-TKD YV8) 37.29s; 11 David Warburton (1.6 Gould-Suzuki GR59) 37.32s; 12 Lee Griffiths (1.7 OMS-Suzuki 25) 38.49s.

Championship run-off, round 16: 1 Summers 34.21s; 2 Moran 34.82s; 3 Menzies 35.29s; 4 Uren 35.78s; 5 Willis 35.94s; 6 Spedding 36.69s; 7 Sugden 36.83s; 8 Haimes 37.05s; 9 Ryder 38.36s; 10 Griffiths 38.45s; Varley DNF; Warburton DNS.

British Championship positions after round 16: 1 Summers 155pts; 2 Menzies 144; 3 Moran 140; 4 Willis 96; 5 Ryder 95; 6 Uren 81; 7 Spedding 44; 8 Haimes 31; 9 Warburton 27; 10 Will Hall 26; etc.

 

Fist raised, Alex Summers crosses the line after another record run (David Baxter)


Wallace Menzies had no answer to the onslaught by Summers and Moran (David Baxter)


Trevor Willis found his form and moved up to a Championship fourth place (David Baxter)


Class record breaker Johnathen Varley finally got in the points at Doune (David Baxter)

FIRESTORM FIREWORKS!

Event 7 at Doune on 18/06/2022
The British Hillclimb Tour arrived at a blustery Doune with a distinct chill in the air compared to the heat experienced further South, but the action soon turned red-hot. Inevitably, the hill record came under fire and as at Gurston and Shelsley, it was Alex Summers and the DJ Firestorm that set the pace.
      With four rounds of the Championship run over the two days, early issues could easily cost points so qualifying for Saturday’s opening run-off was relatively conservative compared with what was to follow, with the usual suspects at the top of the pile, joined by local hotshoe Stuart Sugden who qualified fifth in his Raptor.
      Ultimately Stuart finished seventh as Paul Haimes and David Warburton came through from the back to finish in superb fourth and fifth places, repairs on David’s car after its Shelsley damage having only been finished on the Thursday. Their rise up the order was helped by Trevor Willis, who ran wide at the top of East Brae and had to settle for a single point while Richard Spedding’s driveshaft issue at the top of the hill left him out of the points alongside Leslie Mutch, in the car shared by Sugden.
      Johnathen Varley broke his class record in qualifying but failed to repeat the time, but with ninth place was pleased to have broken a run of four zero point finishes, while Dave Uren’s slow start to the weekend improved to eighth place. Adapting to the size of his Gould-Judd on the hill’s confined lower reaches, Matthew Ryder qualified and finished sixth.
      Among the ‘big three’, who dominated proceedings all weekend, Scott Moran qualified and finished third, finding another half second to set a challenging target for Wallace Menzies. The defending champion took it on successfully, just missing the 34sec bracket. But after shaving a couple of hundredths off his own class record in qualifying, Alex Summers was on a charge and set a new outright record of 34.38 in taking his sixth win of the season.  
      Following a number of barrier damaging incidents the meeting ran late and it was nearly 7.00pm before the second run-off got under way – but with no dual driven cars it was over in just 14 minutes! Simon Mackay in the latest Raptor had qualified for his first ever run-off, displacing Les Mutch, and was delighted with his twelfth place finish.
      Qualifying times were slower than before in the cool wind and this, plus the lateness of the hour, was reflected in a relatively uneventful run-off with no new record! As well as Mackay it was Stuart Sugden who failed to score any points, the two Raptors joined in the lower order by their sister car, Varley’s Predator, and a slow starting Haimes who finished ninth. Ryder had qualified fifth but slipped to eighth while Spedding, his drive-train issues sorted, came through to seventh, although overtaken in the run-off by another great run from Warburton who, after his no-score at Shelsley, was delighted to move up the Championship table.
       Uren found another three places and Willis kept it on track this time to make it to fourth place but it was business as usual among the top three, although in a different order. The only driver to get below 36secs in qualifying and having seen both Summers and Menzies running a second off the pace compared to the first run-off, Moran seized the opportunity for his third win of the year ahead of the new hill record breaker.

Avon Tyres Motorsport UK British Hillclimb Championship, Doune

FTD: Alex Summers (2.7 DJ Firestorm-Cosworth XD) 34.38s (outright hill record)

Championship run-off, round 13: 1 Summers 34.38s; 2 Wallace Menzies (3.3 Gould-Cosworth XD GR59M) 35.00s; 3 Scott Moran (4.0 Gould-Judd DB4 GRW59) 35.31s; 4 Paul Haimes (1.3t Gould-Suzuki GR59) 37.29s; 5 David Warburton (1.6 Gould-Suzuki GR59) 37.71s; 6 Matthew Ryder (4.0 Gould-Judd DB4 GR59BJ) 37.99s; 7 Stuart Sugden (1.6 GWR Raptor-Suzuki) 38.28s; 8 Dave Uren (3.5 Gould-NME GR55B) 38.31s; 9 Johnathen Varley (2.0 GWR Predator-TKD YV8) 38.37s; 10 Trevor Willis (3.2 OMS-RPE 28) 38.65s; 11 Les Mutch (1.6 GWR Raptor 1-Suzuki) 39.55s; 12 Richard Spedding (1.6 GWR Raptor 2-Suzuki) 40.48s.

Championship run-off, round 14: 1 Moran 35.03s; 2 Summers 35.38s; 3 Menzies 36.10s; 4 Willis 36.54s; 5 Uren 37.46s; 6 Warburton 37.63s; 7 Spedding 37.69s; 8 Ryder 37.84s; 9 Haimes 38.09s; 10 Varley 38.38s; 11 Sugden 38.39s; 12 Simon Mackay (1.6 GWR Raptor 2-Suzuki) 40.04s.

British Championship positions after round 14: 1 Summers 133pts; 2 Menzies 128; 3 Moran 121; 4 Ryder 88; 5 Willis 83; 6 Uren 68; 7 Spedding 36; 8 Warburton 27; 9= Will Hall and Haimes 26; etc.

 

Alex Summers hit record form from the start of the weekend (David Baxter)


Scott Moran added a third win to his 2022 tally (David Baxter)


Paul Haimes took a season-best fourth place in the opening run-off (David Baxter)


Simon Mackay and his new Raptor made a debut run-off appearance (David Baxter)

SUMMERS ON TOP AT SHELSLEY

Event 6 at Shelsley Walsh on 05/06/2022
The recent spate of record-breaking in British hillclimbing ended at Shelsley Walsh when overnight rain left the track conditions less than perfect. Further periods of light drizzle left drivers having to tread warily, though slicks remained the tyre of choice for most. In the opening run-off, Dave Uren took his second Shelsley win in the GR55B, four years after his first one, but it was Alex Summers that won the second shoot-out with FTD, maintaining his two point Championship lead over Wallace Menzies, who finished second each time.
      The first set of class runs eliminated two potential qualifiers from the opening run-off. After a mistake at the Esses, Adam Greenen went straight on but stopped his Empire Evo in time to avoid damage to all but the nose cone, which was repaired for the later runs. Allan Warburton was not so lucky, more extensive front end damage after hitting the barrier at Kennel eliminating the Gould for both Allan and son Dave.
      Graham Wynn was first to test the conditions during the opening run-off with a steady run for twelfth place. The smaller engine runners had had the worst of the conditions earlier but despite finding improvements of well over a second, Johnathen Varley finished out of the points with the Predator behind Lee Griffiths’ OMS, while Richard Spedding had to be content with eighth in the Raptor ahead of Jack Cottrill’s DJ Dallara-XD. Paul Haimes, however, was pleased to put a miserable weekend at Gurston behind him with a good run to seventh place.
      The top six were all into the 25 second bracket. Split by just five hundredths in qualifying, Matt Ryder and Trevor Willis both found another second with Trevor edging Matt out for fifth place by seven hundredths. Next up, Menzies set a pace which even Scott Moran could not match, before Uren found seven hundredths more to take the lead. Last to run, a slight mistake by Summers would prove costly. As the only driver not to improve on his qualifying time, he handed the win to Uren.
      Unfortunately that would be the last bit of good news for Dave, for he failed to qualify for the second run-off after hitting the barrier at Kennel. When he first came to the line, his dashboard died. While a new battery was fitted, the following four cars took their runs amid a slight drizzle and with the track a bit damper than he expected, understeer took charge at the left-hander shortly after the start. The conditions would leave Menzies and Summers a little down the qualifying order, to the benefit of earlier runners Haimes and Ryder.
      2-litre class winner Eynon Price gambled on front treaded tyres for the second run-off. It didn’t pay off and he slipped to twelfth behind classmates Varley and Griffiths. Cottrill added another ninth place to his collection while Wynn had a better run for eighth place and Richard Spedding concluded a good weekend with seventh. The clock failed to start for Willis’s run, but after a return to the paddock, followed by a quick re-fuel, he stormed into the lead on his re-run with a time almost a second and a half inside his qualifier. Another solid performance by Haimes netted a top six place and his best result of the year so far, but even before that, Menzies had recorded the first 24sec run of the day.
      Determined to improve on his earlier third place, Summers took the lead from Menzies with a maximum effort. It would be the best run of the day as neither Ryder, despite clocking a day’s best 161mph over the finish, nor Moran could match the two leaders’ times although they tied for third place. So the gap at the head of the pack remains at two points, although Summers now has five wins to the defending champion’s four.

Avon Tyres Motorsport UK British Hillclimb Championship, Shelsley Walsh

FTD: Alex Summers (2.7 DJ Firestorm-Cosworth XD) 24.23s

Championship run-off, round 11: 1 Dave Uren (3.5 Gould-NME GR55B) 25.22s; 2 Wallace Menzies (3.3 Gould-Cosworth XD GR59M) 25.29s; 3 Summers 25.37s; 4 Scott Moran (4.0 Gould-Judd DB4 GRW59) 25.54s; 5 Trevor Willis (3.2 OMS-RPE 28) 25.58s; 6 Matthew Ryder (4.0 Gould-Judd DB4 GR59BJ) 25.65s; 7 Paul Haimes (1.3t Gould-Suzuki GR59) 26.73s; 8 Richard Spedding (1.6 GWR Raptor 2-Suzuki) 26.85s; 9 Jack Cottrill (2.7 Dallara Cosworth XD) 27.37s; 10 Lee Griffiths (1.7 OMS-Suzuki 25) 27.64s; 11 Johnathen Varley (2.0 GWR Predator-TKD YV8) 27.77s; 12 Graham Wynn (4.0 Gould-Judd DB4 GRW59) 28.01s.

Championship run-off, round 12: 1 Summers 24.23s; 2 Menzies 24.30s; 3= Ryder and Moran 24.60s; 5 Willis 25.04s; 6 Haimes 26.06s; 7 Spedding 26.21s; 8 Wynn 26.80s; 9 Cottrill 26.95s; 10 Griffiths 27.26s; 11 Varley 27.37s; 12 Eynon Price (1.7 Force-Suzuki TA) 27.87s.

British Championship positions after round 12: 1 Summers 113pts; 2 Menzies 111; 3 Moran 103; 4 Ryder 80; 5 Willis 75; 6 Uren 59; 7 Spedding 32; 8 Will Hall 26; 9 Haimes 17; 10 David Warburton 16; etc.
 

Alex Summers set the outright pace to maintain his 2-point Championship lead (John Hallett)


Dave Uren took the first run-off win but didn't make it to the second (John Hallett)


Paul Haimes took a season-best sixth place in the second run-off (John Hallett)


Jack Cottrill on the startline before an expectant crowd (John Hallett)

SUMMERS' DAY 2

Event 5 at Gurston Down on 29/05/2022
The second day of Gurston’s British Championship double-header brought slightly duller, chillier weather but still the question everyone asked was: with the record now standing at 25.05s, would we see Gurston’s first ever 24sec run? And if we did, with Alex Summers and Wallace Menzies tied on points at the top of the table and both on record form the previous day, which of them would do it? Or could six-time champion Scott Moran, well in touch with the Championship leaders and himself a former Gurston record-holder, turn the tables on the pair of them?
           In the event it would be Summers’ day once again when, after qualifying top for the opening shoot-out, he edged out Menzies and Moran to lower the hill record he’d set only the previous day by just five hundredths of a second, leaving it at a round 25.00s. This despite a last-minute panic after qualifying with a blown exhaust after a lambda sensor boss had broken away. Quick work with a couple of Jubilee clips by DJ’s Andy Smith cured the problem and Summers was back on record pace. But the magic 24sec run would remain elusive. After a second run-off at only slightly reduced pace, it was Moran who grabbed his second win of the year by just seven hundredths from Summers, who left Gurston as the new Championship leader from third place finisher Menzies.
          With the ‘big three’ now pulling away from the opposition, the battle for fourth place on the table, now some 20-odd points down the line, still lies between Matt Ryder and Trevor Willis, with Ryder having the edge following a fourth place finish in the opening run-off. Willis could only finish sixth, and in the second run-off seventh, again two places behind his rival. It was his worst finish of the year, although he still held a strong fifth place on the series table. After missing out on a score following his failed run the previous day, Dave Uren brought the much campaigned Gould-NME back into contention to split the duo early on, but late in the afternoon he closed in on the three leaders to head Ryder and a much happier Will Hall. After finishing three places behind him in the opening run-off, Will had outqualified his young co-driver for the first time in their Gould-Judd and closed to within a quarter of a second of him in the run-off itself.
          Jack Cottrill found more pace than on the previous day in the DJ Dallara and closed in on Hall in the first run-off but Graham Wynn, who had missed the cut early on, edged ahead of him later to grab eighth place by a tenth of a second. Andy Greenen closed in on Cottrill in the first run-off and with both brothers making the cut for the second bout, trailed him by the same margin for tenth, easing Adam out of the points. As he had on Saturday, Johnathan Varley got the Predator into a run-off but without joining the scorers.
          Following her fine performances in the Gould-NME at Shelsley last year and at Harewood just three weeks ago, hopes were high that Nicola Menzies could break Sue Young’s Gurston ladies’ record set way back in 2007. It was not to be, but she did close to within a quarter of a second of it and made the run-off cut each time.

Avon Tyres Motorsport UK British Hillclimb Championship, Gurston Down

FTD: Alex Summers (2.7 DJ Firestorm-Cosworth XD) 25.00s (outright hill record)

Championship run-off, round 9: 1 Alex Summers (2.7 DJ Firestorm-Cosworth XD) 25.00s; 2 Wallace Menzies (3.3 Gould-Cosworth XD GR59M) 25.32s; 3 Scott Moran (4.0 Gould-Judd DB4 GRW59) 25.87s; 4 Matthew Ryder (4.0 Gould-Judd DB4 GR59BJ) 26.15s; 5 Dave Uren (3.5 Gould-NME GR55B) 26.30s; 6 Trevor Willis (3.2 OMS-RPE 28) 26.60s; 7 Will Hall (4.0 Gould-Judd DB4 GR59BJ) 27.64s; 8 Jack Cottrill (2.7 Dallara Cosworth XD) 27.80s; 9 Andrew Greenen (1.6 Empire Evo 3-Suzuki) 28.01s; 10 Richard Spedding (1.6 GWR Raptor 2-Suzuki) 28.44s; 11 Johnathen Varley (2.0 GWR Predator-TKD YV8) 28.47s; 12 Nicola Menzies (3.5 Gould-NME GR55B) 29.16s.

Championship run-off, round 10: 1 Moran 25.47s; 2 Summers 25.54s; 3 Wallace Menzies 25.92s; 4 Uren 26.31s; 5 Ryder 26.87s; 6 Hall 27.09s; 7 Willis 27.14s; 8 Graham Wynn (4.0 Gould-Judd DB4 GRW59) 27.67s; 9 Cottrill 27.78s; 10 Andrew Greenen 28.04s; 11 Adam Greenen (1.6 Empire Evo 3-Suzuki) 28.46s; 12 Nicola Menzies 29.12s.

British Championship positions after round 10: 1 Summers 95pts; 2 Menzies 93; 3 Moran 88; 4 Ryder 67; 5 Willis 63; 6 Uren 49; 7 Hall 26; 8 Spedding 25; 9 Warburton 16; 10 Wynn 11; etc.

 

Alex Summers makes his victory speech after his record breaking FTD (Steve Lister)


Scott Moran took his second run-off win of the year (Steve Lister)


Will Hall brought the GR59-Judd home sixth in the second run-off (Ian Beard)


The Greenen brothers - this is Andy - both made the second run-off in their Empire Evo3 (Steve Lister)

SUMMERS' DAY 1

Event 4 at Gurston Down on 28/05/2022
Close fought action at the sharp end of the British Hillclimb Championship continued at Gurston where it had left off at Harewood as this year’s ‘big three’ battled it out at record pace over the ultra-fast Wiltshire downland track. On the opening day of this championship double-header weekend, Wallace Menzies’ year-old record came under fire first by the holder, then by his current championship rival. Alex Summers’ DJ Firestorm may have lacked the outright speed of his adversary’s Gould, but in the closing run-off he carved three tenths of a second off the championship leader’s new hill record, set moments earlier, to leave the pair level on points at the end of the day’s competition.
          Summers had already laid down a marker in the first run-off, taking the win with a run that equalled the 2021 record. Menzies just failed to match it, Scott Moran chased hard and with all three covered by just fifteen hundredths, the remaining runners were left a second adrift. The pressure cranked up in the second shoot-out with the fastest cars approaching 150mph in the downhill approach to the fast left-hander at Hollow – plus another 10mph over the finish. As penultimate runner in the closing shoot-out Menzies finally hit record pace, shaving two hundredths off his old hill standard. Then on the day’s final run Summers, despite running considerably slower trap speeds, found that further three tenths to leave the record at 25.05s.
          Once again, Scott Moran was well in touch with the two leaders and a second clear of the field led by Trevor Willis and Matt Ryder. Despite his perennial disadvantage in the horsepower stakes over Gurston’s power-sapping Burke’s Rise before the finish, Willis was pleased with his performance – no doubt aided by his beautifully crafted ‘F1-style’ aluminium steering wheel and paddle shift assembly which he’d built as a winter project. He kept Ryder’s Gould-Judd at bay on each run-off and the pair finished the day on equal points for fourth place on the series table. Sixth on the table and with sixth place in the opening run-off, Dave Uren would maintain his position in the standings despite stalling the Gould-NME at the start during the closing shoot-out and incurring a fail, all four wheels having crossed the line. Having finished the opening run-off out of the points in the GR59 shared with Ryder, together with Jack Cottrill’s DJ Dallara-XD, Will Hall stepped in to bag sixth place at the end, equalling his best finish in the car this year.
          Graham Wynn found that his newly fitted pacemaker paid dividends with his times. Bringing home his GR59 for a brace of seventh place finishes he made his mark on the Championship scoreboard for the first time this year. In the opening run-off he headed Richard Spedding who, with the 1600cc racing division now proving to be one of the most competitive classes on the hills this year, had made the switch from the forced induction class for 2022 and led the class in his Raptor after the first runs. Lee Griffiths’ ‘stretched’ OMS-Suzuki split the Yorkshireman from his classmate David Warburton, who brought his GR59-Suzuki home for the final point.
          Griffiths failed to qualify for the second battle for points and it was Adam Greenen who chased Wynn home for eighth place. His new-for-2022 Empire Evo3 had broken a driveshaft on his opening class run, but after a quick fix the car was out in good time for Adam to grab the 1600cc class win from Warburton with a run at qualifying pace. Third in this hotly contested class, Adam’s brother Andy also made the cut and brought the car home ahead of 2-litre class winner Johnathen Varley’s Predator for the final point behind Warburton as both rapid siblings made the 2022 scoreboard for the first time.

Avon Tyres Motorsport UK British Hillclimb Championship, Gurston Down

FTD: Alex Summers (2.7 DJ Firestorm-Cosworth XD) 25.05s (outright hill record)

Championship run-off, round 7: 1 Summers 25.34s; 2 Wallace Menzies (3.3 Gould-Cosworth XD GR59M) 25.40s; 3 Scott Moran (4.0 Gould-Judd DB4 GRW59) 25.49s; 4 Trevor Willis (3.2 OMS-RPE 28) 26.45s; 5 Matthew Ryder (4.0 Gould-Judd DB4 GR59BJ) 26.56s; 6 Dave Uren (3.5 Gould-NME GR55B) 26.98s; 7 Graham Wynn (4.0 Gould-Judd DB4 GRW59) 27.74s; 8 Richard Spedding (1.6 GWR Raptor 2-Suzuki) 28.02s; 9 Lee Griffiths (1.7 OMS-Suzuki 25) 28.40s; 10 David Warburton (1.6 Gould-Suzuki GR59) 28.44s; 11 Will Hall (4.0 Gould-Judd DB4 GR59BJ) 28.63s; 12 Jack Cottrill (2.7 Dallara Cosworth XD) 28.77s.

Championship run-off, round 8: 1 Summers 25.05s; 2 Menzies 25.32s; 3 Moran 25.40s; 4 Willis 26.34s; 5 Ryder 26.38s; 6 Hall 27.33s; 7 Wynn 27.54s; 8 Adam Greenen (1.6 Empire Evo 3-Suzuki) 27.65s; 9 Warburton 28.13s; 10 Andrew Greenen (1.6 Empire Evo 3-Suzuki) 28.35s; 11 Johnathen Varley (2.0 GWR Predator-TKD YV8) 28.37s; Uren DNF.

British Championship positions after round 8: 1= Menzies and Summers 75pts; 3 Moran 70; 4= Ryder and Willis 54; 6 Uren 36; 7 Spedding 24; 8 Hall 17; 9 Warburton 16; 10= Paul Haimes and Wynn 8; etc.

 

Alex Summers crests Deer's Leap on the way to a new hill record (Ian Beard)


Wallace Menzies' new record stood for less than a minute! (Steve Lister)


Scott Moran chased hard for third place in both run-offs (Ian Beard)


Trevopr Willis kept in touch with the top three each time (Steve Lister)

RECORD ROUT AT HAREWOOD

Event 3 at Harewood on 08/05/2022
Harewood’s hill record took a battering as never before as defending champion Wallace Menzies fought his way into the British Championship lead for the first time this season. His fourth successive run-off win and a new hill record ended what had been a spectacular day of record breaking by British hillclimbing’s top contenders. The signs were there during practice, when both Menzies and Scott Moran climbed inside the Scotsman’s 2019 hill standard. But when both shaded the mark officially on successive runs during qualifying for the opening run-off, the battle lines were drawn.
            But few could have anticipated the intensity of the competition once British points were at stake. Once Alex Summers and Matt Ryder had joined the fray, all four left the old record for dead in successive run-offs, scoring a total of eight bonus points between them. In the opening shoot-out, relative newcomer Ryder in the ex.works Gould GR59 was the first to go below Menzies’ latest mark. Next to run, Summers couldn’t quite match that. But after Moran had made sure that Ryder ‘s tenure of the record was short-lived, Menzies lowered it yet again by a further five hundredths to win the run-off. The target was now 47.00 sec. Could we see a 46? Speculation was rife and after being covered by just three hundredths in qualifying, Moran, Summers and Ryder came close. But few were surprised when on the last run of the day, the flying Scot produced another masterly display in his red GR59, a 46.86s run bringing to an end perhaps the biggest record bonanza in Harewood’s 60-year history.
          Shrugging off a suspension and nose-cone damaging practice incident, Trevor Willis flew through Harewood’s twistier sections, but the OMS-RPE was inevitably outgunned on the straights and he had to watch the four leaders disappear into the middle distance each time. Will Hall, sharing the GR59 with Ryder, closed in on him in the opening run-off but his so far difficult season with the GR59-Judd continued when he failed to qualify for run-off two, the car getting out of shape at the left-hand kink before Orchard and skating harmlessly into the gravel trap. After running eighth in the opening shoot-out, Dave Uren was the one to chase Willis home later after a see-saw battle with local ace Richard Spedding, the Yorkshireman’s Raptor blisteringly fast on Harewood’s twisty sections, but it was overall a great day for the GR55 team, Uren’s co-driver Nicola Menzies setting a new Harewood Ladies’ record during the first class runs before lowering it again by almost a second later on. Harewood is unique in being the only hillclimb in the BHC at which both the outright and the ladies’ records are held by a husband and wife.
          ‘Team Warby’ was at full strength in the opening run-off and although dad Allan finished out of the points, son David got close to Uren’s V8 and held off Jack Cottrill’s DJ/Dallara-Cosworth for eighth place later on. Both with ‘stretched’ Hayabusa power in the 2-litre racing class, Eynon Price notched up his first point of the year in the opening run-off ahead of classmate Lee Griffiths, who followed up his points haul at Craigantlet the previous weekend with another at Harewood, having qualified each time with successive class records in his OMS 28. Also qualifying at Craigantlet was 1600cc class runner Darren Gumbley, who made the second cut at Harewood too, although edged out of the points by Griffiths.

Avon Tyres Motorsport UK British Hillclimb Championship, Harewood

FTD: Wallace Menzies (3.3 Gould-Cosworth XD GR59M) 46.86s (outright hill record)

Championship run-off, round 5: 1 Menzies 47.00s; 2 Scott Moran (4.0 Gould-Judd DB4 GRW59) 47.05s; 3 Matthew Ryder (4.0 Gould-Judd DB4 GR59BJ) 47.39s; 4 Alex Summers (2.7 DJ Firestorm-Cosworth XD) 47.62s; 5 Trevor Willis (3.2 OMS-RPE 28) 48.63s; 6 Will Hall (4.0 Gould-Judd DB4 GR59BJ) 48.94s; 7 Richard Spedding (1.6 GWR Raptor 2-Suzuki) 49.01s; 8 Dave Uren (3.5 Gould-NME GR55B) 49.20s; 9 David Warburton (1.6 Gould-Suzuki GR59) 49.48s; 10 Eynon Price (1.7 Force-Suzuki TA) 51.12s; 11 Lee Griffiths (1.7 OMS-Suzuki 25) 51.25s; 12 Allan Warburton (1.6 Gould-Suzuki GR59) 51.84s.

Championship run-off, round 6: 1 Menzies 46.86s; 2 Summers 47.15s; 3 Ryder 47.19s; 4 Moran 47.46s; 5 Willis 48.02s; 6 Uren 48.78s; 7 Spedding 48.98s; 8 David Warburton 50.48s; 9 Jack Cottrill (2.7 Dallara Cosworth XD) 50.63s; 10 Griffiths 50.71s; 11 Darren Gumbley (1.6 Force-Suzuki TA) 51.66s; 12 Price 51.87s.

British Championship positions after round 6: 1 Menzies 56pts; 2= Moran and Summers 54; 4 Ryder 42; 5 Willis 40; 6 Uren 31; 7 Spedding 21; 8 David Warburton 13; 9 Will Hall 12; 10 Paul Haimes 8; etc.


 

Wallace Menzies topped the record-breakers to gain control of the Championship (Steve Wilkinson)


In only his third BHC event with the Gould, Matt Ryder held (if briefly) a hill record (Steve Wilkinson)


Nicola Menzies reset the Harewood Ladies' record (Steve Wilkinson)


Lee Griffiths qualified twice with successive class records (Steve Wilkinson)

WALLACE 'RAINS' SUPREME

Event 2 at Craigantlet on 30/04/2022
Reigning British Hillclimb Champion Wallace Menzies has a fight on his hands this season. A week earlier, six time title holder Scott Moran and 2015 champion Alex Summers had taken a run-off win apiece at Prescott, and were full of confidence as they prepared to face the Ulster lanes above Belfast. But Wallace fought back, setting FTD and winning both run-offs with a stunning display of bravery and skill in rain that fell throughout the day.
        In the first run-off the red Tillicoultry Gould GR59-M stopped the clock at 43.07s, half a second clear of the DJ Firestorm of Alex Summers. Scott Moran, at the wheel of Graham Wynn’s GRW59J, was a further three tenths adrift, but almost a second up on Dave Uren in the old Gould GR55B. Fifth fastest was Trevor Willis aboard his faithful OMS 28, a further seven tenths down and more than a second ahead of Matt Ryder, who was still coming to terms with Sean Gould’s GR59J, of which the Ryder family now own half. Co-driver Will Hall was less fortunate, failing to qualify when the car went into limp mode after sensing a drop in oil pressure.
Now free of the worry of keeping a supercharged bike engine in one piece week after week, Richard Spedding revelled in the wet conditions with his 1600 Suzuki powered GWR Raptor to hold off class rival David Warburton in his family GR59, and better the sometimes troublesome turbocharged GR59 Suzuki of Paul Haimes, to whom the mantle of blown 1300 warrior now falls. Sadly, his day ended shortly afterwards when the plenum chamber imploded. Lee Griffiths in the 1660cc OMS Suzuki completed the points scorers, with Wynn and Uren’s co-driver Nicola Menzies missing out.
        In the second run-off Menzies upped his pace. In front of an understandably small yet enthusiastic crowd, the 700 bhp projectile scrabbled its way off a soaking uphill startline and scythed through the tight lower course bends, before sending rooster tails of spray high into the air as it blasted along Wharton Straight. A remarkable 42.20s run was just three seconds shy of the outright hill record. Moran led the chase seven tenths behind, with Summers a further half second slower. This time Willis got the better of Uren by five hundredths, with Ryder sixth once again. And in a repeat of his earlier experience, Will Hall had been absolutely on the pace before limp mode cut in once more and he again failed to qualify. Either the sensor or Will’s driving style need to change.
        Spedding and Warburton finished seventh and eighth yet again, this time more than half a second apart, while Griffiths and Nicola Menzies also got into the points. Graham Wynn fell short by a mere hundredth, while Darren Gumbley’s Force non-started.
        The ever enthusiastic Ulster Automobile Club, led by Wilson Carson, ran a slick event in miserable weather, even sacrificing a lunch break in the interests of keeping the meeting on schedule. Considering the weather there were surprisingly few incidents, perhaps as a result of the poor conditions at least remaining consistent.

Avon Tyres Motorsport UK British Hillclimb Championship, Craigantlet

FTD: Wallace Menzies (3.3 Gould-Cosworth XD GR59M) 42.20s

Championship run-off, round 3: 1 Wallace Menzies 43.07s; 2 Alex Summers (2.7 DJ Firestorm-Cosworth XD) 43.63s; 3 Scott Moran (4.0 Gould-Judd DB4 GRW59) 43.98s; 4 Dave Uren (3.5 Gould-NME GR55B) 44.93s; 5 Trevor Willis (3.2 OMS-RPE 28) 45.64s; 6 Matthew Ryder (4.0 Gould-Judd DB4 GR59BJ) 46.93s; 7 Richard Spedding (1.6 GWR Raptor 2-Suzuki) 47.35s; 8 David Warburton (1.6 Gould-Suzuki GR59) 47.74s; 9 Paul Haimes (1.3t Gould-Suzuki GR59) 48.01s; 10 Lee Griffiths (1.7 OMS-Suzuki 25) 48.80s; 11 Graham Wynn (4.0 Gould-Judd DB4 GRW59) 49.22s; 12 Nicola Menzies (3.5 Gould-NME GR55B) 49.45s.

Championship run-off, round 4: 1 Wallace Menzies 42.20s; 2 Moran 42.96s; 3 Summers 43.45s; 4 Willis 45.47s; 5 Uren 45.52s; 6 Ryder 46.24s; 7 Spedding 47.50s; 8 David Warburton 48.16s; 9 Griffiths 48.36s; 10 Nicola Menzies 48.69s; 11 Wynn 48.70s; Darren Gumbley (1.6 Force-Suzuki TA) DNS.

British Championship positions after round 4: 1= Moran and Summers 36pts; 3 Menzies 34; 4 Willis 28; 5 Ryder 24; 6 Uren 23; 7 Spedding 13; 8= Haimes and Warburton 8; 10 Will Hall 10; etc.

 

Wallace Menzies dominated the Belfast byways (Leslie McMullan)


Alex Summers rejoined battle with Scott Moran ... (Leslie McMullan)


...and Moran again shared the series lead with Summers (Leslie McMullan)


Richard Spedding slides the Raptor out of Hadley (Leslie McMullan)

STORMING BRITISH HILLCLIMB OPENER

Event 1 at Prescott on 24/04/2022
In a memorable start to the British Hillclimb Championship’s 75^th anniversary year, a mere tenth of a second covered the top five finishers in Prescott’s opening Top 12 shoot-out. Returning for another full season in Graham Wynn’s Gould-Judd GRW59, six times British champion Scott Moran showed he’d lost none of his old form, snatching the win from top qualifier Alex Summers by just three hundredths. Four hundredths behind Summers, Trevor Willis and newcomer to the ‘big car’ class Matt Ryder tied for third place, edging out defending champion Wallace Menzies by a further three hundredths in one of the closest finishes in the history of the Championship.
          Late in the afternoon, after qualifying top for the second run-off, hill record-holder Menzies and his all-conquering GR59-Cosworth were set to follow another close duel between Moran and Summers. But with the battle between the three former champions providing the climax to the meeting, a tail-out moment at the exit of the Esses left Menzies trailing the group. Running first of the three, Moran set the day’s outright pace so far in his Gould-Judd. Then Summers, his previously carbon-black Firestorm-XD now sporting a striking paint scheme, found another two tenths with a typically inch-perfect run, seizing what would become both the run-off win and FTD once final runner Menzies had lost those vital fractions. So having exchanged the leading places in each round, Moran and Summers left Prescott tied in the lead of the Championship.
          After his fine Championship debut aboard the ex.works Gould GR59 in tying with Willis for third place, Ryder nearly missed the second cut when his Judd V8 faltered leaving the line on his qualifying run. He managed to scrape in just hundredths clear of final qualifier Wynn, before bouncing back to trail Willis for fifth place and level with Menzies’ fourth spot on the series table. Another good run from Willis in the afternoon saw the three times champion’s long serving OMS-RPE hot on the tail of the top three.
          Having seen even more service – not to mention success – than Willis’s OMS, Dave Uren’s Gould-NME V8, which first appeared 17 years ago in the hands of Martin Groves, was another car displaying a new paint scheme. Despite a big twitch on the exit of SemiCircle during the second run-off, Uren stayed well on course with two 36sec runs for two sixth place finishes. With eighth and then seventh places in the ex.works GR59, Will Hall was acclimatising himself to the new car which he shares this year with Ryder, having not had quite so much seat time as his co-driver and finding the car’s handling very different to the Force-AER with which he had persevered for so many years. With eighth and then seventh place finishes he ended the day seventh on the Championship table and a point clear of Paul Haimes’ bike-engined GR59 turbo, whose season had opened well with a fine qualifier for the second run-off, just behind the leading trio.
Currently sharing his GWR Raptor 2 with Steve Marr, Richard Spedding had for this year switched his recalcitrant supercharged Suzuki engine for a normally aspirated Hayabusa 1600 unit. He harried Hall each time, trailing him for ninth place in the opening shoot-out, but grabbing eighth place from Haimes in the afternoon run-off. David Warburton twice rounded off the points scorers with similar motive power in the back of his GR59-Suzuki. Ben Stephenson made the morning cut in his Empire Evo 2, but his supercharged Suzuki engine hesitated after leaving the line before picking up again, albeit for an inevitable zero points finish. Next up, Zach Zammit had an even worse start in his his 1600cc Empire Wraith, coming to a complete stop after crossing the startline. The former Maltese hillclimb champion fared better in the afternoon run-off although, together with Graham Wynn, finishing out of the points.
         
Avon Tyres Motorsport UK British Hillclimb Championship, Prescott

FTD: Alex Summers (2.7 DJ Firestorm-Cosworth XD) 35.43s

Championship run-off, round 1: 1 Scott Moran (4.0 Gould-Judd DB4 GRW59) 35.99s; 2 Summers 36.01s; 3= Trevor Willis (3.2 OMS-RPE 28) 36.05s; 3= Matthew Ryder (4.0 Gould-Judd DB4 GR59BJ) 36.05s; 5 Wallace Menzies (3.3 Gould-Cosworth XD GR59M) 36.09s; 6 Dave Uren (3.5 Gould-NME GR55B) 36.69s; 7 Paul Haimes (1.3t Gould-Suzuki GR59) 36.76s; 8 Will Hall (4.0 Gould-Judd DB4 GR59BJ) 36.83s; 9 Richard Spedding (1.6 GWR Raptor 2-Suzuki) 37.10s; 10 David Warburton (1.6 Gould-Suzuki GR59) 37.42s; 11 Ben Stephenson (1.3s Empire-Suzuki Evo2) 43.32s; Zach Zammit (1.6 Empire Wraith-Suzuki) DNF.

Championship run-off, round 2: 1 Summers 35.43s; 2 Moran 35.63s; 3 Menzies 36.14s; 4 Willis 36.44s; 5 Ryder 36.76s; 6 Uren 36.81s; 7 Hall 36.82s; 8 Spedding 36.93s; 9 Haimes 37.06s; 10 Warburton 37.34s; 11 Graham Wynn (4.0 Gould-Judd DB4 GRW59) 38.38s; 12 Zammit 38.63s.

British Championship positions after round 2: 1= Moran and Summers 19pts; 3 Willis 15; 4= Ryder and Menzies 14; 6 Uren 10; 7 Hall 7; 8 Haimes 6; 9 Spedding 5; 10 Warburton 2.

 

Alex Summers set the outright pace in a memorable encounter (John Hallett)


Scott Moran won the opening round before tying with Summers for the series lead (John Hallett)


Defending champion Wallace Menzies finished third in the closing shoot-out (John Hallett)


Matt Ryder enjoyed a fine Championship debut with the Gould-Judd (John Hallett)