The weekend’s first visit of the season to Prescott for the British Hillclimb Championship produced a new outright Hill record along with a number of class records and a change of Championship leadership. A largely sunny weekend provided plenty to keep the strong crowd entertained.
In addition to the British series, the weekend also featured event organisers, the Bugatti Owners Club’s Handicap with the win going to Peter Baker in his Daimler Conquest. In the club’s New Barn RS Interclub Speed series, victory went to Mike Brakes driving a Ford Fiesta ST150. He bettered his handicap time by five hundredths of a second more than Jonathan Ellwood was able to achieve in his Honda Civic Type R, while Christopher Heritage was nine hundredths further back, taking his Dax Rush to third place.
In the BHC classes, there was a Lotus Elise clean sweep in Class A(i) for Production Saloons up to 2000cc with Jonathan Langmead taking top honours ahead of Robert Wilson while Dvid Wilson used the shared car to take third spot just four tenths of a second further back.
Duncan Andrews took his Cayman to victory in the Porsche dominated class A(ii) for Production Cars over 2000cc while the win in the four-wheel drive category, Class A (iii) went to the VW Golf R of Peter Richings.
A close fought class B for Specialist Production Cars went to Steven Garner. He set a time in his Westfield Sei just eight hundredths of a second better than second placed Richard Price achieved in his Caterham 7. Third place went to Raymond Lohr in his Caterham 7 Supersport.
Eric Murray took his Hillman Imp to victory in Class C(i) for Modified Production Cars up to 1400cc. while in the over 2000cc category the win went to the Mitsubishi Evo 6 of Stephen Moore.
Class D, for Modified Specialist Production Cars was contested exclusively by Westfields, with the win going to Ben Fisher in his SE.
Class E for Sports Libre Saloon Cars up to 2000cc went to Roger Moran in his Skoda R5 Fabia while the Sports Racing Car class up too 2000cc was claimed by Allan McDonald in his Force SR4. He finished three tenths of a second ahead of Matthew Price in his Radical SR3.
Amongst the Single Seaters, the 600cc to 1100cc class produced some of the closest action of the weekend with victory going to Dave Tatham in the DJ Firehawk. He was just eight hundredths of a second quicker than Stuart Bickley who finished second in the Force TA while Tom Weaver was a further nine hundredths of a second back as he took third place in the Empire EVO2.
The win in the Pre 1994 Formula Ford Class was taken by Jimmy Harris in his Van Diemen RF85 with second place going to the RF86 of Caroline Ryder in what was destined to be a very successful weekend for the Ryder family.
Class J(ii) for racing cars between 1100 and 1600cc went to the GWR Raptor 2 of Richard Spedding who outpaced the Gould GR59 of David Warburton by just two tenths of a second. Third place went to Darren Gumbley in the Force TA.
Victory among the 1600cc to 2000cc normally aspirated race cars in Class K(i) went to Jonathan Varley driving a GWR Predator while Andy Bougourd took his Force PT to second place and Andrew Henson was third in the Gould Dallara F394.
In Class K(ii) for Forced Induction race cars, Paul Haimes took his Hayabusa engined Gould GR59 just four hundredths of a second clear of second placed Alex Coles and his Force TA. William Loughridge was third driving an Empire Wraith.
Class L for Racing Cars over 2000cc was won by Matthew Ryder in the Judd engined Gould GR59 with second place going to the similar GR59J of Will Hall. Wallace Menzies was third in his GR59M.
The V8 powered Brabham BT30 X 1 of Andy Tippett took top honours in Class M for Pre 1971 Racing and Sports Racing Cars.
The Top 12 Run Offs are, of course, a high spot of any round of the Motorsport UK British Hillclimb Championship round. The first run off of the day saw four times British Champion Wallace Menzies heading the times until Matthew Ryder, the final driver to run, took not only the runoff victory but also the outright Prescott Hill record from the Scottish driver.
Matthew’s time of 34.60s bettered Wallace’s existing record, set in 2021, by five hundredths of a second. With Wallace finishing second, third place in the runoff went to Alex Summers, the DJ Firestorm driver taking it by just five hundredths of a second from Will Hall.
The final run off of the day was also taken my Matthew Ryder although he fell a couple of tenths short of his earlier, record-breaking run time. Second place went to Will Hall, 0.15 second back with Wallace Menzies in third place a further nine hundredths of a second back. Alex Summers, who came into the meeting leading the overall Championship standings finished fourth, missing out on a podium placing by three tenths of a second.
The result of this is that Alex concedes the overall Championship lead to Matthew Ryder but the battle for the title looks set to go down to the end of the season.
The next round of the Championship sees the competitors return to Prescott on September 7th and 8th, and if this weekend was anything to go by it’s an event not to be missed.
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