A memorial service in memory of Sheridan Thynne will be held at St Andrew’s Church, South Stoke, Oxfordshire on Monday, December 5^th at 2.30pm. All are welcome. http://www.achurchnearyou.com/st-andrews-church-south-stoke

We are sad to report that Sheridan Thynne has died suddenly while on holiday in Egypt. He was 71. As financial director of Williams GP, Sheridan was a key figure in the success of the Formula One team run by his old friend from his club racing days, Frank Williams. More recently, as an keen supporter of hillclimbing and sprinting he was a leading light within the HSA, serving for several years as our Competitions Secretary, and was a driving force behind many of the Association’s initiatives. We offer sincere condolences to Sheridan’s family and to his many friends in motorsport worldwide.

            A full appreciation will appear in Speedscene 166.

The annual HSA Awards lunch took place at its new location of Shelsley Walsh last Sunday. Left to right on the Shelsley startline are 2011 REIS/HSA Champion Nick Mugglestone, runner-up Geoff Stallard, outgoing champion Tony Thomas, who finished third overall, fourth placed man Mark Paterson and the fifth placed Bob Ridge-Stearn, who also received the HSA’s Man of the Year award (photo by Shireen Broadhurst).

            A full report and pictures will follow in Speedscene 167.

Congratulations to Nick Mugglestone on winning the 2011 REIS HSA Speed Championship in his Mazda MX5. This was a noteworthy achievement to succeed in the same Class in which the two previous champions had set some demanding records and is a testament to his driving skills and a well sorted car.

Well done to runner up, Geoff Stallard in his TVR Vixen, who wasn’t far behind Nick, and to outgoing Champion Tony Thomas also in a Mazda MX5. Mark Paterson took a well earned fourth in his Ginetta G15 and this marks him out as a strong contender for next year’s Ginetta Owners Club Championship which is to be run within the HSA Championship in 2012. However, Geoff Stallard has a quick Ginetta G12 lurking in his garage which is likely to provide some stiff competition. Rounding out the top five was Bob Ridge-Stearn in another Mazda MX5 who will be changing classes to a Formula Ford for 2012.

 The Peter Stevens award for the highest overall competitor with no more than 4 scores went to HSA Championship stalwart, Stuart Cairney in his immaculate Hillman Imp.

In all, 97 car/driver combinations scored points in this year’s Championship and we thank all of them for contributing to another year of friendly and exciting competition.

 Please note: Results remain provisional until officially confirmed.

2011 REIS/HSA Speed Champion Nick Mugglestone ended his year in style with a class win and a new MX5 record at the Championship finale at Curborough. Safe in second place on the table, Geoff Stallard also took a class win in his TVR Vixen, but a broken rotor arm put him out of contention in the Alan Payne class winners’ run-off. After lowering his record twice during the class runs, Stuart Cairney found even more time in the run-off to take the coveted trophy by four hundredths from Phil Skipp’s Vauxhall Astra, adding it to the Peter Stevens Trophy for the highest score over four qualifying rounds.

            Chasing Mugglestone home in the Mazda class, outgoing champion Tony Thomas surged up from sixth on the table to round off the Championship top three.

            The battle for FTD between Gary Thomas and Simon Keen promised much as Keen led the way by just four hundredths at half-time. Sadly, the Dallara’s Peugeot engine cried enough on co-driver Richard Keen’s first run, leaving Thomas to storm to the outright win and third in the run-off with a 29.12 in his Force-Suzuki.

            Full report and pictures to follow in Speedscene 166.

            Results can be downloaded here.

Final Championship standings: 1 Nick Mugglestone 153; 2 Geoff Stallard 141; 3 Tony Thomas 135, 4 Mark Paterson 133; 5 Bob Ridge-Stearn 131; 6 Graham Cashmore 128; etc. (Full listing on the Championship Results page of the HSA website)

Scott Moran ended his third hillclimb title year in style with a new Loton Park record – the only British hill record of the year – on the very last run of the 2011 Championship. Trevor Willis failed to qualify for the opening run-off on a wet track and Scott opted out of his opening class run, so the way was clear for Roger to take the morning run-off win and secure second overall in the Championship from Willis. Pictured right is the victorious family duo, the only father and son not only to have each won the British Hillclimb Championship, but to have finished first and second in the same year. With them is a potential third generation champion – Scott’s son Oliver!

            Despite his early no-show, Willis recovered to finish third in the second run-off as Wallace Menzies’ challenge for the championship third place faded, the Scot losing out to his determined rival by just three points. On equal scores before the final run-off of the year, the straight fight between Lee Adams and Tom New ended with just one place in the GWR Raptor driver’s favour as took fifth place on the table by a single point.

            With a fourth class record of the year in his self-developed, supercharged Force-Hayabusa, Rob Stevens clinched a record fourth Midland Hillclimb Championship, while Scott Moran secured the Avon/BMTR Top Ten Challenge to add to his 2011 British and Leaders titles.

Nicholson McLaren British Hillclimb Championship – final scores (subject to confirmation): 1 Scott Moran 267pts; 2 Roger Moran 224; 3 Trevor Willis 210; 4 Wallace Menzies 207; 5 Lee Adams 152; 6 Tom New 151; etc.

The Hillclimb and Sprint Association  and the Ginetta Owners Club are pleased to announce that the GOC Speed Championship, which began in 1994, will continue as the GOC Speed Challenge within the HSA Speed Championship from 2012.

Members of the GOC, driving Ginetta cars will compete in their applicable HSA class and the top three competitors in the overall standings will receive the same trophies that have been awarded since 1994, thus ensuring a continuation of the history of this popular competition.

 Chris Bennett, HSA Chairman, welcoming the news, noted that “GOC members will now be able to compete for their own trophies as well as HSA Class and overall awards and that HSA members will see some interesting new competitors in their Championship”. 

Nick Stephens (GOC Club Competition Secretary) said that "The news has been well received by Ginetta Competitors some of whom are already doing the HSA Championship."

It was honours even for Lee Adams and Scott Moran last weekend as they took a win apiece at Doune’s British Hillclimb counter and Adams (pictured) just failed to make it four wins in a row at his home venue. In the second run-off, the 2011 champion elect pipped the fleet GWR Raptor, which was running intermediate tyres all weekend in changeable conditions, for his eighteenth win of the year. Wallace Menzies chased home his Scots compatriot on a damp track in the opening shootout and followed the two leaders on his second, building his challenge to championship third place man Trevor Willis. He now lies just three points adrift of the OMS-Powertec driver going into the final two rounds at Loton Park this weekend.

            As in June at the Scottish hill, Willis had a character-building weekend starting with a breakdown on the motorway on Friday afternoon. After his road car and trailer had been recovered to the venue, his opening run-off shot ended out of the points after a wild moment and a subsequent engine problem. He recovered to sixth place in the second stanza and while he still has an outside chance of catching Roger Moran for second overall at Loton this weekend unless Moran repeats his June form at his local hill, when Willis will need two good results to avoid losing third place on the table to the on-form Menzies.

British Championship standings after Doune: 1 Scott Moran 262pts; 2 Roger Moran 215; Trevor Willis 202; 4 Wallace Menzies 199; 5 Tom New 144; 6 Lee Adams 128; etc.

As the weather fluctuated from drizzle to sunshine during the opening run-off at Prescott’s Gold Cup meeting, Wallace Menzies (seen here with DJ Racecars’ Del Quigley – pic Rich Danby) took his third British hillclimb win in the DJ Firestorm. Making it a one/two for the Peak District-based company young Alex Summers, who had scored their first ever win at Shelsley Walsh in June before Menzies went on to make it a DJ double on the day, ran a strong second in his supercharged Firehawk. Harewood ace Richard Spedding kept up the bike engined challenge with third place in his Force-Hayabusa, but top qualifier Lee Adams slipped out of the points after a lurid moment at Ettores in his Raptor.

            In dry run-off conditions in the afternoon, 2011 British champion elect Scott Moran set the day’s outright pace of 36.50 after qualifying top with a new class record. Over six tenths away, Menzies got closest while Adams recovered for a strong third place ahead of Roger Moran. On his last event in the Gould-Judd before a move back to the circuits in historic sports car racing, Chris Merrick bowed out in style by qualifying second, then trailed the leading quartet as the pace hotted up in the run-off.

            After breaking his own class record in practice, Rob Stevens spun out in his  self-developed, supercharged sports libre Force-Hayabusa on his one chance to do it officially on a dry track on Sunday. But he’d already done enough during the year to win the prestigious Prescott Gold Cup, awarded annually for the best improvement over target times at the Cotswold hill.

British Championship standings: 1 Scott Moran 256; 2 Roger Moran 210; 3 Trevor Willis 197; 4 Wallace Menzies 182; 5 Tom New 131; 6 Chris Merrick 121; etc.

Cornish motorsport & in particular the Newquay Auto Club Ltd has received a major blow to the promotion of motorsport in Cornwall for 2012.

The NAC Ltd which was founded in 1914 and has promoted sprint racing at the Old Technical Site at St Eval Airfield for circa 45 years, has been advised by the Ministry of Defence that they are undertaking preliminary disposal actions within certain areas of St Eval, which includes the area used by the NAC Ltd. This means the facility will not be available for the NAC’s 2012 season.

The sprint events held at St Eval are the life line for the NAC Ltd and allows the Club to promote events such as the Classic Tour of Cornwall in aid of local charities.

The Club is determined to make their final event at St Eval on the 25th September 2011 a great success and are already actively seeking a new venue for the continued promotion of speed events in Cornwall.

With two more wins at Gurston Down on Bank Holiday Sunday, Scott Moran (pic - John Hayward) secured his third British Hillclimb title with six rounds in hand. Despite just failing to match his 25.56 qualifier for the second run-off, which set FTD, broke the class record and lay just fourteen hundredths away from Martin Groves’ outright hill standard, Scott’s half-second margin over his father Roger in the final shoot-out clinched the title, with the dominant yellow Gould-NME once again speeding to a family one/two in each run-off.

Whether the same will apply to the overall Championship outcome will depend on Trevor Willis. His OMS-Powertec is traditionally outgunned by the bigger V8s on Gurston’s power slopes, particularly on the run to the finish, but Willis pulled out all the stops for a fine third place in the afternoon and with fewer scores to drop than current runner-up Moran Sr, will challenge hard for the series second place at the remaining events at Prescott, Doune and Loton Park.

Wallace Menzies’ two fourth places at Gurston kept the spectacular DJ Firestorm in a fairly safe fourth place on the table ahead of Tom New, while despite Lee Adams working wonders to get the tiny bike-engined Raptor in each of the two V8-dominated run-offs, a single point score saw the Scot just edged out of the top six by Chris Merrick's Gould-Judd.

British Championship standings: 1 Scott Moran 252pts; 2 Roger Moran 202; 3 Trevor Willis 178; 4 Wallace Menzies 156; 5 Tom New 121; 6 Chris Merrick 112; etc.

On a day when class records tumbled, Shelsley Walsh’s hill record remained intact. Scott Moran’s (pictured) 23.31 FTD, set in qualifying for the second run-off, may have been threequarters of a second away from Martin Groves’ 2008 hill standard, but that didn’t stop him from adding two more run-off victories to his already impressive total as he continued his relentless progress towards a third British Hillclimb title.

Tom New maintained his recent run of form with two second places in the Gould-Judd, the first of them tying with Trevor Willis for second FTD. Amazingly, this was the third time since Harewood last month that Willis had tied for the runner-up spot in a British run-off. Still challenging hard for second overall on the championship table, the OMS driver’s deficit to Roger Moran is now just eleven points and with eight rounds still to run, dropped scores could prove crucial.

On a dry, warm day, Lee Adams did well to make the cut each time in the bike engined Raptor on the steep power slopes of Shelsley and even tied for seventh place with John Bradburn’s potent Gould V8 in the second shoot-out. But after his fine performance on the day, New elbowed past the Scot to take over fifth place on the championship table. However his next target, Wallace Menzies, is still 36 points clear after taking a fourth and a third at Shelsley in the spectacular DJ Firestorm.

British Championship standings: 1 Scott Moran 232pts; 2 Roger Moran 184; 3 Trevor Willis 173; 4 Wallace Menzies 149; 5 Tom New 113; 6 Lee Adams 109; etc.

As if on a pre-arranged cue, drizzle closed in just before the end of each of the two British Hillclimb run-offs at the fast Craigantlet road course on the outskirts of Belfast. Last to run each time, top qualifier Scott Moran, the current series leader, was twice faced with a wet track and for the second time this season his father Roger (pictured), who had set a storming pace each time on a dry track, took a double run-off win in their shared Gould-NME. The 1997 British champion closed the gap to his son on the championship table, but with a 40 point advantage, that third British title is still firmly in Scott’s sights.

            Both Trevor Willis and Wallace Menzies, third and fourth in the series, took it in turns to qualify second fastest and thus fall foul of the deteriorating weather conditions, swapping second place finishes. Fifth on the table, Lee Adams flew on his first visit to Craigantlet and traded mid-field places with Will Hall in their bike-engined 1600s. The top five championship places remain unchanged, but with Tom New outpacing his co-driver Chris Merrick each time, the Gould-Judd pairing are now tied in sixth place on the championship table.

British Championship standings: 1 Scott Moran 212pts; 2 Roger Moran 172; 3 Trevor Willis 157; Wallace Menzies 134; Lee Adams 103; 5= Tom New and Chris Merrick 95; etc.

Bringing his 2011 win tally firmly into double figures, Scott Moran increased his British Hillclimb Championship lead over his father Roger to a healthy 46 points with a double win at Wiscombe Park. For the first time since the BHC’s twin run-off system was introduced in 1999, the order of the top seven finishers was identical in each run-off.

In second place each time, Wiscombe ace Trevor Willis closed in on Moran Sr on the championship table, despite a lurid moment at the Gate during the second run-off. Boosted by his win in Guernsey a fortnight earlier, Tom New scored two third places on the tight, tree-lined Devon hill and is on the verge of regaining a top six series placing, three points adrift of Gould-Judd co-driver Chris Merrick. Wallace Menzies maintained his championship challenge with fourth in each run-off. The bike-engined challenge was upheld by Scots compatriot Lee Adams, really flying on his first visit to the hill. After breaking the 1600 racing class record on consecutive runs, he took the Raptor to fifth place run-off finishes ahead of Roger Moran and Will Hall.

Championship standings: 1 Scott Moran 198pts; 2 Roger Moran 152; 3 Trevor Willis 141; 4 Wallace Menzies 117; 5 Lee Adams 96; 6 Chris Merrick 85; etc.

With another win at the opening Le Val des Terres British Hillclimb run-off in Guernsey, Scott Moran continued on his relentless way towards a third title. But the sensation of the day was Tom New’s victory on a drying track in the closing shootout. The Southampton-based driver (pictured) was delighted with a second career win, his first having come back in 2004, driving his V6 Pilbeam-Rover K at Gurston Down. More poignantly, it was in that same car, at that same Guernsey meeting nine years ago, that the legendary Roy Lane scored his last ever victory.

            On a roll after his Bouley Bay win two days earlier, Wallace Menzies continued to rack up strong championship points with second place each time ahead of Roger Moran. The Scot closed the gap behind Trevor Willis, whose fourth place in the morning was his only score after spinning the OMS out of the second shoot-out just after Terres House. His earlier finishing position was taken by local man Darren Warwick, who scored his first British points in the ex.Haimes Dallara-Vauxhall.

British Championship standings after Le Val des Terres: 1 Scott Moran 178pts; 2 Roger Moran 142; 3 Trevor Willis 123; 4 Wallace Menzies 103; 5 Lee Adams 84; 6 Chris Merrick 82; etc.

Scott Moran set the outright pace with a 38.35 sec opening run-off win at Bouley Bay, the opening leg of the British Hillclimb Championship’s annual Channel Islands trip. He extended his series lead by a single point over his father Roger, despite only finishing fifth to Roger’s fourth place in the afternoon shoot-out.

Most consistent runner on the day was Bouley record-holder Trevor Willis. Runner-up each time, for the second time in consecutive British events the OMS 25 driver tied for the placing in the afternoon shoot-out, this time with Will Hall. But it was Wallace Menzies (pictured) that grabbed a narrow five hundredths advantage over Willis to take the afternoon win, the second of his career in the DJ Firestorm.

With Lee Adams not making the long trip from Aberdeen, Menzies took over fourth place on the championship table by a single point from his Scots compatriot and now looks set to extend his advantage when the circus moves to Guernsey’s tortuous Le Val des Terres road course on Saturday.

Championship standings after Bouley Bay: 1 Scott Moran 162pts; 2 Roger Moran 126; 3 Trevor Willis 116; 4 Wallace Menzies 85; 5 Lee Adams 84; 6 Chris Merrick 82; etc.

The Motor Sports Association has appointed the British Automobile Racing Club as the promoter of the MSA British Hill Climb Championship and Hill Climb Leaders Championship for a period of five years from 1 January 2012.

The appointment follows an open tender process that was launched by the MSA earlier this year. BARC will take over from Speed Championships Ltd, which has run both Hill Climb championships successfully for many years.

BARC Chief Executive, Dennis Carter, said: ‘We are delighted to have been given this opportunity. We have been involved in hill climbing for more years than I can imagine, and of course operated the hill climbs at Gurston Down and Harewood Hill.

‘When Tony Fletcher first suggested that we should apply to run the championships when he decided to retire we were flattered to say the least; Tony has done a great job in keeping the championships strong and healthy and will be a hard act to follow.’

MSA General Secretary Rob Jones said: ‘The MSA was delighted by BARC’s interest and we are confident that the championships will flourish under fresh management. We must thank Speed Championships’ Tony Fletcher for his great contribution to the championships’ ongoing success, and would like it noted that he has been involved in their organisation for over 50 years.’

For the first time since Gurston Down at the end of May, Scott Moran was back on the winner’s rostrum with two straight wins at Harewood’s British hillclimb meeting last weekend. Setting FTD in the afternoon run-off, he pulled out a half-second margin over day-long rivals Trevor Willis and Roger Moran as they tied for the runner-up spot on a hot day when elevated tyre temperatures were causing problems for many competitors.

But in the morning run-off, after Willis had stolen a narrow edge over Moran Sr for second place, Scott’s victory margin of two tenths had been enough to book a top place in the lineup of hillclimb greats as he became the third most successful driver in the history of the Championship. He finally overtook 5-times champion Martyn Griffiths’ total of 67 run-off wins and of the 87 drivers that have won British hillclimb rounds since 1947, only Roy Lane (90 wins) and Martin Groves (104) have exceeded Scott Moran’s current total of 69.

Full report in Speedscene 165.

British Championship standings: 1 Scott Moran 146; 2 Roger Moran 111; 3 Trevor Willis 98; 4 Lee Adams 84; 5 Chris Merrick 70; 6 Wallace Menzies 69; etc.

At the third wet British Hillclimb meeting in as many weekends, a stunning performance on his home hill by Lee Adams (pic – Jerry Sturman) defeated a strong V8 challenge, taking both run-off victories at Doune ahead of Scott Moran. Now with three wins on his slate, the driver of Graeme Wight Jr’s bike engined GWR Raptor becomes 2011’s second most prolific round winner so far. Championship leader Moran has six and despite not having won a round since Gurston in May, with a string of second place finishes he retains a comfortable series lead. Wallace Menzies upheld local honour with the screaming DJ Firestorm V8 to chase home Trevor Willis for fourth place before lunch. Then when Willis’s OMS-Powertec clipped a wall and punctured a tyre in the second run-off, Menzies took over third place. It had been a character-building weekend for Willis, who had wiped off two corners at virtually the same spot during Saturday practice and, with the aid of OMS constructor Steve Owen, repaired the car for Sunday’s event.

            Full report and pictures in Speedscene 164

Championship standings after Doune: 1 Scott Moran 126pts; 2 Roger Moran 94; 3 Trevor Willis 80; 4 Lee Adams 72; 5 Chris Merrick 62; 6 Wallace Menzies 57; etc.

British Championship standings: 1 Scott Moran 108pts; 2 Roger Moran 82; 3 Trevor Willis 72; 4 Chris Merrick 54; 5 Lee Adams 52; 6= Eynon Price and Wallace Menzies 42; etc.

British Championship standings: 1 Scott Moran 90pts; 2 Trevor Willis 72; 3 Roger Moran 62; 4 Lee Adams 52; 5 Chris Merrick 45; 6 Wallace Menzies 39; etc.

Following their success last year 7Oaks Motor Club repeated their sprint weekend at Crystal Palace on the 29^th and 30^th of May. Once again conditions were dry and warm and several HSA members were present, the HSA being one of the invited clubs.

In front of large crowd on both days the Stohr DSR was the car to beat, BTD on both days, Sunday and John Hewatt on 35.47sec, Monday and Mike Field in the seat on 35.85sec, slightly slower than 2010 although the finish line was closer to North Tower for safety reasons with the start line repositioned accordingly.

Large crowds of spectators were present on both days and the Mayor of Bromley presented the prizes on Monday, the cooperation of Bromley vital to the continued success of this venue. It will certainly be happening again in 2012 so make a note in your diary.

Launceston’s Terry Graves, in his immaculate Gould GR37, took Fastest Time of the Day on Saturday at Wiscombe Park with an electrifying first run of 37.72 seconds, a victory which compensated for his narrow defeat at the hands of Newton Abbot’s Tony Wiltshire at last year’s event.  And, just like Wiltshire in 2010, his first run was never beaten, despite the best efforts of fellow-class runners John Forsyth/Andrew Forsyth, and Rodney Thorne/Colin Pook, both sharing 3.5 litre Pilbeam MP58 machines. The real threat to Graves, however, came from the winner of the up-to-1600cc class, Saltash resident Mike Lee, who also had a stunning first run to stop the clock on 37.94 seconds, only just over 2/10ths adrift of the eventual winner.  Despite giving away almost 2 litres in engine capacity, Lee’s first time was over a tenth faster than Graves’ second run but as both were slower at the second time of asking the winner was settled by mid-afternoon.  In the 1100cc racing car category, Honiton’s Dave Gardner propelled his 998 cc Empire 001 to a time of 40.31 and then bettered that with a sub-40 second run in 39.68 seconds to take the class win.

 Sponsored by the local partnership of The Tipton Garage and Alansway Body Repairs, Torbay Motor Club’s Wiscombe event was again held in dry, bright and mostly sunny conditions, although cooler conditions later in the afternoon contributed to no fewer than nine classes being decided by the first timed runs.

 Other Torbay Motor Club members to take home class awards were Westward Ho! resident Andy Cawsey (2nd in B3), Ian Yeo from Willand (2^nd in C4) and Whimple’s Ben Stephenson (2^nd in E1).  

 12 contenders in the TVR Sports Car Club speed championship battled hard all day, the winner’s spoils eventually going to Frome’s Mark Everett (TVR Chimaera) on handicap with a time of 47.51.

On one of those days when changing weather conditions occasionally upset the formbook in qualifying, a delighted Lee Adams (pic – Rich Danby) scored the first British Championship win for Graeme Wight Jr’s GWR Raptor in an opening run-off at Harewood on Sunday in which no less than seven 1600cc single-seaters made the cut. On a damp but slowly drying track for the opening run-off, even early runners Roger and Scott Moran could do little about the flying bike engined cars as Harewood ace Richard Spedding ran second ahead of Eynon Price and Jos Goodyear, Saturday’s ‘clubbie’ winner Goodyear heading Moran Sr by nearly half a second. Better weather later on saw the V8s back in the fray for the second shoot-out and the status quo returned with a Moran one/two, Scott from Roger, but on the best day of his British career, the flying Spedding took his Force-Hayabusa to third place, demoting even Trevor Willis (who had spun out of qualifying for the opening run-off) by five hundredths. Another good result for John Bradburn left the mighty Gould-HB fifth ahead of a tie between Will Hall and Adams, after the Scot had run wide at Farmhouse.

British Championship standings after Harewood: 1 Scott Moran 53pts; 2= Roger Moran and Trevor Willis 42; 4 Lee Adams 39; 5 Richard Spedding 25; 6 Chris Merrick 24

Following the new car’s double run-off win at Shelsley’s Midland meeting the previous weekend, Trevor Willis (pic - Rich Danby) scored the first British Championship win for his 3.2-litre OMS-Powertec 25 in the opening run-off at Barbon Manor on Saturday. Scott Moran pushed him hard all day in the Gould-NME, finally snatching victory and FTD from Willis in the second run-off with a noticeably on-the-edge closing shot. Never far away, Roger Moran shadowed the duelling pair each time. The talking point of Prescott’s opening rounds, the strong challenge to the V8s from the 1600cc bike powered brigade was upheld as Will Hall’s Force and Prescott hero Lee Adams, a newcomer to the fast Barbon hill in his GWR Raptor, pegged back Chris Merrick and Tom New to sixth and seventh. The Gould-Judd duo found more in the second shoot-out, turning the tables on the 1600s as Eynon Price’s  Force edged out Hall to take sixth place. After a determined attack on the notorious Lafone Hairpin almost – but not quite – ended in the Armco, Adams failed to qualify.

• 40 places maximum
• Separate sessions for single-seaters
• No competition licence required
• All types of car accepted
• Noise limit 105dbA at 0.5 metre

Having last visited Werrington in 2008 the REIS/HSA Speed Championship returned to this country estate north of Launceston for their May Bank Holiday hillclimb. Ably run for many years by Plymouth Motor Club the hill was partially relaid in 2010 and record times were in the offing. Mixed weather conditions affected both days, in particular racing car times on Saturday when Mike Lee took BTD in his 1600cc OMS on 35.23sec. Sunday and it was business as usual with Terry Graves dry climb of 33.29sec in his Gould GR37 securing not only BTD but a new hill record. HSA contenders were in the honours too, Darren Gumbley (Force PT) and John Burton (Ralt RT3) both 1st in their classes on Sunday, in the 36s. Other HSA contenders were also on the pace with no fewer than 7 new HSA class records and high points scoring across the board. 

British Hillclimb standings after round two: 1 Scott Moran 20pts; 2 Lee Adams 18; 3 Trevor Willis 16; 4 Roger Moran 11; 5 Chris Merrick 9; 6= Richard Spedding and John Bradburn 8; etc.

In a successful appearance by Tiff Needell (pic - Simon McBeath) and Jonathan Smith at Gurston Down, the Fifth Gear presenters made their joint hillclimb debut in the 475bhp Ariel Atom V8 for a forthcoming edition of the Channel 5 motoring programme. ‘What a hoot!’ said former F1 driver and Le Mans veteran Needell. ‘A great day out. Hillclimbing is surely the hardest and friendliest form of motorsport.’ The crew spent a whole day filming at the BARC’s Wiltshire hillclimb and you can see the result on May 13^th, when the show is currently scheduled to air.

The 16^th of April 2011 and the first round of the REIS/HSA Speed Championship at Gurston Down. The weather was unseasonably warm and the dry track produced good driving conditions, so much so that Matt Hillam set a new hill record for class C on 31.90 seconds. All the times may be seen at:

http://tsl-timing.com/sprint/2011/111584.pdf

After serving on the HSA committee for many years in a number of roles including Championship co-ordinator and Chairman. Paul Richardson has decided to step down as President of the association. I am sure that all of you who know Paul will join me in thanking him for his significant contribution and wish him well for the future, which, incidentally should see him and his Clan Crusader make a re-appearance on the tracks very soon.

 As one chapter closes another opens, as they say, and I am delighted to welcome Paul Parker (pictured) as the new President of the HSA. Many of you will know him either through his regular column in Speedscene magazine, as co-ordinator of the British Sprint Championship, as a Clerk of the Course or as an HSA committee member a few years ago. Paul’s extensive knowledge of the sport and wide range of contacts will be of enormous help in shaping the future direction of the association and we look forward to his contribution.

Chris Bennett - Chairman