Beyond the Sea
The annual sojourn for the British Hillclimb Championship took place on 14th and 16th July to the Channel Islands. Bouley Bay on the rugged northern coast of Jersey was the first stop for those who ventured over seas.
The course uses a section of public road leading from the small harbour at Bouley Bay and the Waters Edge Hotel where many competitors stay, to the public car park further up the hill. The start line and paddock are in front of the hotel and back onto the sea wall. This has to be the most cramped paddock of any British venue, all single seaters have to turn around and reverse from the first corner 'Cafe' back down into the paddock, as there is no room to manouver once all the cars return to the pits.This year the paddock was marshalled by OMS drivers Catherine and Steve Elliott who did a great job to keep the meeting running smoothly.
Bathed in warm sunshine all day, track conditions at Bouley Bay were good. Jerseyman Jason Mourant set a new class record with his OMS CF07 1300cc supercharged Hayabusa powered car in the up to 2 litre single seater class, knocking over 1/10th of a second from Paul Haimes record set in 2009. This run also qualified Jason for the first of the Top 12 run offs where he finished in 9th place.
Jerseymen Richard Twinham and Colin Le Galle put in good times with their OMS 2000M 1100, Richard finished 2nd in the class. James Shorto rounded out the top three in his OMS P/R that he shares with Ian Shorto.
In the 1600cc single seater class Neville Rollason shared his OMS 25 with OMS constructor Steve Owen: both set personal best times. Sarah Gaudion travelled over from Guernsey with the ex Steve & Lynn Owen OMS CF08 which she was sharing with Lynn at the meeting. Now fitted with a standard 1300cc Hayabusa, Sarah set a personal best time of 43.83 seconds.
Trevor Willis repeated his run off finishing positions from Harewood a few weeks earlier. In run off one he finished 2nd overall and in the next run off he was 2nd again, this time he shared the place and the points with Will Hall who set exactly the same time as Trevor.
Many competitors were travelling back to Guernsey on the Condor that evening & the sailing was earlier than expected, so many had to rush down to the port immediately after the event finished.The club did a great job of running the meeting ahead of time by starting earlier than usual and not stopping for lunch, resulting in an early finish. Those who remained for the prize giving were welcomed onto the terrace of the Waters Edge Hotel where awards were presented.
Date: 18/07/2011 | Author: L.Owen