It Never Rains in Southern California

But it frequently rains at Loton Park hillclimb and this Easter weekend was no exception. The venue saw the opening rounds of Hagley & District's events programme with a double header on Sunday April 8th and Monday 9th at the Shropshire hill.

On Sunday Alex Summers made the most of the cool track conditions putting in a class winning time of 50.92 seconds in the OMS CF he was sharing with his father Richard Summers. His time in the 1000cc Suzuki powered OMS also placed him 3rd fastest time of the day behind the big V8 single seaters of Tom New & Will Hall.

Monday brought tougher competion and more challenging weather conditions with a wet track all day. Despite this, some competitors shone through the gloom. Alex Summers continued his previous days fine performance in the diminuitive powered OMS single seater, to put in a giant killing time of 58.30 seconds in the wet and was one of only 3 drivers to break the minute barrier. He replicated the previous days 3rd FTD behind 2011 British Hillclimb Championship winning father & son team Roger & Scott Moran.

Other OMS drivers had success at Loton Park. Neville Rollason in the OMS 25 1600cc single seater took the class win on both days. Rachel Austin drove the family OMS 2000M with husband Clive at her first hill climb meeting. Sadly the difficult conditions caught Rachel out on her second timed run, leaving some cosmetic damage to Clive's high nose configuration. Though she wasn't alone in having an off track excursion, many experienced drivers had a similar experience.

Date: 9/04/2012 | Author: L.Owen