Hallelujah

Trevor Willis is the 2012 Avon Tyres MSA British Hillclimb Champion.

After a season long battle with Scott Moran the championship title was decided at Loton Park Hillclimb in Shropshire this weekend. The atmosphere was charged with excitement at the prospect of these two worthy winners going head to head. Scott had it all to play for: to take the title he needed to win both run offs & set a new hill record. Trevor needed to finish ahead of Scott to consolidate his point's advantage over the second placed driver & clinch the title.

As the spectators started arriving there were hillclimb faces past & present in the crowd, all coming to enjoy the show down. Trevor and OMS Racing were poised to write their names in the history book and the crowds were coming to see whether they would be successful. If successful, Trevor would join the prestigious list of previous champions starting in 1947 with Raymond Mays followed by the most successful hillclimbers in the history of the sport over the past 64 years. For OMS Racings' Steve & Lynn Owen they would be in the company of an elite group of race car manufacturers that have constructed hillclimb championship winning cars.

The weather forecast indicated rain at some point during the afternoon, so both drivers knew they had to make the morning run off count. Conditions were dry and cool for class runs, with most drivers running times slower than their times at the June meeting. Jos Goodyear & Lee Adams ran in the 46 & 47's then Alex Summers dropped into the 45's: Scott & Trevor took note. Trevor ran first in the class setting a time of 44.71 Scott followed but his time of 45.13 was only good enough for second fastest qualifier: advantage Trevor.

In the first of the Avon Tyres MSA British Hillclimb Championship run offs Roger Moran set the benchmark time of 44.90 running in the share drive batch of cars. As these cars returned to the paddock Scott & Trevor would have to lower this time if they were to win this run off. One by one the cars took to the hill with Jos Goodyear lowering the target time to 44.76 Then the moment everyone had been waiting for Scott came to the line, he needed to win this run off to keep his championship hope alive. At Triangle he was 2/10ths down on the Raptor of Jos Goodyear, but the powerful NME engine would out perform the 1600cc Hayabusa on Cedar Straight. Scott powered the Gould round Museum to the finish in 44.45 seconds, and took the lead from Jos.

With only Trevor to run everyone waited in anticipation. The Powertec engine fired up in the paddock & the crowd could hear Trevor warming the tyres before pulling up to the line and then he was off. His split time at Triangle was 4/100ths slower than Scott; could the less powerful Powertec engine & OMS chassis combination outperform the Gould NME on the upper reaches of the hill? As Trevor rounded Museum the commentary said he had missed a gear, would it have lost Trevor any time? Everyone held their breathe, the clock stopped on 44.29 seconds to take the run off win & the 2012 British Hillclimb Championship title.

Congratulations Trevor on winning your first British Hillclimb Championship title and the first constructor title for OMS Racing.

To see the final championship positions and points table please click here and to see the times from the meeting click here.

Date: 1/10/2012 | Author: L.Owen