Apparently Nothin'
Hill climbers gathered at Shelsley Walsh for the MAC season opener; the BMTR Tyres Midland Hill Climb Championship meeting. A full competitor entry, warm sunshine and crowds of spectators enjoyed a spring weekend of motorsport at the Worcestershire hill.
As at Prescott the previous weekend, there were a number of new drivers in OMS cars along with seasoned regulars. Charles Williams and Tim Cross had another weekend of close competition in the 1000cc OMS SC1 sports car, finishing first and second in their class with Tim once again squeezing out the cars' owner Charles.
Racing cars up to 1100cc should have seen the arrival of the new Suzuki powered OMS 28 of Simon Andrews and Bernard Kevill. But with the car still being mapped on the dyno on Saturday, Simon had a share drive with Lindsay Summers in the Force whilst Bernie settled for spectating. Anne and Mark Goodyear in their 1100cc Hornet were also non-starters following a delay with their engine.
Forrest Eyles has acquired the OMS CF1100 formerly owned by the Brown family and more recently Scottish competitor Les Campbell. His time of 29.67 seconds on a first visit to the hill with the car placed him thirteenth out of 21 cars in the 1100cc class; with 0.67 seconds separating nine cars in class positions 5 to 13. Derek Sweeney, another new OMS driver in a OMS 2000M was also in the close 0.67 second battle for class positions. He finished sixth in class to snatch the last of the Midland Championship class points scoring positions.
The form book was upset in the 1600cc racing car class when the ex-Lee Adams all conquering Raptor now in the capable hands of Steve Day, was beaten into second place by OMS 28 driver and constructor Steve Owen. Steve's time of 25.91 was the only 25 second run in the class, with Steve Day missing the cut by 16/100ths. These two drivers comfortably qualified for both of the Top Ten run offs and once again Steve Owen had the upper hand, finishing 4th in both run offs ahead of Steve Day. Lynn Owen took fourth in class in the OMS 28, whilst Steve Spiers was unable to improve on his morning run when the CF04 broke a drive shaft at the start line on his second timed run.
OMS 28 Steve Owen - photo by ZIP photography
Two litre racing car runners Andy McBeath and Neville Rollason were both retirees following Saturday's practice session. Andy suffered from a loss of power in the supercharged OMS 25. His concerns that the problem was significant were dispelled when the source of the power loss was later traced to a detached boost sensing pipe. The new OMS 28S of Nev Rollason completed two practice climbs but was troubled on each run by gear selection difficulties. Following a thorough systems check a faulty gear position sensor in the gear box was identified as the cause and the car was retired. It was unable to detect first and sixth gears and therefore the electronics would not allow the pneumatic gear shift to select the gears. The car is going back to OMS to replace the sensor and will be at the Harewood club meeting on 10th May and on 11th May for the MSA British Hillclimb Championship rounds at Harewood.
Trevor Willis in the OMS 28 V8 was toppled from his usual Fastest Time of Day position at this meeting by Will Hall. The Force WH has undergone development work during the winter months and is now delivering better overall performance than in previous seasons. Trevor won the unlimited capacity racing car class from Will with a time of 23.87 to Will's 23.98 seconds. But in the run offs Will just had the edge on Trevor, winning both run offs and setting Fastest Time of Day in run off 2 with a 23.73 a mere 1/100th of a second ahead of Trevor on 23.74 seconds.
To view individual times and splits please click here.
Date: 5/05/2014 | Author: L. Owen