Oh Boy
Shelsley Walsh Hill Climb in Worcestershire was the venue for the latest rounds of the BMTR Tyres Midland Hillclimb Championship and the Avon Tyres/TTC Group MSA British Hillclimb and Hillclimb Leaders Championships, over the weekend of 16 and 17th August.
On the Sunday there was a roll call of 10 British Hillclimb Champions including 2012 champion Trevor Willis and three British Hillclimb Championship winning constructors: Mike Pilbeam, Steve Owen and 1989 British Champion and constructor Ray Rowan. They assembled in the paddock for photographs to mark the occasion.
Photograph by Tony Adams
OMS Racing were represented in each of the racing car classes, ranging from the smallest capacity 600cc Hornet single seater through to the 3.2 litre V8 powered OMS 28. Fourteen OMS drivers all pitted their skills on this challenging historic hill, where horsepower and confidence are king.
It was good to see four drivers in the class for modern racing cars up to 600cc and enough for a stand-alone class. Unlike at recent meetings where these cars have been amalgamated with the larger capacity 1100cc racing cars due to their dwindling numbers in recent years. The modern 500cc cars as the class used to be, were made very popular in the 1980's by John Corbyn's Jedi marque and OMS Racing, along with a number of other 500cc specialists. Then with the availability of four stroke 600cc engines the championship class changed to 600cc racing cars. Gary Hill and Harry Pick set the class pace throughout the weekend in the Hornet, with Harry seizing a decisive first ever national class win with a most impressive time of 29.53 seconds. Well done Harry.
The shift in preference for larger capacity bike engine cars is clearly demonstrated by the number of entries in the 1100cc racing car class: 24 in total, the largest class at the meeting. Forrest Eyles in the OMS CF ran the hill in 29.18 seconds whilst Derek Sweeney's best time was a 28.06 in his OMS 2000M. Bernie Kevill was delighted with his weekend, setting a new personal best time at Shelsley of 28.17 seconds in the OMS 28 he shares with Simon Andrews. Simon finished 5th in class with his best time over the weekend of 27.80 his first 27 second run in the new car. Annie and Mark Goodyear were still completing modifications to their OMS Hornet on Saturday morning and Mark went on to take third in class with his best run of 27.73 seconds.
Of the ten 1600cc racing cars in class, four were OMS cars. John Mackenzie made the trip from Scotland for his first Shelsley meeting driving his OMS 2000M this season. His best time of 27.53 seconds also bagged him fifth in class. Steve Spiers had a chain failure on his second timed run in the OMS CF04 so was unable to improve on his first run time of 30.24 seconds. Lynn and Steve Owen didn't match their times from the previous Shelsley meeting in June; Lynn's fastest climb was 27.93 from the first timed runs placing her sixth in class, whilst Steve ran a 26.00 dead to take second in class.
Only one OMS driver ran in the 2.0 litre racing car class: Neville Rollason in his OMS 28 1300s. Nev chipped away at his time on each run, getting down to 26.46 seconds and just missing out on a top six placing for championship points by 0.15 of a second.
The final OMS driver at the meeting was Trevor Willis in his OMS 28 V8. Trevor's first class run time of 23.74 seconds qualified him fourth fastest for the first British Hillclimb Top 12 Run Off. He improved on this time in the run off stopping the clock at 23.48 seconds, 0.90 off the outright hill record of 22.58 but his time was only good enough to take fifth place. When qualifying for the second run off light rain started to fall as the final runners were about to climb the hil and Trevor just scraped into the run off as twelfth and last qualifier. The track dried for the run off but Trevor was slower than earlier in the day at 23.55 seconds and again finished fifth. This weekend he lost valuable points to British Championship leader Scott Moran who now has a firm grip on the lead as the championship moves into the final rounds where drop scores will be counted.
Oh boy what a weekend! Harry Pick took his first national meeting class win, Bernie Kevill set a new Shelsley personal best and there were top six class placing’s for eight OMS drivers.
To view the results from the meeting click here.
To view championship tables click here.
To view in car footage of Harry Pick and Gary Hill's fastest climbs in the 600cc Hornet click here.
Date: 18/08/2014 | Author: L.Owen