Mike Endean, MD of Nicholson McLaren who has sponsored the MSA British Hillclimb Championship for the last five years, announced his continued backing for the Championship at Gurston Down’s BHC event in August. In 2009 the series will be supported by Endean’s company MCL Motorhomes, based in North Wales. For more information visit www.mcl-motorhomes.com

After another weekend of misfortune for the Groves/Ranson team, Scott Moran finally secured his first British Hillclimb title at Gurston Down with six rounds in hand.

            Early runner Paul Ranson slid wide over the Karousel rumble strip in the opening run-off, punctured a tyre with a piece of the Gould’s carbonfibre aero diffuser broken in the incident and spun the car at Ashes. Moran stammered up in fifth place with an electrical problem and with a new wheel and tyre in place, penultimate runner Martin Groves set the outright pace, salvaging a reprieve from what was by now his almost inevitable championship fate and handed the win when top qualifier Jos Goodyear slid the Pilbeam-Judd into the Ashes barrier.

            But when Ranson stormed the Gould down into Hollow early in the second shoot-out, the car coasted to a halt with a broken third gear. With no time for repairs, Groves was unable to take his run. Goodyear made amends for his earlier mistake by taking the second British run-off win of his career and FTD in the process. But this fine achievement was a little overshadowed as with just a second place finish and Groves non-starting, a delighted Scott Moran had easily done enough to secure his first British Hillclimb title.

            Scott’s victory also drew a parallel with Graham and Damon Hill in F1 – together with father Roger’s 1997 title, it marked the first father and son championship winning pairing in British hillclimbing.

Championship standings after Gurston Down: 1 Scott Moran, 262pts; 2 Martin Groves 189; 3 Trevor Willis 186; 4 Roger Moran 171; 5 Chris Merrick, 157; 6 Jos Goodyear, 114; etc.

The event also drew a healthy 33 cars and drivers vying for Richard Egger HSA Speed Championship points. With the entry split into two sections for awards purposes, Chris Jones headed the saloon and sports car section with an enterprising couple of runs in the Westfield – rather too enterprising second time up as he spun off into the Karousel infield in an attempt to get on terms with Simonn Braithwaite’s class record, although the win was secure from defending champion John Bradshaw, who took just one run in the Striker. That could have proved Bradshaw's undoing as Neil Duncanson, no stranger to the venue in the big Quattro, closed to within eight hundredths for a strong third place ahead of championship second place man Steve Filkin in the Elise. Wil Ker howled the Mini Turbo home in fifth, while a fine second run by Richard Colwill hauled the Impreza up through the field to complete the top six.

            John Burton and John Opie ruled the racing section in their Steve Owen built Ralt-Vauxhall RT3, Fyrth Crosse finding a massive second run improvement in the historic Ensign to almost get on terms with Opie as he drew clear of Brian Ball’s tiny Force-Yamaha. A fine scrap between Tony Jarvis and Martin Webb in their shared Van Diemen ‘Pterodactyl’ RF 84 was only settled on aggregate in Jarvis’s favour, after both set identical second run times.

            Full report will follow in Speedscene 150.

The weather gods stepped in to move Scott Moran one step further towards a 2008 British Hillclimb title on the very last run of the day at Shelsley Walsh on Sunday.

            After qualifying top with a new class record, Martin Groves went on to set yet another outright Shelsley record, at 22.58s, and win the morning run-off from Moran. He topped the Q-sheets in the afternoon, too, ahead of his rival. But after Moran had edged in front of Groves’ co-driver Paul Ranson, Groves took his final run just as rain started to fall at the top of the hill. Clocking 135mph on the approach, he was a quarter of a second up on Moran to the Esses before he hit the now slippery tarmac. He controlled the slide, but the time was gone and he had to settle for eighth place, leaving Ranson to score a season-best second place – just three hundredths of a second away from his first ever British run-off win.

            Moran’s series lead is now 68 points and although it’s still mathematically possible for Groves to win a fourth successive British title, he will need a string of record-supported wins over the remaining eight rounds with Moran returning a series of mediocre scores, which seems unlikely given the championship leader’s current form.

            Full report in Speedscene 150.

Championship positions after Shelsley Walsh: 1 Scott Moran 247pts; 2 Martin Groves 179; 3 Trevor Willis 172; 4 Roger Moran 155; 5 Chris Merrick 144; 6 Jos Goodyear 104; etc.

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Two straight run-off wins and a new hill record at Craigantlet boosted Scott Moran’s already healthy lead in the Nicholson McLaren British Hillclimb Championship. Rival Martin Groves’ Gould didn’t even turn a wheel in anger, a gearbox output shaft breaking as co-driver Paul Ranson brought the car to the line for its very first practice run on the high speed Belfast road course. With no spare available, the car was sidelined for the day and Groves could only watch from the sidelines as Moran stretched his series lead to 63 points.

Having equalled former champion Adam Fleetwood’s outright record at last year’s event, Scott carved a whole quarter of a second off the mark on the very last run of the day and with ten rounds of this year’s championship remaining, must now be a strong favourite for the 2008 title.

A relatively small group of British contenders made the trip across the Irish Sea and with qualification certain – provided they completed the course and got a time – several drivers scored their first ever British points. Among them was Andrew Platt who, with two fifth place finishes in his 2-litre Dallara, moved straight up to 14^th place on the championship table. Tom New, however, desperate to gain ground on 2-litre rival Paul Haimes in his absence, crashed out of the opening run-off. Sustaining rear wing and gearbox damage, he failed to add to his score.

            Full report in Speedscene 150.

Championship standings after Craigantlet: 1 Scott Moran 228pts; 2 Martin Groves 165; 3 Trevor Willis 157; 4 Roger Moran 144; 5 Chris Merrick 138; 6 Jos Goodyear 95; etc.

Wiscombe Park celebrated its 50^th Anniversary year in style at July’s British Championship meeting. A cavalcade of hillclimb cars and drivers associated with the Devon hillclimb’s history took place at lunchtime, many of which took part in a special class to commemorate the event. Tony Freeman’s picture shows a small cross-section with British champions Chris Cramer, Roger Moran, Tony Marsh and his famous 4WD Marsh Special, together with Martin Groves and Roy Lane, who between them have taken no less than sixteen British titles.

            Groves and Scott Moran took up the cudgels once again in their duel for the 2008 title, with Groves taking his tenth win of the year in the opening run-off to level with Moran’s total. But in the final shoot-out the ever present Trevor Willis, despite bouncing nudging the bank at Sawbench with his OMS-Powertec, split the battling duo as Moran took the win.

            Full report in Speedscene 150 – or check the Woolbridge MC website: www.woolbridge.co.uk

British Championship standings: 1 Scott Moran 207pts; 2 Martin Groves 165; 3 Trevor Willis 143; 4 Roger Moran 127; 5 Chris Merrick 121; 6 Jos Goodyear 95; etc.

            A full review will appear in Speedscene 149.

On a weekend in which conditions alternated between torrential rain and bright sunshine, a limited choice of tyres confined British Hillclimb Championship leader Scott Moran to fifth place in the wet opening run-off at Harewood. Martin Groves continued his championship fightback to take the win, almost a second clear of the hot favourite in the conditions, Trevor Willis.  But when sunshine and a dry track greeted competitors in the afternoon shoot-out Moran approached hill record pace, storming to victory over Groves with the only sub-50sec run of the weekend and maintaining a healthy 40-point series lead over the defending champion.

            Amid a strong contingent of Richard Egger HSA Championship contenders, John Palmer boosted his score with a good run for fourth place in the 2-litre ModProd class and Fyrth Crosse enjoyed his first visit to Harewood as he took on the bike-engined hordes in the 1600 racing class with the Ensign-BDA. The dedicated HSA class enjoyed the best weather towards the end of the meeting, Eric Morrey setting the top pace of the day in the Clan to take the win from Wil Ker (bouncing back after a transmission failure on the Mini turbo in practice) and battling Peugeot duo Chris Flavell and Emerson Kent.

Full report in Speedscene 149.

Championship standings after round 16, Harewood: 1 Scott Moran, 150pts; 2 Martin Groves, 110; 3 Trevor Willis, 103; 4 Roger Moran, 91; 5, Chris Merrick, 84; 6 Paul Ranson, 68; etc.

Trevor Willis boosted his lead in the Avon/BMTR Challenge series with both run-off wins and a 37.71 FTD at Prescott last weekend. Behind the dominant OMS-Powertec driver, this UK Changes Midland Hillclimb Championship event staged a day-long battle between Chris Merrick and Deryk Young that began with a tie for second spot in the opening run-off, before moving up ahead of the absent Scott Moran to take second and third on the Championship table.

            A strong turnout of Richard Egger HSA Speed contenders supported the event, both throughout the classes and in two dedicated classes for B Licence competitors. They figured strongly in the overall results with Gary Hill the outright pacemaker in his OMS-Yamaha, his 43.43 taking outright victory in the 1100cc single-seater class. John Burton and John Opie took on the pre-85 racing cars in their 2-litre Ralt-Vauxhall RT3, with Burton shadowing new Midland Championship leader Peter Cox’s massive Chevron-Rover for second in class, while Opie was eased out of third place by a last run charge from Barrie Lines’ similarly powered Argo JM8. Stuart Cairney took the top Paul Matty Classic Saloon class handicap award in the Imp while in the ultra-competitive 2-litre ModProd sports car class, Chris Jones returned in his Westfield-Vauxhall to take on regular pacemakers Tim Cross and Dave Wilson and finish third in a sixteen-strong class.

            In the equally well supported HSA B Licence road car division, winner Eric Morrey and the Clan outran Championship leader Lyn Padfield’s Lotus Seven by just over half a second, Emerson Kent running a close third in his Peugeot 205 GTi.

            Full report in the next issue of Speedscene.

I am devastated to report that long standing member 1914 and past HSA committee member Malcolm Eaves was fatally injured in a motor accident last night, returning home from Prescott.

Malcolm regularly competed for 52 years and at the highest level. At Prescott on Saturday he spoke with his customary enthusiasm about how much he was relishing competing with his Lotus Elan twincam after a delayed start to his season.

The HSA Committee wish to extend their deepest condolences to Malcolm’s family and friends. Malcolm was the perfect example of those who make hill climbing the sport we love – his thoughtful and courteous presence brightening any paddock with his enthusiasm, understanding, charm, and quiet support. A true gentleman who we all will miss.