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Adam Fleetwood continued his quite amazing string of five outright hill records at five different hills so far this season after taking the Gurston Down record in the afternoon run off. He, of course, leads the title challenge going on to Shelsley Walsh next weekend.

It was a day of ups and downs for all as the rain appeared and then disappeared as quick as it had arrived. This disrupted the first run off with rain falling half way through the 2 litre class runs leaving the bulk of the big class out less for John Chalmers who went up earlier. It was wet, but drying for the first run off and some very new names were in there including George Brown and Will Mason, 17 year old son of Tim Mason...or should that have read Tim Mason is Will Mason’s Dad as Will drove brilliantly to a 5th place even though the steering wheel got knocked out of his hands through the Karosel.

The battle for the win was going to be between Tom New, John Chalmers and Trevor Willis. There were the last three to run with New going first. He set a time that the others couldn’t better and he took his first ever British Championship win. The first win too for the little 2.0 V6 Rover powered Pilbeam. He was greeted by nearly everyone in the paddock as he is a very popular member of the Hill Climb family.

Delays meant the first run off did not finish until 14.04 but after a 30 minute lunch break things rattle through reasonable quickly to make up for lost time. Unfortunately time was lost after Scott Moran crossed the line in his second class run only to (we believe) have the diffuser at the rear of the car detach itself and leave him with no rear down force in an instant. The car spun into the wheat field at the top and came out a mess. Nearly every part of protruding carbon fibre was damaged leaving the car in a very sorry state before Shelsley Walsh next weekend. Scott was OK but a tad shaken after such a high speed off...alas his second mechanical failure on the car this year after a suspension breakage during the test day at Loton Park pre-season left him between a marshal’s post and a tree. The Morans left Gurston with no points between them...Very frustrating.

The second Run Off (Round 10) had the usual runners and riders. Tim Mason drove Roy Lane’s Pilbeam MP58 and scored a fourth to put himself ahead of his son in the points table after Will was ahead after his morning success!

However, with Wight Junior setting a 26.90 on the penultimate run of the day, it was down to Fleetwood to beat that. We all knew he could, but by how much? He’d set a 26.35 in practice, but when he hit 132mph in the Hollow after the start, and then 146mph over the line, it was a 26.02 that took the day. Another record and another score of 11 points for the privilege.

Fleetwood is unstoppable at the moment. His car is the best out there, with Wight Jnr the only guy able to get near him. Wight’s car is 8kgs lighter, but lacking 150bhp (estimate) but can seemingly carry more corner speed. That may be Graeme’s key at Shelsley this weekend. It will be very interesting, but Shelsley has been , and will always be, a power hill.

What no-one can afford is an off at Shelsley with Loton then Doune back to back to back.

Don’t forget to see the NEWS page to catch up with other stories from Gurston Down....

The next round of the Nicholson McLaren British Hill Climb Championship is at Shelsley Walsh next weekend, June 5th 6th, a preview of which is below.....

Report by Toby Moody
Photos Mark Simpson www.cmwi.net and Toby Moody

SHELSLEY WALSH HAS A NEW RECORD ON THE CARDS...

Shelsley Walsh hosts the first of its two National Championship meetings June 5th & 6th with the best of British, if not World, Speed Hill Climbing. 140mph+ racing cars, an Aston Martin DB9, the fastest accelerating road legal car in the UK a 680bhp Audi Quattro, classes of Ferraris and Lotus’, a celebrity driver are all part of Shelsley Walsh in it’s 99th year.

Reigning champion Adam Fleetwood has set outright records at every venue so far this year, so there is an outright record at Shelsley Walsh on the cards, and that is what is exciting about this, the second meeting of the year at Shelsley.

This meeting last year saw Graeme Wight Jnr set 24.56 seconds to be the fastest ever driver up Shelsley, but he’s outgunned this year as Fleetwood gets into his stride with a car that was brand new to him last season, and then had an engine upgrade to 3.5 litres over the winter. That leaves two time champion Wight Jnr still with his 2.5 litre V6 Gould (similar chassis to Fleetwood) and a package that is having to be driven exceptionally hard to keep up with the extra power of the Fleetwood car. A conundrum. Wight Jnr managed to outgun Fleetwood at Prescott, and get under the record at Harewood, but Fleetwood went quicker. Wight Jnr is building his own V10 powered car in Scotland and expects it to be out sometime soon, but he’ll not have enough time to set it up against the sorted Gould GR55 of Fleetwood. Can that time of 24.56 seconds be reduced? If its dry, you’d better watch very closely as Fleetwood has an estimated extra 150bhp under his right foot over Wight Jnr’s similar Gould with a 2.5 litre V6 engine as opposed to the 3.5 litre V8 of Fleetwood.

Elsewhere in the Top 12 Run Off Martin Groves goes well at Shelsley in the older, heavier Gould GR37. The Pilbeam MP88 of Scott and Roger Moran has had a new V8 engine over the winter, plus aerodynamical additions, whilst the sister Pilbeam of Willem Toet is shared with Ben Butterfield who is will build his speed whilst learning the car.

We welcome an excellent entry elsewhere in the programme. The intra class Midland Hill Climb Championship levels the playing field between cars, the Ferrari Hill Climb Championship and the Lotus Championship host one make battles. However, our star class of the day is for Aston Martins featuring some very rare machinery including actor Rowan Atkinson’s V8 Zagato. Having driven in many high profile events all over the globe, we welcome yet another star driver to the slopes of Shelsley.

Elsewhere we have the brand new Aston Martin DB9 on show courtesy of Stratstone of Mayfair. This is a truly stunning motor car that will be seen by many for the very first time at Shelsley Walsh...unless you were in Monaco, Cannes or St Tropez recently...

Don’t forget we’ve got a lot on within the MAC at the moment. We are continuing to raise money to keep the hill climb going for us all to enjoy, Currently we are at £550k which considering 12 months ago we had next to nothing is a credit to all involved. We have launched Shelsley Walsh Ltd giving you the opportunity to purchase shares in this historic motor sport venue.

WHEN & HOW MUCH?
Practice Saturday £6.
Race Day Sunday £12.
Action starts 10am.

WHERE?
Shelsley Walsh is 10 miles WEST of Worcester, just follow the yellow AA signs.
Map also on the web site.

Web : http://www.shelsley-walsh.co.uk