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SENSATIONAL SHELSLEY FOR ADAM FLEETWOOD
AS OUTRIGHT RECORD FALLS FOUR TIMES IN ONE DAY

In one of the most sensational days ever at the World Famous 99 year old venue, the Shelsley record fell four times as Adam Fleetwood posted another superb maximum score in the Nicholson McLaren British Hill Climb Championship. Three times the record went in less than an hour before the lunch break!

Many were expecting great things of the event but few could have expected to see this including five class records going at the Worcestershire hill. In the morning class runs Adam took a new record of 24.54 in heading the top 12 qualifiers. Shelsley lived up to it's reputation as THE power hill as no 2 litre or smaller cars made the run off despite a number of great efforts. Come the run-off, former Champ Graeme Wight Junior did a super 24.24 stretching the Gould GR51 further than ever before. The cars neck had been well and truly wrung. Within just a few minutes Adam had reduced the record further to a pulsating 24.18. How much lower could the record go? In a few short hours we were to find out. Martin Groves and the excellent value Willem Toet took third and fourth ahead of the chasing pack.

In the afternoon, again no cars outside the unlimited single seaters qualified for the top 12 run-off. Graeme Wight Junior was a surprisingly subdued qualifier starting 5th last in the run-off as his car seemed to understeer out of Top S. Paul Ranson qualified along with co-driver Martin Groves but regrettably neither could run due to a broken rear suspension mount. Roger Fleetwood posted a personal best 24.85 to be second at the conclusion of all the runs. In his run Graeme Wight Jnr escaped uninjured from a dramatic crash towards the Bottom S corner at 129 mph in his Gould, but due to his skill still managed to save further damage, spinning the car after mounting the left hand bank before the corner. As the day rolled to a conclusion the watching spectators might have expected Adam Fleetwood to take it easy in the last run of the day. But no, he went for it in magnificent style to post a 24.08 so tantalisingly close to a 23 second run. Third was Willem Toet with another great performance and evergreen Rob Turnbull fourth. In one day we saw a course record improvement that many might have expected to take 12 months or more. What will August Shelsley bring and how many more hill records can the still young Adam take?

Asked about his morning success, Adam told us "I can normally remember the details of any run, but not this one. I think I had the red mist". Of his short held record, Graeme Wight Junior told us "I kept it straight and going forward. The car was neutral with no understeer or oversteer"

On a day of records Sue Young in the family Del-Lara took the Ladies’ record holder from Sandra Tomlin, and Phil Cooke took a massive full second off the 1600 record in his minimalist Force PC. Your scribe does not know how many other personal best were posted on this day of days but it must be many.

Report by Eddie Walder

Photos above by John Charters

Photos above by Tim Robbins