Championship Challenge shines at Shelsley Walsh

In the hands of current Championship leader, Alex Summers, from Tenbury Wells, the car set a time of 23.05 seconds securing his victory in the first national round as well as setting Best Time of Day.

Reigning and five-times British Champion, Scott Moran, of Ludlow, shares the car with Summers and ensured a clean sweep for the team by then taking the second round run-off with a time of 23.14 seconds.

Scott commented: "The car goes really well, is highly competitive even against the latest offerings and is perfectly set up, so it's great to see Alex leading the table and enjoying himself so much, although I still can't quite believe that he was only 14-years-old when I started driving it!"

Perfect conditions throughout the weekend, run in the usual smooth and efficient manner, together with huge crowds of spectators added to the excitement of what is accepted as the premier event in the hill climbing calendar.

Motoring journalist David Finlay is testing a variety of manufacturers' cars on hill climbs around the UK this year and turned a few heads when he arrived at Shelsley Walsh in a rather large and unwieldy Audi S8. David commented: "There was nobody more surprised about this car than us by the end of the weekend because what started off as the joke of the paddock ended up with everybody wanting one! The Audi S8, looking very out of place, simply flew up the course and posted two times of 33 seconds, which proved to be very competitive in our class and impressed all of our fellow drivers."

In the class competitions, local Worcester driver Paul Jones cemented his lead in the Under 2 litre road-going class with an emphatic win and personal best time of 34.18 seconds in his Lotus Elise, while Mark Spencer set a new record in the over 2 litre class in his Porsche 996 Turbo.

Mark, from Winchester, said: "It was fantastic to set a new class record in front of the huge crowds at such a prestigious event and of course against such strong competition. Former record holder Roy Standley was also competing in his Mitsubishi Evo and was the first person to come over and congratulate me, which is a perfect example of the highly competitive yet very sporting characters who take part in hill climbing."

Former single-seater driver Ash Mason in a Westfield took the honours in the very closely fought Specialist Production class by just pipping 1997 British Champion Roger Moran in his Caterham Seven by three hundreths of a second, with Ken Evans only another five hundreths behind.

Other class winners included B-Licence driver and first time competitor at Shelsley Walsh, David Connell of Shipston-on-Stour in his brightly coloured lime green Vauxhall VX220, Tim Dennis in a Mini Cooper, Colin Satchell in a Peugeot 205, Mike Turpin in a Vauxhall VX220, Charles Williams in an OMS sports car and Nick Mann in the record breaking and sensational Mannic Beattie.

The 500 Owners' Association fielded a strong class in their championship resulting in a win for Jan Nycz in Staride Mk111 with a time of 39.28 seconds.

An Invitation Class to celebrate 110 years of Shelsley Walsh showcased the type of cars that have competed throughout the decades, including Hicky Hickling in his 1911 Sunbeam 16/20, Mike Mohr in a Lagonda Rapier, Mac Hulbert in ERA R4D, Ruth Ross in a Cooper Mk 1V, Keith Harris in a Chevron B25, Chris Cramer in a Gould 84G and Rodney Eyles in a Pilbeam MP58.

The highly popular and competitive racing car classes were as busy as ever, with wins for Gary Hill in an OMS Hornet, Chris Aspinall in an Empire Wraith, Howard Savage-Jones in a Lola Colgan and Dave Uren in a Force PC.

Records tumbled in both of the classic racing car classes with Richard Jones setting a new time of 28.85 seconds with his Brabham BT29X in pre-1971 Class and Stuart Ridge setting a new class record time of 26.72 seconds with his Pilbeam MP53 in the 1972 to 1985 section.

The Paul Matty Sports Cars Lotus Championship goes from strength to strength with a waiting list for entries, providing a handicap challenge to drivers of all lotus sports, saloon and racing cars. Winners were Jane Millward in her Lotus Elan S3 and David Gidden in his Lotus 23 racing car.

One competitor making his 'debut' at Shelsley Walsh was local driver Matt Nicoll-Jones, who runs Academy Motorsport at Pershore and brought along the Aston Martin GT4 in which he competes in the British GT Championship circuit races. Matt, said: "We were invited to display our car by Midland Automobile Club sponsors Stratstone, but decided that it would be much more fun to actually enter the event itself and let people see the car in action.

"It was a completely different mind set for me, more like a qualifying run, and I really admire those guys who were setting low 20 second runs. The weekend was a real challenge as the track is so narrow and I was amazed at the time and effort that people put into the preparation of their cars, but was absolutely delighted to be taking part in what is a fantastic event."