Sat 5 & Sun 6 September 2009 [9.15am Sat & 9.45am Sun]
WELCOME TO PRESCOTT……………………..And to a weekend of the best in high speed hill climbing at our Gold Cup meeting. This is the last but one of the 17 events in the 2009 MCL Motorhomes MSA British Hill Climb Championship Series – and this year’s Champion has already been decided. So many congratulations to Scott Moran for retaining the title that he first won last year.
For much of the season Scott has again battled hard with three times Champion Martin Groves. But Martin and his co-driver Paul Ranson withdrew from this year’s series after the meeting at Craigantlet in Northern Ireland at the beginning of August. With one engine out of action following the Doune title event in June, the replacement unit was smoking ominously and could not be risked at the next meeting at Shelsley Walsh. Martin concluded ‘We have made the unpleasant and difficult decision to withdraw from competition for the rest of the season’.
The battle for places continues and may not be resolved until the last title meeting at Doune in three weeks time, there are two websites where the full points table is available. These are uphillracers.com (registration may be needed) and zipp.co.uk operated by photographer Richard Danby.
Still with the British title local man Chris Merrick (Stroud) has gone well in fifth place A feature of this year’s series has been the performance of two drivers in 1600cc Force racing cars – Eynon Price holds 8th place and Will Hall is 10th overall. Both could finish in the top ten at the end of the year. The mainland British title meetings feature the F1 Racing Fuel MSA Hill Climb Leaders Championship where Paul Haimes, Scott Moran and Andrew Griffiths have been contesting the top three places.
Several other season-long battles will be resolved this weekend. Our own Prescott Gold Cup is awarded to the Bugatti Owners’ Club member who performs best against the target time for the class. Leader after two meetings is Kelvin Broad who set a new record in class P2 at our April meeting – just 0.01 seconds above the target time.
It’s the last round too for the Midland Championship (based on 9 meetings at the three Midland hills – Prescott, Shelsley and Loton Park) where front-runner Dave Wilson has twice broken the class B1 record this season. In the Avon/BMTR Top Ten Challenge (scored from the run-offs at the Midland events), Trevor Willis has a useful points lead.
We welcome the NHCA motor cycles on their second visit to Prescott this year. In April Glyn Poole (500 Honda) set a new hill record for solo motor cycles (and also for the 351-500cc class) of 45.72.
Our Prescott season ends on September 26th/27th with two one-day meetings. The format is the same for both days with practice in the morning and competitive runs after lunch and there will be a variety of visiting Clubs, plus our own members, taking part. Enjoy your weekend and please keep in touch through our website bugatti.co.uk.
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