Round 5 – Saturday
Following the tireless efforts of several competitors in the Petro-Canada Lubricants Porsche Club National Hillclimb Championship, particularly Simon Tarling and Paul Howells, round 5 of the Speed Championship formed part of the inaugural meeting of Porsches at Prescott - an event designed to promote interest in Club motorsport, introduce new visitors and potential competitors to hill climbing and to show off the fantastic venue at Prescott.
The weather helped enormously and obliged us with two days of warm and (mostly) dry weather for over 40 Porsches taking to the hill.
Alongside the National Hillclimb and the Porsche Invitation Class, the Speed Championship made up the largest of the Porsche classes with 17 drivers entered.
In Class P1 Peter Taylor finished the day in his 718 Boxster S with 49.64 for second place while David Dyson added to his points tally for a 47.03, first in class in his 991 GT3.
In Class P2, Barrie Powell’s 944 Turbo is perhaps better suited to circuits than hills but he still had a great time at Prescott with consistent runs in the practice and timed sessions. His third-place time was 57.49. Although driving very different cars, Karl Lupton (Supercharged 944) and Andy Fagan (Boxster S) have been very close in previous rounds and just 0.13 seconds separated them at Prescott on Saturday. Karl took second in 49.73 while Andy got the class win in 49.60, both breaking through the all-important sub 50-second hill climb time.
Nine drivers all completed the hill in Class P3 with times that were all within 6.56 seconds of each other. The margin between third and second was just 0.13 with Nick Wadsworth (911 SC/RS) taking third in 50.99 while dad Ian Wadsworth achieved second place in 50.86 in their shared car. Justin Mather (Supercharged 924) made up for his ‘off’ at Loton in the last round with a time of 49.56 for first in class.
Three drivers ran in Class P4 with Martin Leach (’72 911 3.0 litre) taking third in 51.46, just 0.12 seconds behind Wayne Eason (Boxster) who took second place in 51.34. Stephen Jory was impressively quick at Prescott with a time of 50.29 for the class win.
Round 6 - Sunday
The threat of rain hung over round 6 on Sunday, though it stayed relatively dry until near the end of the day with just light rain inhibiting some of the final runs.
In P4 Wayne might have become accustomed to class wins this season but at Prescott, it didn’t go his way and he finished with a third-place time of 51.55. Taking second place and just 0.60 off the class winner was Martin Leach with 50.66. Earning class honours, with a quicker time than Saturday, was Stephen Jory who finished a great weekend with 50.06.
The remarkable thing in Class P3 on Sunday was the replication of class positions with almost the same margins between them although, perhaps, the damper conditions may have fractionally slowed all three drivers. Nick took third in 50.43, while Ian took second in 50.26. Justin put in a string of incredible sub-50-second times in every run to finish in 48.94 for first place.
With no Barrie Powell on Sunday, just Karl and Andy made up P2. Karl bettered his time from the previous round by exactly a tenth of a second to take second place in 49.63. Like Justin, Andy Fagan put in some astonishing times, with an on-the-edge time of 48.87 for a well-deserved class win.
Peter Taylor found it hard to hit his stride on Sunday in P1 and couldn’t make a consistent run finishing in second place with 51.50. In first place after a remarkable series of sub-48 second runs, David Dyson, finished the day with an astonishing 47.06 for the FTD in the Speed Championship.
Results and standings for the Petro-Canada Lubricants Porsche Club National Hillclimb Championship can be found Here.