Motorsport
28 May 2019
Photos by Stuart Santos-Wing
Hillclimb Championship Lead to Dyson by 0.2 Points
Round 2 - Gurston Down
There was a strong entry for the Gurston Down round of the Petro-Canada Lubricants Porsche Club National Hillclimb Championship. Saturday practice runs started with mild and sunny weather. The track looked in good condition and was dry. As always there was plenty of banter in the paddock and high expectations for the weekend. Being Gurston there were three practice runs on Saturday and the day ended with hopes that the forecast for Sunday would improve.
Sunday started with a fourth practice run, a real quality mark of Gurston Down, its marshals and organizers.
With the start of competition everyone was trying to get a good time banked, just in case the rain arrived later.In Class 2, the road going class David Dyson in his 991 GT3 set the pace with a 35.95 sec climb closely followed by Robert Lancaster-Gaye with a 36.36 sec and Simon Tarling with a 38.44 sec. Richard York continued to improve and set a 39.44 sec time, marginally ahead of Ross McDonald with a 39.77 sec.
In Class 1 modified cars, there was also a very good turnout of cars. Paul Howells set the pace with a 32.83 sec climb, managing to break his own class record set at the May 2018 meeting. Paul was followed closely by Phil Price with on 33.07 sec and then by Peter Turnbull following with a 34.34 sec climb. David Hilton set a 36.69 time ahead of Tim Barber who was uncharacteristically slower than normal with a 37.10 sec.
Second runs took place after lunch which had seen a slight shower of rain. Though the track had dried well.
The Class 2 order remained largely unchanged with David marginally ahead of Robert, with Simon improving on his time to take a personal best. Ross on his first visit to Gurston was getting to grips with the track and improved his time just pipping Richard.
After the second runs In Class 1 Paul Howells led the way with a 33.19 sec climb even though he had a high speed visit to the corn field at the finish. Phil Price suffered suspected gearbox issues and dropped down the ranking, allowing Peter Turnbull to take second followed by Tim Barber who was back on form ahead of David Hilton.
So, another great weekend of Porsche Club motorsport and well done to all who took part.
The next round of the Championship Will be at Shelsley Walsh on Saturday 1 June 2019.