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Motorsport

02 Oct 2019

Photos by Stuart Santos Wing

Dyson Declared Hillclimb Champion After Loton Park Finale

David Dyson Takes Porsche Club Hillclimb Championship after Last Round at Loton Park

The final round of the 2019 Porsche Club National Hillclimb Championship took place at Loton Park Hillclimb near Shrewsbury over the weekend of 28th and 29th September.
 
The weather was extremely changeable and the hill started wet with a damp track. It seemed that scattered showers appeared every time a Porsche approached the start line.
 
Competition day started with competitors and spectators having to drive through flooded roads to reach the track. There was a low level of entry for the final round with just one competitor in Class 1 – Modified and three in Class 2 - Road going.
 
With no third practice run, it was straight into competitive runs. The first runs were on a cold and wet track with standing water in places. Conditions improved marginally for the second runs, though the track remained very greasy all day long.
 
In the opening run of Class 2, the road going class, Simon Tarling in his 996 GT3 led the way with a 68.30 second climb followed by Richard York’s 997 GT3 with a 70.42 second climb. Ross McDonald followed closely behind with a 71.03 second climb. After the lunch break, on the second runs Simon improved by nearly 4 seconds recording a 64.49 second climb, with Ross also posting a significant improvement to move him into second place. Richard managed to also improve, though by a smaller margin.
 
In Class 1 the modified class, Paul Howells was alone in the Porsche class. Compared to the Midland class runners, Paul was fastest on both morning and afternoon runs finally setting a 57.39 second climb.
 
Whilst in both classes the second run times were better this was partly due to marginally better conditions, and largely due to drivers pushing much harder for that final run of the event and the season.
 
In summary, another good weekend’s competition despite the wet and muddy conditions.
 
Simon Tarling