Saturday 2nd July
The day was overcast with the threat of rain looming over the picturesque Yorkshire hill with its 1.2 mile hillclimb course. There was some rain particularly in the morning, but fortunately times improved greatly after lunch when we got into the timed runs. 11 registered competitors had entered both of 2 events held over this weekend.
Class 1 saw three entries which ranged from a highly modified 944 to a standard Cayman 718 GTS. Competition was good and with adjusted times the slick shod 996 GT3 of David Hilton produced a class winning time of 64.53 seconds with Karl Lupton just 0.59 behind in second and Howard Cressey only a further 0.76 back in third.
Class 2 saw only 2 competitors sharing a 1974 911 SC/RS. The father and son combination gave some close racing with Nick Wadsworth recording a time of 66.22 beating father Ian by 0.16 of a second.
Class 3 saw the largest entry of 5 competitors with a close battle for top honours. Wayne Eason in the modified 2.7 Boxster on slick tyres made the most of his grip advantage and recorded a best time of 65.27 seconds and was able to hold off a challenge from Andy Fagan in his equally modified Boxster S with a time difference of 0.9 seconds. Then came former champion Geraint Evans driving his much campaigned and modified Carrera 3 with a 3.3 litre engine a further 0.6 seconds back. There was a further battle for position between another former champion Graham Rose and a relative newcomer to the championship Paul Watson with some very close times until Graham moved ahead on 68.25.
Class 4 on this occasion had only one competitor due to others attending other events, but Stephen Jory used his 944 to great effect and recorded a best time of 67.27 seconds which would have placed him well up in the class above.
Sunday 3rd July
Fortunately Sunday was a much better day weather wise and competitors were greeted with sunshine and the prospect of dry conditions.
Class 1 saw some very close racing with very good times recorded with Howard Cressey getting very close to his personal best again with a time of 65.91 seconds that saw him in third place. The battle between David Hilton and Karl Lupton was intense and despite a superb time of 62.99 seconds by David the 2% adjustment (64.25) meant that Karl had come within 0.04 second of beating him on 64.29.
Class 2 again saw Nick and Ian Wadsworth battling it out. Nick had set blistering times in practice when he got down to 64.76, but was unable to replicate in his timed runs. He did however record a time of 65.91 which was good enough to beat Ian into second by 0.39 seconds.
Class 3 again saw a very close battle between the two highly modified Boxsters of Wayne Eason and Andy Fagan who are heading the fight for Class 2 honours. It was neck and neck after 3rd practice, but with a half spin by Andy the initiative was taken by Wayne who recorded a very rapid time of 64.95 to beat Andy into second place by 0.44 seconds. Geraint Evans gradually improved during the day to finish 3rd on a good time of 66.33. Graham and Paul had another good battle for 4th and 5th with once again Graham just coming out on top with a time of 68.19.
Class 4 saw Stephen Jory as the sole competitor, but gradually improved his times and managed to beat his Saturday time and recorded a finishing time of 67.25.
The next round of the championship will be held at the very fast Castle Combe circuit on 23rd July.