Round 6 of the Porsche Club Hillclimb Championship at Harewood Hillclimb.
Another glorious weekend at Harewood started with the Saturday practice runs on the recently lain new tarmac, which came as quite a shock to some drivers. What appeared to be a lack of grip soon changed as the temperature rose during the morning and more rubber went down on the track.
Paul Howells, Tim Barber, Robert Lancaster-Gaye and Christian Ayres all driving up the hill to personal best times during the day. This meant Sunday was eagerly awaited, with celebrations taking place on Saturday evening and talk of what was to come.
In Class 1 after the first timed runs it was Paul Howells, with a new class record time of 59.49 taking the lead from Tim Barber on 60.76 with Peter Turnbull 3rd on 62.77 and although Tim went slightly quicker on his second run to set another personal best time of 60.73 it wasn’t enough to catch Paul. David Hilton, sharing the car with Tim, had a brilliant second run for another PB to claim 3rd place on 61.90
In class 2 Christian Ayres was on a high after his wins at both Shelsley Walsh and Prescott and there was no reason to think this winning streak wouldn’t continue with Christian just in front of Robert Lancaster-Gaye after Sunday morning practice. on 64.20 and Robert on 64.75
After lunch Christian put in what appeared to be the class winning time of 63.99, but before the celebrations could start Robert came storming over the line with an incredible 63.66 to take the win and class record. What with the delay and afternoon heat there was not to be any improvement on their second runs, but Robert was back in no uncertain terms and Christian now knows he has a fight on his hands to take another class win. Ross McDonald was 3rd on 70.73
The next meeting takes place at Wiscombe Park on 28-29 July.