Tenth Round of the Porsche Club Speed Championship

Porsche Club GB Speed Championship 2024 with NINEMEISTER
 
Gurston Down Report
 
Hiding around the corner from the sleepy village of Broad Chalke in Wiltshire is the challenging Gurston Down Hillclimb course.
 
Set in rolling countryside the course is on an active farm with a paddock looking across its fields and down into the valley where the course streaks downhill at first and then rises steeply to the finish.
 
Its fast, very fast in parts, with a record over the line of 160mph (!) on a strip of fairly narrow of tarmac with a very tight complex of bends at the bottom of a super fast run from the start line.
 
We were blessed with great weather, sunny, warm and a slight breeze as the cars (13 Porsche Taking part) lined up for first practice. I and a number of folk from the local Porsche Club Region 17 Southern and Region 26 Dorset were there to witness the championships return to the venue after a number of years away.


 
Practice
Setting off in number order the cars struggled for grip over the first 64 feet where a split time beam records their launch. The launch is all important in Sprinting and Hillclimbing as runs may be separated by just a a fraction of second at the end of the event.
 
Unusually, when the rear engined cars usually benefit from better levels of launch grip all seemed to be finding it tricky. In P4 Hannes Tanzer and Howard Cressey swapped positions across the two practice runs with Hannes and his Boxster going into the lunch break ahead by less than a second. Jake Cartwright had a nervous moment when on the line his timing strut wouldn't register with the timing lights but an adjustment soon fixed that and he ended practice with a solid best of 40.80 seconds in the Boxster. Stephen Jory and the 944S2 was a little slower over the 64ft mark but pulled that back and more again recording a super fast practice time of 37.95 seconds.
 
The up to 280BHP P3 cars consisted of three Boxsters and a single 911. Chris Milne in his road legal car was surprisingly quick for his first time at the venue and recorded a best practice of 41.79 seconds. Despite a short adventure across the grass at the bottom of the slope Jon baldock gathered it all together and managed a 40.37 second run to end the morning in third place while Geraint Evans in his 911 Carerra managed the best 64 feet time on his way to a practice run of 38.32 seconds, a little under a second ahead of Wayne Eason's best for the morning.
 
P2 practice was about the new to the venue drivers and those with past experience of the deceptively tricky climb. Mark Joynson-Bickerstaffe pipped Simon Carr, both in road legal cars, to the third place spot by just over half a second. The experience of Mel Spear showed as he piloted his 964 Cup car to best of 39.30 seconds but Ian Wadsworth was very quick in both of his practice runs ending the session in a best of 37.32 seconds in his slick shod 911 SC/RS.
 
We had just the one P1 car for the Gurston round, but David Hilton wasn't going to trundle up the hill, obvious really when you look at his speed through the final beam at 91mph!  He recorded a best of 36.92 seconds (after slick tyre adjustment) and close to his PB.


 
Scoring Runs
Two timed scoring runs were on offer after lunch. The weather was still fine and with the start line now 'scrubbed in' the hope was for slightly better 64 feet times and quicker terminals.
 
David Hilton took his 996 to a cracking best run time of 36.43 seconds and a 92 mph terminal across the line.  To put that into context imagine a narrow single track local road and then imagine 92mph? Quite something to watch and a well deserved P1 award on the day.
 
In the 280-360HP P2 class Simon Carr in his Cayman S ended the day with a great first Gurston best of 41.24 seconds, again just half a second or so slower than Mark Joynson-Bickerstaffe in his Boxster S who, also new the event, was very quick with a 40.70 second best to take third in class on the day. Just a second split Mel Spear and the 964 from Ian Wadsworth and his 911. Ian was on impressive top form all day and won the class with a great best run of 37.58 seconds.
 
The sub 280HP P3 class was always going to be close. Chris Milne continued to surprise in his road legal Boxster S by managing a best run of 41.15 seconds. Jon Baldock in his Boxster ended the day ever so close to second place with a best of 38.91 seconds but was just beaten by Wayne Eason who improved his last time by around half a second to log a run of 38.74 seconds and grabbed second in class.
Quickest in class all day was Geraint Evans in the 911. He found nearly a second for his last timed run to a show a fine time of 37.66 seconds taking the P3 class win.
 
I keep explaining to people who ask about the championship how intriguing the results can be with different power classes, different car layouts and drivers often ending the day very close in time.
 
At the end of the day we had the four best times in the classes split by just 1.23 seconds!
 
The up to 220BHP P4 class was won in fine style by an extremely rapid Stephen Jory in the 944S2 and a time of 37.45 seconds. Jake Cartwright in his Boxster was second with a 39.60 second best, also very quick and ahead of the friendly tussle between Hannes Tanzer and Howard Cressey. Hannes did a little grass tracking on his way to fourth behind Howard who took third in class with a 41.71 second time also in a road going Boxster.
 
With just four rounds left to run the championship is now really taking shape and all drivers are working out what they need to do to secure overall wins.
 
Thanks again for the brilliant welcome we got from Porsche Club Region 17 Southern and Region 26 Dorset members and here's to a very competitive Snetterton weekend on 24&25th August, See you there?
 
Simon Wilson
Championship Coordinator
Porsche Club GB
simonwilson@porscheclubgb.com