2025 Championship Reports for Rounds 6&7 with NINEMEISTER
Round 6, Gurston Down 14th June
Its a Hillclimb so of course it goes up........but lots of it actually goes down! That's the 'Elephant in the room' dealt with then! Yes, Gurston Down is a famous Hillclimb venue in Wiltshire. It is known for its very rapid descent from the start line before a tight and twisty climbing complex of bends and final straight to the finish.
The Hillclimb is held in a farm, Gurston Farm to be exact, just outside the pretty small village of Broad Chalke. Fun fact, according to a Wikipedia page I read Broad Chalke has been home to a few famous folk over the years, names such as Cecil Beaton, Toyah Willcox and Sir Anthony Eden.
Toyah Willcox had a single called "Thunder in The Mountains” which on reflection would have been an appropriate backing track as I made my way across the paddock with its bevvy of high performance cars warming their engines.
We had a dozen Porsche cars for two days of competition. The Saturday was very warm and dry and the track looked pretty much perfect as our drivers set off for first practice.
In our P1 class we had the shared GT3 car of David Hilton and Tim Barber. David really likes the hill and in practice was immediately on form with a best of 36.54 seconds but it was his car share Tim Barber that was quickest in the class with a great 35.38 second run.
In P2 we had two quick drivers in very different cars. Ian Wadsworth with the 911 SC/RS and Nigel Watkins in his 996. Ian was just under a second behind Nigel who managed a 36.96 second best time before lunch.
P3 has been our busiest class for much of the year and we had five runners all of which were doing both the Saturday and Sunday events. In Saturday practice Eoin Card, a new driver to the hill and the championship this year put in swift first ever practice of 42.87 seconds in his Cayman. Chris Milne was again doing well in his road going Boxster with a sub 40 second practice best and Graham Rose took his supercharged 924s to a 39.20 time and third place at the end of practice. The quickest P3 driver was again Jon Baldock in his modified Boxster, a 37.66 time, and a healthy margin of over a second from Geraint Evans in the Carrera 3.0.
P4 promised to be close, very close. Jake Cartwright (Boxster) has been gradually closing the gap with the quickest cars and exited practice just 0.67 seconds behind Martin Leach in his 911E. Stephen Jory was quickest in P4 in practice with a great 37.54 second run.
Gurston Down is a truly beautiful place with its picture perfect rolling hills , Red Kites flying overhead and a really nice cafe serving decent grub and on those hot days ice cream treats!
Treffor Willingham of Porsche Club R26 had invited some local club members and it was a pleasure to chat with them at lunchtime answering questions about the sport and (probably) boring the pants off them with my passion for it (sorry if I went on a bit!)
Scoring Timed Runs
Fully fed and watered the drivers readied themselves for their scoring runs. Tim Barber bettered his best practice time by 0.37 seconds to take the P1 class win in a great 35.01 second time (The GT3 always sounds fab launching!). David Hilton was second in P1, also improving to best scoring run time of 36.27 seconds.
Nigel Watkins put together three runs all in the 36 second bracket the best of which at 36.13 seconds was the P2 class winning time. Ian Wadsworth was second in P2 with a best of 37.74 seconds.
The top three cars in P3 all delivered scoring runs of around 37 seconds. Winning the class with a best of 37.72 was Graham Rose who made a significant step improvement over his first scoring run. Jon Baldock, so often the winner in the class had to settle for second place with a best of 37.73 seconds, yes just one hundredth of a second slower! In third Geraint Evans was himself just a few tenths slower to take third in P3 with a 37.91 second time.
Stephen Jory and Martin Leach were just 0.38 seconds apart after the first scoring run in P4. The second run was even closer with Stephen taking the win for the class with a fine 37.99 second time, 0.15 seconds quicker than Martin's best.
A lovely day of close sport, friendly club members, wonderful cars and stunning scenery, and another great day to look forward to!
Round 7 Gurston Down 15th June
After a night of surprisingly chilly temperatures I arose to bright sunshine and a very nice breakfast! The cars lined up for practice with conditions almost the same as the day before if perhaps with a bit more breeze and I expected even closer times now they "had their eye in", I wasn't to be disappointed!
Practice Runs
The Gurston event team announced that there would be three practice runs and while not everyone took advantage of the additional run the majority did and times fell.
In P4 Stephen Jory recorded a practice best of 37.74 seconds, a few tenths quicker than his scoring best from the previous day. However, Martin Leach had managed a brilliant run of 36.67 seconds to be quickest in P4 going into the scoring runs.
Jon Baldock in P3 was quick throughout practice and was 0.71 seconds ahead of Geraint Evans who had started the day strongly with a practice best of 37.84 seconds. Just over a second slower than Geraint was Chris Milne in his Boxster, another great practice time in a road car on road tyres.
Nigel Watkins had broken into the 35 second bracket on his very first practice run (another road going car going very well) and continued with a consistent set of 36 second runs to go into the mid-day break the lead car in the P2 Class. Ian Wadsworth wasn't far behind however and was sure to press Nigel hard in the scoring runs to come.
David Hilton had clearly slept well as he put in a brace of very competitive times in P1 practice. With a 35.66 best practice he was just 0.36 seconds slower than Tim Barber in the shared car. Tim delivered three practice runs all in the 35 second bracket, very impressive!
Scoring Timed Runs
After another hearty lunch (I do more than just eat, honest!) I watched the cars roll out of the paddock area and form up for their two final, scoring runs on the fabulous Gurston hill.
Tim Barber just managed to hold off a very strong challenge from David Hilton in their shared GT3. He took the P1 class win with a 35.28 second best, just 0.15 seconds quicker than David's best.
Nigel Watkins was able to maintain an approximate 1 second margin over Ian Wadsworth to take the P2 class win in a brilliant 36.35 second time.
Just as in the day before the P3 drivers were battling hard. Eoin Card had driven to a very credible 39.94 best time in his Cayman. Chris Milne was again pushing for a 37 second time and nearly managed it with a 38.32 second best to end the day 4th in class.
The top three P3 cars were again all quite close with Graham Rose ending the day third in P3 with a 37.98 second time. Geraint Evans was quick all day and with a best of 37.37 seconds took the runner up spot in P3. Winning the class just 0.06 seconds quicker THAN Geraint was Jon Baldock in his Boxster with a 37.31 second time. You can't get any closer than they eh?.read on!
We have come close to it, as close as you can when working to two decimal places I think, but I have not yet had an exact draw between two cars. In P4 Stephen Jory and Martin leach both recorded a best time of 37.62 seconds, hence both share the 1st in class win and the relevant championship points. What makes this all the more impressive is that they are driving two very different cars, a 944S2 for Stephen and a 911E for Martin. Front engined water cooled, Rear engined air cooled. Different dynamics but both driven by people that know their cars inside out.
Jake Cartwright was third in P4 with a 39.18 second time, his best of the weekend. Jake is now running times ever closer to the top times in the class and it’s only a matter of time (no pun intended) before he is mixing it with the top runners.
So there we have it, two great rounds, incredibly close results and brilliant driving by all involved. The end of the Gurston rounds represents the mid-point in the championship year for us. As the championship is based on best 8 rounds it’s a little too early yet to say who is looking in the best position for the overall title, things can and probably will change!
Top Class Positions after 7 rounds
P1 David Dyson 101.40.
Wayne Helme 76.62
P2 Ian Wadsworth 133.35
Nigel Watkins. 121.23
P3 Jon Baldock 142.09
Graham Rose 137.34
P4. Stephen Jory 142.10
Jake Cartwright 123.24
Saturday Results Here
Sunday Results Here
Championship Points Here