With the first round of the Club’s Speed Championship abandoned to the weather, last weekend at Gurston Down became a de facto Round 1 for 2018. Under sunnier skies and on dry Wiltshire tarmac, our eight Championship drivers opened their accounts in some style.
Five of those competitors were in Class P2, four of whom finished within half a second of each other in a fiercely contested climb up the historic half-mile course.
Geraint Evans in his modified 911 Carrera 3.0 picked up his first trophy of the season with a third-placed time of 37.69, while Justin Mather claimed second with a 37.43 in his supercharged 2.7 litre 924S. Always an assured competitor, Ian Wadsworth and his 911 SC/RS bettered Justin’s time by 0.14 of a second for an impressive class win.
Two of our drivers made up Class P3, with Stephen Jory running his 2.5ltr 944 on slicks for the first time in the Speed Championship. This helped put him in P3 alongside Wayne Eason in his Boxster. Both drivers steadily cut their times down over the practice and timed sessions, with Stephen finishing the day on 40.70 while Wayne bettered that by a margin of 1.62 seconds for another class win.
The sole Club competitor in Class P4 was Dave Chivers. Dave has previously competed in the Speed Championship in early 911s but has entered a 2.5ltr 944 this year. Time will tell if a transaxle Porsche will suit his preference for the hill climb rounds, but Gurston was a good start and he finished the day with a best time of 43.84.
Although we had no Championship registered cars running in Class P1, erstwhile Speed Champion drivers Tim Barber and David Hilton were getting some practise in for the forthcoming Hillclimb Championship in their much-modified 996 GT3. David finished in 34.91, while Tim’s time of 34.57 was a satisfying personal best at Gurston. Simon Cristol ran for the first time at Gurston, though also not in a registered Championship car, and finished the day with a time of 43.73 in his Boxster S.
It was an overwhelmingly positive start to what promises to be an exciting season in the Speed Championship. Our next two rounds form an exciting double-header at Anglesey Circuit in north Wales.