Summer BARC Racing Club Magazine ERROR – Apologies

Jun 25, 2022

Unfortunately due to an error, last year’s Summer report was published in the 2022 BARC Racing Club magazine.

The article should read:

Our 2022 season at Gurston Down Speed Hill Climb got underway early this year with our first two meetings in March and the next two in April. Both meetings were blessed with some lovely weather and some great performances.

The Gurston Down Speed Hill Climb Championship is again kindly sponsored by Turbo Dynamics and the BARC South West Top Ten Challenge sees the return of Cavendish Ships Stores as its headline sponsor. We would like to thank them both for their continued support in 2022.

We would also like to thank Ben Harrison Automotive and Thinkwraps for their overwhelming generosity in providing us with a new van too.

The first weekend’s meetings of the year in March saw some interesting performances as well as some great driving. Stephen Wareham in his rapid Mini had a great March weekend. Not only beating the target time on every competition run but reducing the class record too. We also saw some great performances from Clive Stangle in the Mitsubishi Evo and Murry Wakeham in his OMS and Ben Bonfield in his Jedi Mk4. The Cavendish Ships Stores Top Ten Challenge was won on both days by Andrew Forsyth will two great performances.

In April, Clive Stangle’s performance lead to a maximum 44-point weekend, pushing him into the lead in the Turbo Dynamics Championship. Ben Bonfield, Tony Wiltshire and Chris Burch are the next three in the overall championship. Tony Wiltshire now leads the Top Ten Challenge from Ben Bonfield.

The 2022 season looks like it’s going to be an interesting one. With six more events and twelve rounds to go, this year could go right down to the wire and the August meetings. We suspect that drop scores will play a very important role in the 2022 championship in both the classes and overall.

The British Hill Climb Championship presented by Avon Tyres and the British Hill Climb Cup presented by Footman James came to the hill in May, just after the time of writing this report. More on that in a later report. Can Wallace Menzies, the current champion and championship leader increase his lead after a record-breaking weekend at Harewood?

The Gurston Down Drivers School has had another busy year. Thank you to Chris Cannell, Simon Purcell and the rest of the team for making these days so enjoyable. If you would like to try Hill Climbing at Gurston Down, there are a couple of dates in June and August, check the website for full details.

If you’d like to keep up to date with Gurston Down’s news, please visit our website www.gurstondown.org or follow us on Facebook.

Update – Statement from BARC South West Centre

Jun 20, 2022

It is with great sadness, we need to make the following announcement.

James Goddard, one of the competitors in the Auto Cycle Union event on Saturday collapsed in the top paddock, after completing his timed run on Saturday afternoon.

Our paddock marshals, onsite doctor and paramedics dealt with the incident until ambulances, an NHS doctor and the Air Ambulance arrived. James was taken to Salisbury hospital where sadly he died later on Saturday evening.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family, friends and fellow competitors.

As a mark of respect a one minute silence took place at the beginning of the meeting on Sunday morning.

Statement from BARC South West Centre

Jun 18, 2022

Unfortunately, one of our competitors was been taken ill after arriving in the top paddock. He is receiving medical attention.

Due to the severity of the incident, we have decided to end the meeting. Our apologies for this but the health and well-being of the competitor and our community is paramount.

We will continue as normal with tomorrow’s meeting.