There have been some amazing performances, close finishes and records broken in the Meadens Skoda Gurston Down Hill Climb Championship. The final two rounds of the took place at our September meeting.

Many of the Class Championships were undecided prior to the September meeting so every point in every round suddenly became very important. A number of classes didn’t have championship contenders entered which meant the dropped score rules made a difference.

Thank you to all the entrants in the championship, we couldn’t run it without all your support!

We would also like to thank all of the class sponsors for their support during 2019.

Here are the Official Class Results for the Meadens Skoda Gurston Down Championship:

The top five in each class have been included in these results. The full results are available online on our website.

The Mazda MX5 Class, supported by The Window Doctor

This class turned out to be the one to watch again this season. Mark Crookall won the class championship and the overall championship too! Jason Richardson pushed Mark all year, they swapped firsts and seconds, broke the target time and the class record through-out the season. The record, set by Mark at the September meeting, now stands at 38.61s. Jason’s performances gave him third in the overall championship after the tie-break rules were taken into account.

Mark wins the Record-Designs Award.

Result 2019

Points

Mark Crookall

109

Jason Richardson

102

Chris Burch

83

Paul Wheatley

72

Malcolm Francis

64

 

Road Going Series Production Class up to 1400cc

The two contenders in this class have traded places all season. This class was another class settled on the tie-break rules. David Nutland in the Austin Mini won after John Davey had a number of mechanical issues with the Midget, one of which meant he had to withdraw from the September meeting. The class record, 40.55s, is held by David Nutland but this record is still higher than the class’s target time of 40.44s originally set by John. What will next season hold?

Result 2019

Points

David Nutland

84

John Davey

84

 

Road Going Series Production Class 1401cc to 2000cc, supported by Record-Designs

This class has been another very competitive class in 2019. Miles Horne brought his superfast Peugeot 306 back to the hill. Miles stamped his authority on the class in the very first round of the season by breaking the class record. He had some mechanical issues mid-season but things came good and he reset the record again in July. Dean Cubitt in his Mazda MX5 had to push hard to keep Chris Davies in the Honda Civic and Tim Forster in the Lotus Elan at bay and took second. Chris was third and Tim fourth.

Result 2019

Points

Miles Horne

102

Dean Cubitt

92

Chris Davies

80

Tim Forster

79

Russell Davies

67

 

Over 2000cc Road Going Series Production Class, supported by Turbo Dynamics

The Lewis Dean Subaru Impreza pretty much dominated this class this season. The car is shared by Shaun and Sarah Fudge. Shaun winning the majority of the rounds being beaten by Sarah twice and Steve Cox once during the season.

Result 2019

Points

Shaun Fudge

99

Sarah Fudge

88

Steve Cox

78

Tony Mullis

76

 

Road Going Specialist Production Class, supported by Fieldfare Trailer Centre

Mark Parrett, manager of Fieldfare Trailers, in his Autotune Gemini, won the class with some solid performances. The class is small and the class record very low, which means it is difficult to score maximum points. Nigel Holt changed his car in August to a non-road going Caterham, would this have made any difference? Looking at the class results in September, Mark would have still taken the class championship.

Picture by Ian Rawlings

Result 2019

Points

Mark Parrett

87

Nigel Holt

84

Adrian Lewis

50

 

Over 2000cc Modified Limited Production Marque Sports Car Class

The Porsche 911 and Phil Price were always the likely winners of this class. Paul Slade’s E Type just doesn’t have the grunt of the 911. Paul also had mechanical issues for the first part of season which meant he had lots of catching up to do.

Result 2019

Points

Phil Price

84

Paul Slade

41

 

Up to 1400cc Modified Series Production Class

Neil Turner, in the Mini dominated class, has reset the class record this season. The record now stands. As a consequence you may have expected him to have easily won the class championship. However, David Bean, in his Mini, chased Neil right to the end of the season and the points margin between them was just 2!

Result 2019

Points

Neil Turner

83

David Bean

81

Jim White

56

Connor Manley

41

 

Over 2000cc Modified Series Production Class, supported by Meadens Skoda

Mark Walker and the Porsche Cayman won this class. He’s had a great season after suffering reliability issues last year. Richard Hillyar in the rather rare and unusual Renault 21 Turbo took second.

Result 2019

Points

Mark Walker

77

Richard Hillyar

72

 

Over 2000cc Modified Specialist Production Class, supported Gates of Brockenhurst

Steve Holland in his Caterham has had a great season winning the class. Steve, Richie Gatt and Martin Watson had great battles when they all competed together. You really didn’t know which would come out on top.

Result 2019

Points

Steve Holland

94

Richie Gatt

81

Martin Watson

53

 

Historically Interesting Class, supported by Kelvin Jouhar

Jeremy Smithson in his beautifully presented Lotus Elan Fixed Head Coupe was the only entrant in this class.

Result 2019

Points

Jeremy Smithson

40

 

Hill Climb Super Sports Cars Class

There was just one entry in this class, Richard Fry in his rare Mallock 25/27.

Result 2019

Points

Richard Fry

32

 

Sports Libre up to 1400cc

Tim Pitfield in his DJ Firecat has had, what can only be described as, a fantastic season. Tim and the DJ Firecat have set and reset the class record at almost every event. The record now stands at 31.62s. Peter Steel and his Radical SR1, a new car to Peter this year, has been improving his times all season as has Craig Russell in his Westfield XTR2.

Result 2019

Points

Tim Pitfield

102

Peter Steel

90

Craig Russell

80

 

Sports Libre over 2000cc Class

Chris Cannell in the Force SR8 he shares with Sue Hayes has had a great season. Not only did he win the class championship but he took the Cavendish Ships Stores BARC SW Top Ten Challenge.

Result 2019

Points

Chris Cannell

90

Sue Hayes

80

 

601cc to 1100cc Racing Car Class, supported by Drynham Project Management Limited

David Cuff in his OMS CF97 has had to fight hard against Murray Wakeham in an OMS CF96 all season. Murray had some reliability issues mid-season which may have helped David with his championship challenge. They ended just one point apart, David ultimately winning.

Picture by Dan Young

Result 2019

Points

David Cuff

85

Murray Wakeham

84

Steve Loadsman

46

Alan Joy

35

 

1101cc to 1600cc Racing Car Class

Peter Hammock’s Empire Wraith have dominated the class for much of the season. Mike Lee in the OMS3000M has made sure Peter didn’t have it all his own way, beating Peter a couple of times. In September Peter finished the season on a high by winning Fastest Time of the Day.

Result 2019

Points

Peter Hammock

82

Mike Lee

42

 

1601cc to 2000cc Racing Car – Normally Aspirated Class

Roger Cock in the Pilbeam MP54 had a great season. Tony Wilshire brought his Ralt RT34 to the hill for a few events and made Roger work for every point.

Result 2019

Points

Roger Cock

73

Tony Wiltshire

38

 

1601cc to 2000cc Racing Car – Force Induction

Paul Haimes and his lovely turbocharged Gould GR59 was the only entry in this class.

Result 2019

Points

Paul Haimes

32

 

Racing Car Over 2000cc

As many of your know, Paul Crute had a rather dramatic incident in his lovely Jaguar powered OMS. Fortunately, Paul was uninjured. We understand that Paul and the car will be back with us next season. We look forward to seeing Paul again next year.

Result 2019

Points

Paul Crute

48

 

We would like to thank all of our sponsors for their support in 2019.

We would also like to thank everyone who made our events and championship possible.

E&OE

Anthony Record – Press Officer – BARC SW, Gurston Down Speed Hill Climb