The 2021 year has been a difficult but interesting season at Gurston Down.
The first meeting of the year in May was a learning curve for everyone. Thankfully, everything went to plan, well almost. The highlight of the British Hill Climb Weekend was Wallace Menzies setting a new hill record in his Gould GR59M with the whole weekend’s competitive runs being streamed live to the world by Rich and Eleanor of Hillclimb.tv.
We learnt a great deal about the “new world” of running a motorsport event under Motorsport UK’s Covid regulations. There are so many people who worked tirelessly in the background to make our season happen and the committee thanks them all.
In many of the previous years, the class championships had already been won by the July meetings but 2021 was different. The double points at the Sunday, August meetings changed many of the class results and positions significantly.
Details of the overall championship can be found in another News article. There was a three-way tie and the winner was decided by the tie-break rules.
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 2021.
Here are the Official Class Results for the Turbo Dynamics Gurston Down Speed Hill Climb 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
The MX5 Class has had an interesting season, with new drivers coming to the hill for the first time and some more established runners having to work for their results.
Mark Crookall, the reigning champion in this class had led this class for the entire season in the car he shares with Chris Burch. Unfortunately, Mark wasn’t available to make the August meetings and this left Chris with a chance of taking the championship for the year. But it wasn’t going to be easy, Dean Dickens and Charlie Gaylard made him work really hard for the four August wins. These wins saw Chris and Dean jump above Mark, with Chris ultimately taking the championship.
Chris wins the Record-Designs Award.
| Result 2021 |
Points |
| Chris Burch |
91 |
| Dean Dickens |
81 |
| Mark Crookall |
78 |
Road Cars – Series Production Class up to 1400cc, support by Lewis Property Services
This class has had an interesting year. The number of drivers/cars has grown substantially in the 2021 season with new some of them pushing the more established drivers very hard. Steve Holley and Andrew Thorpe shared Ford Fiesta might have challenged for one of the top three places had the car not had mechanical issues that meant they could not run in August. Piers, who finished third, has made significant progress during the season and finishes third.
David Nutland in the Austin Mini won the class after some sterling performances and finished third in the overall championship. John Davey in the Midget, made David work hard all season. This is going to be a great class to watch next season.
| Result 2021 |
Points |
| David Nutland |
100 |
| John Davey |
95 |
| Piers Thynne |
78 |
| Steve Holley |
61 |
| Andrew Thorpe |
61 |
Road Cars – Series Production Class 1401cc to 2000cc
This class has been another very competitive class in 2021. Dean Cubitt in his MX5 took control at the first meetings in June with Russell Davies in the Honda Civic pushing very hard. July saw the return of Tim Forster in the Lotus Elan who ruffled Dean’s feathers during one of the runs in the July meetings suggesting there are good things to come from that driver/car combination. At the August meetings, Tim and Russell were really pushing Dean but his great run in the final timed run of the year secured his class win.
| Result 2021 |
Points |
| Dean Cubitt |
96 |
| Russell Davies |
87 |
| Tim Forster |
83 |
| Daniel Friel |
79 |
| Steve Jackman |
65 |
Over 2000cc Road Cars – Series Production Class
Simon Neve in his Mitsubishi Evo showed his intention to take this class at the very first event. He won every event he entered and was pipped to the overall championship by the tie-break rules, a great performance by him. Steve Cox and Richard Mullis were very consistent in their performances, finishing second and third respectively in all of the timed runs.
| Result 2021 |
Points |
| Simon Neve |
100 |
| Steve Cox |
90 |
| Tony Mullis |
80 |
Road Going Specialist Production Class
In an interesting class in 2021, Clive Skipper in his Caterham had a great season. Chris Burridge pushed very hard for most of the season, taking points away from Clive a couple of times.
| Result 2021 |
Points |
| Clive Skipper |
91 |
| Chris Burridge |
83 |
| Adrian Lewis – Westfield | 46 |
Over 2000cc Modified Limited Production Marque Sports Car Class
The early part of the season suggested that this class might be Graham Beale’s until issues at the July meetings meant he had to withdraw the Ginetta G33. This left an opening for the Porsche 911 of Phil Price to take three additional points. Those points ended up being the deciding factor for the class championship. Graham and Phil swapped places at both of the August meetings meaning Phil taking the class championship.
| Result 2021 |
Points |
| Phil Price |
92 |
| Graham Beale |
90 |
| Paul Slade |
64 |
Up to 1400cc Modified Cars – Series Production Class
Neil Turner, in the Mini, dominated class, in 2021, despite off at Harewood that put him out of the August events. Neil also won the Tony Marsh Memorial Award at the July meeting. He was the closest to a class record at that meetings. Interestingly, no championship class records were broken in 2021.
| Result 2021 |
Points |
| Neil Turner |
72 |
| David Bean |
64 |
Over 2000cc Modified Cars – Series Production Class, supported by Turbo Dynamics
This was one of those classes that could have gone to any of the competitors and the tie break rules decided the outcome. Tim Painter in the Aston Martin Vantage and Mark Walker in his Porsche Cayman has had a proper scrap on their hands all season. Jim Herbert adding to the mix with a couple of wins. Sadly, Mark, had a few offs at Hollow, damaging his front splitter and ultimately leading to second place in the class.
| Result 2021 |
Points |
| Tim Painter |
93 |
| Mark Walker |
93 |
| Jim Herbert |
79 |
Over 2000cc Modified Specialist Production Class
Richie Gatt and Martin Watson had some great battles in the early part of the season. Martin’s off just over the finish line on the August Sunday cost him the class win and second place in the class. Richie’s solid points-scoring paying off in the end. Steve Holland’s car issues were finally sorted and he returned in August amassing a great points tally and finished second in the Sunday Top Ten Challenge. Look out for Steve next season.
| Result 2021 |
Points |
| Richie Gatt |
80 |
| Steve Holland |
54 |
| Martin Watson |
52 |
Historically Interesting Class, supported by Kelvin Jouhar
This was another class that was decided on August Sunday. Mike Broome, in his Alexis MK17, had been holding second place, behind Chris Cannell, in the Rough Cutter, all season. Unfortunately, Chris fell whilst pushing Roger Cock’s car to the start-line before the second timed run that put Chris was out for the day.
| Result 2021 |
Points |
| Mike Broome |
88 |
| Chris Cannell |
84 |
| Sue Hayes |
77 |
Sports Libre up to 1400cc
Tim Pitfield in his DJ Firecat has had, what can only be described as, another fantastic season. Tim and the DJ Firecat have won all but one of the events in 2021. Craig Russell snatched a win at the August Saturday. Ultimately, Tim’s performance won him not only the class championship but the overall championship.
| Result 2021 |
Points |
| Tim Pitfield |
100 |
| Craig Russell |
91 |
| Stuart Lugger |
80 |
601cc to 1100cc Racing Car Class, supported by Drynham Project Management Limited
Murray Wakeham in his OMS CF96 had a great season. The early season cost Murray deer, it’s one of those what would have been moments. Steve Loadsman had some solid performances but never could actually get the lead away from Murray.
| Result 2021 |
Points |
| Murray Wakeham |
99 |
| Steve Loadsman |
82 |
| Adrian Lewis – Empire |
71 |
| James Moore |
38 |
1101cc to 1600cc Racing Car Class
We remembered long-standing competitor, Richard Gaylard in our August meeting, naming the class in memoriam. Richard had competed at Gurston Down for almost 25 years.
Peter Hammock and his Empire Wraith had a terrible start to the season, with a fuel pressure regulator failure. This put him back in both the championship and challenge. But Andrew Mathis had his share of bad luck in July which put them both in with a chance of the class win. Peter won all the timed runs in August, securing his class win.
| Result 2021 |
Points |
| Peter Hammock |
86 |
| Andrew Mathis |
80 |
1601cc to 2000cc Racing Car – Normally Aspirated Class
Tony Wiltshire in his Ralt Peugeot, took the class championship and the challenge, a great season for him. Roger Cock in the Pilbeam MP54 only managed to compete at the August meetings.
| Result 2021 |
Points |
| Tony Wiltshire |
96 |
| Roger Cock |
48 |
We would like to thank all of our competitors and sponsors for their support in 2021!
We would also like to thank everyone who made our events and championship possible!
SEE YOU NEXT YEAR
E&OE
Anthony Record – Press Officer – BARC SW, Gurston Down Speed Hill Climb