Tony Bishop – Former Chief Scrutineer

Sep 19, 2023

We are sad to announce that Tony Bishop died on the 14th of September 2023.

Many years ago, Tony served as our Chief Scrutineer; those who competed back then will probably remember him. Here is a picture of him enjoying his other passion, vintage tractors.

Rest in Peace.

THE 2023 TURBO DYNAMICS GURSTON DOWN CHAMPIONSHIP – CLASS RESULTS

Sep 10, 2023

The 2023 Turbo Dynamics Gurston Down Championship finished on a high after our August meetings.

Our overall champion was confirmed as Steve Butts. Steve has now one the Gurston Down Championship a record four times, quite an achievement.

CLASS RESULTS

Here are the class results in the Turbo Dynamics Gurston Down Championship.

Class 4MX5 – Road Cars – Mazda MX5

Chris Burch, who shares the Mazda Roadster with Richard Morton, has had a great season. The lead in this class, and the overall championship at many points, has been switching between the two throughout the season. Chris finished sixth overall and Richard was thirteenth overall in the championship.

Class 4a – Road Cars Series Production up to 1400cc

John had a great season, at one point he was eighth overall and ended the season fourteenth. The MG Midget has been suffering from minor oil leaks all season. The leak forced him out of the Saturday in August, meaning he dashed home to get the recently acquired Renault R8.

Class 4b – The Road Cars Series Production 1401cc to 2000cc

Russell Davies and Daniel Friel, in their respective Hondas, have been swapping places in this class and the overall championship all season. Between them, they took third and fourth in the overall championship with Russell third and Daniel fourth.

Class 4c – Road Cars Series Production Over 2000cc, sponsored by Turbo Dynamics

Steve Cox in the VW Golf R has had a great season, not just winning the class but he qualified for a few Top Ten Run-offs too.

The results don’t show how close Steve and Simon Neve in his Mitsubishi Evo were all season. They have been swapping first and seconds in class for almost all of the year’s rounds.

Class 4d – Road Cars Specialist Production, any capacity

Adrian Lewis in his Westfield, had a great season. He not only won the class but came second overall, a great result. Here is another car and driver combination to watch out for in 2024.

Class 5 – Modified Limited Production Marque Sports Car Class up to 2000cc

Only championship entrant in this class was Steve Butts in the Lotus Elise. His performance throughout the season gave Steve the overall championship and his fourth Gurston Down Championship.

Class 6 – Modified Limited Production Marque Sports Car Over 2000cc

Graham Beale in the Ginetta G33 had a great season. Qualifying for multiple Top Ten run-offs as well as taking the 2023 class championship and ninth overall.

Class 7 – Modified Series Production Class up to 1400cc

James White in his super fast Mini has made this class his own this season. He also finished eighth overall. In the early part of the season, Neil Turner was switching places and points with James but didn’t compete during the second half. These two would probably pushed each other and there may have been a very different result in the overall championship.

Class 8 – Modified Series Production 1401cc to 2000cc

Steve had this class to himself this year and scored 96.71 points.

Class 9 – Modified Series Production Over 2000cc

Stephen Moore and Jim Herbert in their respective Mitsubishi Evo have been fighting in this class all season. They have been breaking and re-breaking the class record all season.

Class 11 – Modified Specialist Production Class, supported by Online Cleaning Technologies

Steve Holland in his Caterham has had a great fantastic season. Not only leading the class championship, setting a new class record, winning the Tony Marsh Memorial Award, and winning the Online Cleaning Technologies Top Ten Challenge but he’s also finished 7th in the overall championship. Looks like the Awards Dinner will be a busy night for Steve.

Class 13 – Historically Interesting Class, supported by Kelvin Jouhar

Fyrth Crosse and his Dempster Ensign LNF3 have had another great season full of consistent performances and finishes giving him the class title.

Class 15a – Sports Libre up to 1400cc

Tim Pitfield and his DJ Firecat had significant issues during the season which held his championship and top ten challenge back.

Class 15b – Sports Libre Over 2000cc

Mike in the Force SR8 had a very good season after acquiring the SR8 late last year. He finished fifth in the Online Cleaning Technologies Top Ten Challenge and it will be an interesting next season now Mike is getting used to the car.

Class 19 – 601cc to 1100cc Racing Car Class

Ben Bonfield has had a great season. He has finished second in the Top Ten Run-off and fifth in the overall championship. Various issues with the Jedi he shares with Tony, did not seem to affect his class results. There were great performances by the entire class.

Class 20B – Racing Cars Built up to 1985

Class 20 – Racing Cars 1101cc to 1600cc

Andrew Forsyth entered just eight weekend events in 2023. He competed alone in the class. He was third in the Online Cleaning Technologies Top Ten Challenge, had he competed at more events, he may well have been the 2023 Challenge winner.

Class 21a – Racing Cars 1601cc to 2000cc (Normally Aspirated) supported by New Techniques

Tony Wiltshire and his Ralt did not compete for the full season but finished 11th in the Challenge.

Class 22 – Racing Cars Over 2000cc

Paul Crute in the lovely OMS28 Jaguar is on his own in this class. He finished with 261.76 points and fourth place in the Online Cleaning Technologies Top Ten Challenge. A great season for Paul.

We thank Turbo Dynamics for their continued support of our championship in 2023.

E&OE

THE 2023 TURBO DYNAMICS GURSTON DOWN CHAMPIONSHIP OFFICIAL RESULTS

Sep 10, 2023

Our 2023 season at Gurston Down concluded with a great weekend of hill climbing.

The 2023 Turbo Dynamics Championship was finally concluded after some stunning performances by so many drivers. We thank Turbo Dynamics for their continued support of our championship in 2023.

We are pleased to announce that Steve Butts in his Lotus Elise is the 2023 Turbo Dynamics Gurston Down Champion.

Steve Butts driving the Lotus Elise has had an outstanding season and he becomes the first driver to manage a fourth championship

Second was Adrian Lewis in the Westfield. Adrian has scored consistently throughout the season, but needed to get slightly closer to the class’s target time. But there is always next season!

Third was Russel Davies in the Honda Civic Type R. He and his fellow class member, Daniel Friel, who ended up fourth overall, were chasing each other hard all season. A great performance by them both.

Full Overall Championship Results can be found here:

The Turbo Dynamics Gurston Down Championship SEASON RESULTS

E&OE

THE 2023 ONLINE CLEANING TECHNOLOGIES BARC SW TOP TEN CHALLENGE – RESULTS

Sep 10, 2023

The 2023 Online Cleaning Technologies BARC SW Top Ten Challenge champion is Steve Holland and his amazing Caterham 7.

The 2023 Top Ten Challenge went all the way down to the last running of the Challenge. Saturday’s results, with Mike Rudge in the SR8 taking the win, pushing Andrew and Steve back to second and third. And Ben’s mechanical issue forced him out. This left the challenge wide open and totally dependent on Sunday’s results.

Ben didn’t fix his Jedi but Gary Hull lent Ben his car, saving Ben’s challenge.

Sunday saw a very close. Ben came in with a 31.35s, Steve Holland, 30.67s and then Andrew 30.56s.. This left a three-way tie, so the tie-break rules came into force. Andrew dropped out first as he had competed in the least number of rounds. That left Steve and Ben. This left dropped scores as the decider. Steve had 10 points to drop and Ben 9 points, meaning Steve became the challenge winner.

Second – Ben Bonfield

Third – Andrew Forsyth

A Few Honourable Mentions

Let’s not forget Paul Crute in the OMS Jaguar, who finished fourth.

And we can’t write a report about this year’s Online Cleaning Technologies Top Ten Challenge without mentioning Mike Rudge in the Force SR8 who finished fifth. His win on Saturday put the Challenge into a bit of a spin. He has been improving throughout the season. Look out for Mike next year!

There were some superb performances all around!

FULL RESULTS CAN BE FOUND HERE

2023 Online Cleaning Technologies BARC SW Top Ten Challenge Results

We want to thank Steve Holland and Online Cleaning Technologies for supporting our Top Ten Challenge in 2023.

Craig Russell 1972 -2023

Sep 5, 2023

It is with great sadness that we announce that Craig Russell, one of our Gurston Down regulars, passed away peacefully at home on Saturday the 2nd of September 2023.

Craig regularly campaigned his Westfield XTR in the Sports Libre up to 1400cc Class including earlier this year at Gurston Down and in June, joined other Gurston regulars at Saint Goueno Hillclimb in France. He loved our sport and was a great ambassador for Gurston Down.

Our sincere condolences to his wife Helen and the rest of his family and friends.

We will miss him, Rest in Peace.