Menzies ends near two-year hillclimb victory drought with Harewood success

Wallace Menzies finally returned to winning ways in the British Hillclimb Championship when he took his first top 12 run-off success since Wiscombe Park in July 2023 at Harewood last weekend.

It was a result that has been a long time coming as Menzies and Matt Ryder shared the wins on a day that was all about tyre management under the warm May sunshine at the challenging Yorkshire hill.

Menzies spent the whole of 2024 working back to competitiveness after an accident at the Craigantlet season-opener and it was his first year without a victory for a decade. That made Sunday’s success in the first Harewood run-off all the more rewarding. “This is pretty sweet,” said the four-time champion. “I’m super pleased with that. Everyone has worked so hard to get us back to where we are.”

The Harewood event came at a time when tyre supply becomes ever more the key issue as new stock of Nova rubber is due in July. More and more drivers are battling to conserve existing tyre stock and make them work. The combination of the abrasive Harewood surface and warm sunshine meant that tyre management was absolutely critical.

Menzies and his team arrived in Yorkshire with a clear plan for what rubber they would use when and they stuck to it. In the first run-off, with times at least a second outside Ryder’s existing hill record, Menzies set a 47.40s to edge Ryder by 0.013s. “Massive well done to Wallace,” said Ryder of his rival’s victory.

Sean Gould, in the car he shares with Ryder, was a strong third ahead of the closely matched Will Hall and Trevor Willis. As a double-driven car, Gould ran his Gould GR59 first in the run-off and that meant Ryder went to the line with tyres that were already well up on temperature despite every effort to cool them down in the few minutes between their runs.

“That was a wrong call,” said Ryder of the decision to use the same tyres as Gould in the run-off. Later in the day, the Ryder team made a rapid change of rear rubber when Gould brought the car back to the paddock after his opening shot. Ryder responded by clocking a 47.49s, which threw the gauntlet down to Menzies.

“I saw what Matt had done – my second run-off was smooth and clean, but just too safe,” said Menzies who set a 47.81s for second place. With Hall failing to qualify after a spin in the class runs, Willis moved his OMS up to a fine third as young Jack Cottrill backed up a sixth in the first run with a very strong fourth in the second in his Cosworth XD-powered DJ Dallara.

David Warburton had a strong day in his 1600cc Gould with eighth and sixth while young Alex Coles starred once more with joint eighth and seventh in Kelvin Broad’s Force. Johnathen Varley and young Tom Weaver also made their mark in the top 10.