At the end of a day of thrilling competition, Wallace Menzies left Shelsley Walsh as the new outright hill record holder at the famous Worcestershire venue.
Rounds 21 and 22 of the British Hillclimb Championship formed the second visit of the year to the famous 1000-yard dash up the side of the Teme Valley and in warm sunshine in front of a big crowd it was a day of outstanding record-breaking.
Menzies arrived in Worcestershire on a roll after five wins from six events in the Channel Islands and at Wiscombe Park. An enforced engine change, more car development and a return to Pirellis have all served to put the Scot right into the title race.
At the start of the Shelsley weekend, the hill record belonged to Will Hall in 22.33s, which had stood for just nine weeks since the June event. But, when times during Saturday’s practice runs dipped into the middle 22s bracket, that record looked particularly vulnerable.
Sure enough, on the first of the class runs to decide the qualifiers for the opening run-off, current champion Matthew Ryder posted a 22.29s climb to take the record, but only for a little while. After a delay while barrier damage was repaired, it was Menzies who ran first of the top three Gould GR59-mounted title contenders. His 22.27s sliced a fraction off the new record and set a marker for Hall and Ryder coming behind him. Incredibly, Hall posted an identical time of 22.27s, while Ryder was a tiny whisker away at 22.29s. For the first time, the outright hill record at Shelsley Walsh was shared.
Hall was one of three drivers to break the old record on an historic day for hillclimbing
Photo by: Ben Lawrence
However, that shared record was to last barely three hours. At the end of a long day, the top-12 runners returned for the second contest. This time, Ryder was the first of the big guns to tackle the hill and set a respectable 22.64s but admitted that he’d run wide at Crossing and kissed the bank on the way through. “It just wasn’t quite our day today,” said Ryder.
Meanwhile, Hall was the penultimate runner of the day and stormed the hill in 22.28s, which seemed like it might be enough to take the win. But Menzies had other ideas. “I went to the line knowing what Will had done and it just had to be a case of full send,” said the Scot. It certainly was full send, even as the low sun crept over the brow just off the startline. But Menzies kept it pinned and stormed to a remarkable 22.20s to set another new hill record, the third of the day.
Menzies toured back down the hill to a rapturous reception after what could prove to be a very important weekend in the absorbing title contest between these three giants of the discipline.
Rather overshadowed by the record-breaking, other drivers had good days in the run-offs, and they included Dave Uren, Trevor Willis, Alex Summers and, particularly David Warburton, who broke the 24-second barrier on the second run in his 1600cc Gould.
With dropped scores about to come into play, this title race is just too close to call with three points separating the trio’s raw totals. There are now four run-offs left, two at Loton Park at the end of August and two at Prescott in mid-September. It’s going to be a thriller.
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– The Autosport.com Team
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