CROFT HILLCLIMB REPORT

2 April 2017

                ANICC MILLERS OILS HILLCLIMB CHAMPIONSHIP

 

                   Round 1       Croft Hillclimb      1^st April 2017

 

A capacity entry of 80 cars provided a great start to the 2017 Hillclimb season at TSCC’s Holywood event.    Damp but drying  conditions in the practice runs led most competitors to ease themselves into the new season and, as expected, the frontrunners were Richard McGimpsey in his RMG and reigning Champion, Chris Houston in an OMS.

 

By the time of the first official timed run, the sun was out and a dry road meant everyone could attack the hill with more confidence.  Houston was starting to get to grips with his new OMS and set a sharp time of 36.12 seconds but McGimpsey was right behind, with less than 2 tenths of a second between them.   George Stevenson’s Jedi was tied for 3^rd place with Rudi Gage’s rapid Maguire.

 

Any prospect of a lowering of the times disappeared with a heavy rain shower during the early runners in the second timed run leaving the road damp for the rest of the day, so the first runs of the overall leaders remained unbeaten for the rest of the day.  Richard McGimpsey had a really go at it in the final fourth timed run but was unable to match Houston’s early time.

 

So, the top 5 finished as Houston, McGimpsey, Stevenson, Rudi and John Donnelly.

 

Places 6th to 9^th overall were fought over by a wide group of saloon cars, headed by Ivan McCullough’s mighty Nissan GTR, from a sideways Mark Francis followed by Seamus Morris’ Darrian and Neil Dugan’s nimble 205 RWD.   Just  0.15 of a second covered these four hard chargers.   The top 10 was completed by Thomas Purdy’s immaculate Escort RS.

 

Some of the Class battles were incredibly close, particularly Class 9 between Mark Francis and Neil Dugan (0.08 second),  Class 10 between Alan Roddy and Alan Cassells (0.18 second) and Class 14 where George Stevenson pipped John Donnelly by 0.02 of a second.   Another performance of note was Gordon Fogarty getting under the 40 second mark in the lovely X1/9.

 

Other Class winners were William Heaney, Adrian Mulholland, Barry Griffin, Gardiner McIlwaine, James Perry, Paul Hamill, Rudi,

Seamus Morris, Ivan McCullough, Chris Houston, Jack Brien, Robert McGimpsey and Michael Taylor

 

Credit to TSCC for running a super event considering the big entry and managing to give competitors a 4^th timed run.   All in all, a great start to the new season.

 

 

                              MILLERS MOTORSPORT OILS

                         NORTHERN IRELAND DISTRIBUTOR

                           JEM OILS       Tel.  02843 778019

 

Posted by CLavery on 3/4/2017; Last updated by CLavery on 3/4/2017