GARRON POINT HILLCLIMB
MID-ANTRIM MOTOR CLUB
An excellent entry of 70 cars started Mid Antrim Motor Club’s twisty Garron Point Hillclimb and thankfully the early morning rain cleared to leave a dry road for the day’s sport
Former multiple Champion Graham Thompson returned to take the win but
was pushed all the way by a superb performance from Ricky McGimpsey who
was just over half a second off Thompson’s pace. Analysis of the timing splits showed Ricky having great starts and very good pace on the lower part of the
course only to lose out to Graham on the faster top section.
Roger Gage had a
brilliant drive into 3rd overall breaking his own Class Record in the process and
forcing himself ahead of the single seaters of Chris Houston and George
Stevenson who completed the top 5.
In the Classes, the Roadgoing Class 2 saw a brilliant battle as usual and Michael
McAllister hit form in a big way to score a tight win over Adrian Mulholland
with Ryan McNeill taking a very competitive 3rd in the Elise. Roadgoing Class 3
saw continued improvement from Philip Cardy and he pushed Paul
Montgomery all the way, just being pipped by three tenths.
Class 4 saw a surprise win for Colin McBride, pipping Gardiner McIlwaine on
the last run. Gordon Fogarty continued his dominance of Class 6a in the Fiat
whilst Paul Hamill saw off the challenge of David McClurg in his first hillclimb
appearance in the Locost.
Roger and Rudi’s see saw battle all season continued but Roger’s blinding commitment in the lower section of the course gave him a comfortable win. Gerard O’Connell continues the learning curve with the new turbo engine in
the Escort and took Class 9 after Davy Francis retired in practice with a
mechanical issue.
In Class 10, Alan Cassells and Alan Roddy had another good battle and Cassells took it by just one tenth of a second. The big rallycar class was taken by Conor Lavery’s BMW M3 from Seamus Morris in the Darrian. Class 12 for Modified 4WD was won comfortably by Ivan McCullough’s mighty Nissan GTR.
The small single seater class saw a close contest all day between George Stevenson and
Brendan Flynn with George edging it. Historic classes went to Gerry McGarrity’s Mini and Robert McGimpsey’s Turner.
It was an excellent event with the usual top class Mid Antrim organisation.