A convoy of club cars headed off to watch the action at the Gurston Down Hillclimb at Broad Chalk near Salisbury and everyone thoroughly enjoyed seeing competition-prepared cars driving up a course one at a time against the clock.
Everyone met up at the Horton Inn for the short drive to the venue, although the Sprite of Peter Houghton had to return home part-way after suffering a battery failure – Peter returned later in a regular road car.
Having been given a reserved parking area it was just a short walk to the main paddock where the cars ranged from Minis, Morgans, Caterhams, Ginettas, Triumph TRs and all manner road-going saloon cars up to specially designed racing hillclimb single seaters from brands such as Cooper, Van Dieman, Swift, Jedi, OMS, Radical and Hornet. There was even an outrageous looking 1,800cc turbocharged Smart car powering its way at frighting speeds.
Of special interest to club members were the categories for Austin Healeys and MGs the latter taking part in the MG Car Club Speed Championship and featuring models such the Midget, MGB Roadster, MGTF and MGF and even an MG ZR.
Among those being cheered on were club member David Nutland (in a 1330cc BMC Sebring Sprite) and Ben Rolls (1380cc Austin Healey Sebring Sprite) son of Mike and Carole Rolls.
David, (above) who happily chatted to fellow club members about his car, said that prior to the day he had only had 16 minutes competition time in the car (he is better known for driving a Mini which has taken him to numerous class titles over the last 40 years) so the experience was still very strange to him especially the gear changes.
David has been upgrading the car all season so that it now develops 25 bhp at the wheels, a giant step from the MG Lackford Trophy specification engine he started with (thanks to Brett Sims Motorsport in New Milton).
On the day his practice times showed significant time improvements compared to the previous day which had been wet as he was finally getting to grip with the very special Sebring.
The afternoon timed runs started with another big improvement which elevated him to fifth in the Healeysport Speed Championship Class and the second run was another improvement which moved him up to fourth overall in a class of 16 cars, the second Spridget entered and beating all but
two of the Big Healeys.
In the MGCC Speed Championship Ben (above) was racing for points which are based on target times and as he was competing in one of the highest specification groups he needed to drive quicker to achieve the same points as someone in a lower class.
Despite this Ben managed to come first on both the Saturday and Sunday with 11 competitors competing on the Saturday and seven on the Sunday – his best time over the two days was 37.95 seconds less than two seconds shy of the class record.
He is currently second overall in Southern Championship and eighth in the National’s with two more events left in the season.
The day was so well received that many of those who attended have asked if we can do it again next year – look out for details in 2024.