It was a record-breaking weekend at Wiscombe Park in every way, as the hillclimb venue at Honiton hosted the prestigious British Championships – marking the 60th anniversary of the event visiting Devon.
The British Championship itself was celebrating its 75th anniversary and record crowds flocked to see the UK’s fastest drivers and cars tackling the challenging 1000-yard course which has a gradient of 1 in 14.
They were entertained to two days of high speed, precision driving – the course demands immense skill – with the track just 12 foot wide, with the fastest cars touching speeds of 130mph through the S-bends and hairpins.
And to celebrate the occasion, there were a number of new records set, including a new outright Hill Record as 2015 British champion Alex Summers, in his DJ Firestorm Cosworth single-seater racing car, clocked a storming 32.94s run on Saturday to break the previous record set by current British champion Wallace Menzies in 2019.
Summers and Menzies, both in contention for the 2022 title, traded tenths of a second throughout the weekend, with honours even by Sunday's prize giving.
The Top 12 Shoot Out was won by Summers on Saturday, with Menzies winning it on Sunday, and heading back to Alloa in Scotland with a narrow two-point lead over his rival in the British Championship with just six rounds remaining.
The new records set covered the Hillclimb and Sprint Association National Class times and Wiscombe Park’s own Class records.
Among the local drivers having memorable weekends were Dawlish Warren golf professional Jon Langmead in his Lotus Elise 135R, and Taunton’s Ben Bonfield in his Jedi Mark 4 single seater racing car.
Both drivers are having great seasons, with Langmead currently second in his Class in the National BHC Cup, and Bonfield leading the ASWMC Tyremarks Championship.
Langmead won his Class on both days, setting a new Wiscombe Park Class Record on Sunday, while Bonfield, the 2021 ASWMC Champion, set a new national HSA Class Record on Saturday, and then broke it on Sunday.
The man who has proved almost unbeatable at the top of the Wiscombe Park time sheets this season, Andrew Forsyth in his OMS CF04, set the Fastest Time of the Day on both days.
The current leader of the Tillicoultry Quarries Wiscombe Park Championship, Plymouth motor engineer Ian Ingleheart, also won his Class on both days. The quadruple Wiscombe champion is in fantastic form in his Westfield SE Cosworth and maintains his Championship lead going into the final rounds.
In total, the weekend saw seven new Wiscombe Park records, including the outright Hill Record, and 10 new HSA National records set.
The next Wiscombe Park meeting is the Five Clubs event on September 3-4, with further rounds of the Wiscombe and ASWMC Championships, plus a special 60th Anniversary celebration of Gilbern cars – a large number of these rare, handbuilt cars will be competing on the hill, and on display.
For those who prefer two and three-wheel action, the NHCA members will be competing on their bikes, sidecars and trikes with tickets available online at wiscombepark.co.uk.
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