MORAN KEEN TO BUILD ON EARLY WORK
Organiser: Midland Automobile Club When: June 4/5 Where: Shelsley Walsh, nr Worcester Starters: 160
Scott Moran consolidated his British Hillclimb Championship lead with a pair of wins at the historic motorsport venue as a massive crowd lined the theatrical track.
The top three in each shoot-out were also the top three qualifiers, the top three best times of the day and top three in the championship standings.
Wallace Menzies and Trevor Willis finished second and third but they could do nothing about the rampant Moran, who now has a career 142 British round wins under his belt.
Willis had a moment in Q2 when his car’s engine cover came off. The aero disturbance made the run difficult and he was outqualified by Menzies.
“Trevor must have thought he had it each time but he knows I’ll always try to sneak in at the end,” Moran said afterwards.
Moran now has a 21-point lead but admitted that the position could change at any time and that he needs to build all the points he can as early as possible.
Dave Uren is still in fourth place overall in his tiny turbocharged Force PC. Although he took fourth in the first encounter, his engine suffered a major failure after the finish in the second qualifying run and he was unable to start in the final round of the day. He has one week to replace the engine before the next rounds at Loton Park.
Car-sharing Sean Gould and Eynon Price, in the works Gould, continued their successful season but Gould himself suffered a moment at Ess Approach in round 10 that had the crowd gasping. A scoring time eluded him.
The track proved difficult and was quite dusty in the warm conditions. Andrew Henson destroyed his classic Pilbeam MP62 after The Crossing in a dramatic shunt, but the delay was quite short and Henson fortunately walked away unhurt but shocked.
Paul Haimes’ turbocharged Gould has had a troubled two-year gestation but it finally performed faultlessly for his best day since he won the Leaders title in his former Dallara nearly 10 years ago.
Will Hall tamed his Force-aer for a fifth and fourth but the factory manager was still dissatisfied with his weekend. The cause of the annoyance may be Richard Spedding, who was joint highest-scoring unblown 1600cc competitor with Gould. He still holds fifth overall, a solitary point ahead of Hall with Ed Hollier also a successful 1600 driver.
Lee Griffiths made one of his occasional run-off appearances in the first encounter but failed to score and later crashed at the Esses in the second run. Championship co-sponsor Graham Wynn clipped the bank at Top Ess in round nine and failed to score as a result.
Colin Satchell consolidated his lead in the class-based Hillclimb Leaders Championship with victory in each run in his Peugeot.