Devon cream for Ryder

Photo by Nigel Cole

The title race pendulum in the British Hillclimb Championship swung back towards Matthew Ryder during rounds 21 and 22 at the scenic Wiscombe Park venue in Devon (July 26-27).

In the dry on Saturday and then in damp conditions on Sunday, Ryder scored an emphatic double to take his season tally to 12 wins from 22 rounds in his Gould GR59J. Arch rival Wallace Menzies had a mixed weekend and battled with understeer in the damp on Sunday to finish down in sixth place.

Photo by Nigel Cole

On Saturday, Ryder had to push very hard to produce a winning climb in 32.74s and edge the returning Alex Summers by just over a tenth of a second. Menzies was well in the mix in third but only headed Will Hall by six hundredths of a second, while rising star Alex Coles was as sensational as ever, taking fifth in his 1300t Force ahead of David Uren and Trevor Willis.

On Sunday, Ryder had more of a cushion, clocking 38.29s in the tricky conditions to be nearly half a second clear of Hall with Summers third. Sean Gould just edged the flying Coles for fourth, but sixth for Menzies will surely be one of his dropped scores at season end.

Photo by Nigel Cole

The changeable conditions on Sunday allowed Damien Bradley to qualify second fastest for the BHC run-off in his Subaru Impreza, having had the benefit of a dry run before the leading contenders had to tackle a damp hill.

Photo by Nigel Cole

Remarkably, Bradley qualified for both the Tin Top run-off and the BHC run-off on the same day, which is thought to be the first time this has ever been done. Meanwhile, making a welcome visit to Devon was current Australian Hillclimb champion Dean Tighe, who shared the Empire Wraith of William Loughridge. Dean loved the BHC weekend and is now hatching plans to bring his own 500 horsepower Empire Wraith over to the UK for the 2026 BHC season.

The BHC schedule resumes at Shelsley Walsh on August 9-10 for another of the highlight events of what is proving to be another enthralling season of top flight Hillclimbing.

Written by Paul Lawrence and published in partnership with Autosport