Hall steals the Shelsley show

Will Hall stunned the hillclimbing world by setting a new outright hill record at Shelsley Walsh on the first of Sunday's two run-offs with a time of 22.33s, the fastest climb ever recorded at the Worcestershire venue.

Later in the day, as ambient temperatures dropped, Hall did it again to complete a perfect weekend. Although the afternoon times were a little slower, his climb of 22.72s was still enough to give him a second run-off victory.

These were two incredibly popular victories for the Midlands driver. In the opening run-off he stunned everyone by bettering the outright hill record set by Sean Gould in August 2021 at 22.37s. On the newly resurfaced Shelsley hill, Hall dipped to a 22.33s to shave four hundredths of a second off this most famous and prestigious of hillclimb records.

In the opening run-off, Matthew Ryder led the chase of Hall at 22.54s as Wallace Menzies also broke the 23s mark with a 22.91s before Trevor Willis had one of his best days at Shelsley with a 23.33s to take fourth.

Later in the day, with the temperature dropping and the threat of rain in the air, Hall ran last and knew that a superb 22.98s climb by David Uren was his target. Sure enough, Hall did it all right and grabbed victory with a 22.72s. Ryder slipped to fourth behind Menzies to make the day’s result even more important for the season-long championship.

Others to feature included Paul Haimes and David Warburton and Jack Cottrill got his 2026 score off the ground with two eighth places in his Dallara.

With a big crowd and tremendous competition across all the classes, this was another great day for hillclimbing at its most famous venue. It could also prove to be a very important day in the championship battle, as Hall stemmed Ryder's run of recent successes.

Photos Courtesy of Ben and Paul Lawrence