An epic British Hillclimb Championship (BHC) presented by Avon Tyres 2022 season will be decided at Loton Park Hillclimb in Shropshire over the weekend of 24th & 25th September. The 2022 BHC season always looked like it was a classic in the making. Heading into the final round, defending BHC Champion Wallace Menzies who drives his beautifully prepared Cosworth XD engined Gould GR59-M and 2021 runner-up Alex Summers, driving the superbly engineered DJ Firestorm Cosworth XD, have ten run-off victories each. When dropped scores are taken into account the top two are nearly inseparable as we move into the last event of the season at Loton and Alex will be doing all that he can to turn the tables on Wallace.
The Championship has now come to the boil with breaking outright records being vital in the battle to determine who will be crowned 2022 BHC Champion. To show you just how tight it is Alex has scored nine ‘bonus’ points for breaking records in the season to date, while Wallace has eight. With dropped scores now in play, breaking the outright hill record at Loton Park could determine who becomes Champion. Wallace Menzies holds the current record of 41.76 seconds, set on a crazy day of record breaking last September. With Alex Summers having a personal best time of only nine one hundredths of a second slower than Wallace’s record, all of the pieces are in place for another stunning weekend of top class Championship Hillclimbing. Going into the weekend with a small lead and being the current Loton Park outright record holder means Wallace Menzies must start as favourite. As they say though nothing is impossible in motor racing!
Elsewhere in the BHC many battles remain to be resolved. Although Scott Moran is certain to finish third overall, the battle for fourth between three times BHC Champion Trevor Willis and rising star Matt Ryder is still unresolved. Matt’s gearbox failure at Prescott last time out makes Trevor strong favourite. Matt has however produced some great results already this season. It would be no surprise if he upset the form book again this weekend. Dave Uren’s (Gould GR55B) rain affected run-off win at Prescott has confirmed him in sixth overall with Richard Spedding (GWR Raptor) also confirmed in seventh. Paul Haimes (Gould GR59 – Hayabusa Turbo) and David Warburton (Gould GR59 – Hayabusa) are still squabbling over eighth and ninth. Paul’s second place in the first run-off at Prescott means that he starts the Loton weekend as favourite with a seven point advantage over David, who will be trying everything that he knows to deny him! The battle for number ten, the final permanent number, is a very interesting one. Stuart Sugden (GWR Raptor) had a brilliant Prescott weekend to leap up the table and currently holds the coveted tenth place. His one point lead over Will Hall is fragile though, with a host of drivers breathing down his neck. A good weekend from Johnathen Varley (GWR Predator), Graham Wynn (Gould GR59 – Judd) or even Jack Cottrill (DJ Dallara – Cosworth XD) could see any of them snatch the position away from Stuart. It will be very exciting to watch how this plays out.
Prescott saw seventeen year old Alex Coles (Van Diemen FF86) crowned as Champion of the class based BHC Cup, presented by classic car insurance broker Footman James. Alex has had an exceptional first season of motorsport. His sixteen class wins, six with new class records, cemented his place as Champion. Well done Alex! He will be looking to end the season on a high though. So watch out for the boy from Plymouth as he drives the Van Diemen, probably for the last time. In the battle for second place overall Richard Spedding (GWR Raptor 2) holds a slender two point advantage over Johnathen Varley (GWR Predator) as they head to Loton. With five class records so far this season Johnathen is more than capable of turning the tables on Richard. Let battle commence!
So, make your plans to be at Loton Park. It has been a fabulous 2022 season. You will not be disappointed! Advance tickets can be purchased on the button below.