Matthew Ryder crowned 2025 British Hillclimb Champion

2025 BHC Champion Matt Ryder guides the big Gould through Orchard at Prescott on his way to securing his second title – Photo Credit: Stuart Wing Capture Your Car Photography

Matthew Ryder is the 2025 British Hillclimb champion after another superbly measured performance at Prescott on Sunday.

Ryder and Sean Gould, in the Gould GR59 they share, were the class of the field as the championship returned to the Gloucestershire venue for the second of two visits. When they each took a win and a second place in the two championship run-offs and Will Hall twice edged Wallace Menzies back to fourth, Ryder’s second title was secure.

This was a day when changeable weather conditions played a part but through it all, the Ryder and Gould team swept to another resounding performance in the car that had been significantly rebuilt after Gould's accident at Shelsley Walsh four weeks earlier.

Sean Gould is having a very strong end to the 2025 season– Photo Credit: Stuart Wing Capture Your Car Photography

With rounds at Doune and Loton Park still to run later in September Ryder’s nearest rival, four time champion Menzies, can no longer grab the title and Menzies was among the first to congratulate Ryder on securing back-to-back titles .

A heavy thunderstorm in the morning upset the qualifying process and Paul Haimes was one of those to suffer the most as the rain got even harder as he sat on the start line. But there were no such problems for Ryder, who stormed the still wet track in the run-off to win on a 40.68s climb. Gould, Hall and Menzies were very closely matched in second, third and fourth as Alex Summers wrapped up the top five.

The story was much the same later in the day for the second run-off on a much drier track But this time, Gould edged ahead to take his second win of the season when he pipped Ryder by 16-hundredths of a second with Hall, Menzies and Summers once more rounding out the top five. Menzies knew he had to win to keep the Championship alive. A small mistake at Pardon Hairpin however and the time and his 2025 Championship challenge were gone. Once again, Alex Coles was one of the stars in the smaller-engined cars and took his Force TA to a brace of eighth places.

Ryder’s win in the opening run-off was his 14th of the season from 26 run-offs to date and that statistic alone proves that his second title was richly deserved.

2025 BHC Tin Top Champion Simon Bainbridge won yet another Tin Top run-off at Prescott – Photo Credit: Stuart Wing Capture Your Car Photography

Damien Bradley won the final Tin Top run-off of 2025 in his amazing Subaru - Photo Credit: Stuart Wing Capture Your Car Photography

In the BHC Tin Top – Top Ten Challenge, 2025 Champion Simon Bainbridge again showed just how good he is by securing the win in the first Tin Top run-off. Damien Bradley spent all weekend taming the handling of the Pikes Peak Subaru. His hard work paid off with a deserved win in the second run-off. A strong end to the season by Damien and the team.

Johnathen Varley had a brilliant Prescott weekend - Photo Credit: Stuart Wing Capture Your Car Photography

In the classes Johnathen Varley had a brilliant weekend. Two class wins sets us up for a grandstand finish to the season in his battle with David Warburton to win the class based BHC Cup presented by BMTR supported by Hoosier. Johnathen’s seventh place finish in the first BHC run-off was the icing on the cake for the Telford based driver.

Written by Paul Lawrence and published in partnership with Autosport