Menzies and Ryder share the spoils at Loton Park

Photo and Word Credit: Paul Lawrence

Matthew Ryder and Wallace Menzies emerged from Loton Park with a run-off victory each in the penultimate weekend of the British Hillclimb Championship, presented by Nova Motorsport. 

On a weekend when changing weather delivered a big challenge, Ryder won the opening run-off on a still damp track but at the end of the afternoon Menzies was mighty on an even wetter track to level the score. 

In both cases, title contender Will Hall was third and the results from Loton Park set up a dramatic winner-takes-all finale at Prescott in three weeks' time.

After 22 dry run-offs across the last five months, the weather finally broke and the practice runs at Loton Park on Saturday were run in horribly wet conditions. Sunday started dry but the forecast was not good and, sure enough, the rain arrived mid-morning. 

However, it was not bad enough to dramatically impact those qualifying for the first run-off, and it was Ryder who delivered the best performance with a climb of 46.75s. Ryder had been the fastest qualifier in his Gould GR59 and knew what he had to do after Menzies and Hall ran ahead of him. With a big push in the drier part of the hill towards the top, Ryder charged to victory with a margin of nearly a second over Menzies and Hall. Others to make their mark in the opening run-off included Alex Summers who took his self-built AFS P8T to a strong fourth. 

The afternoon class runs started on a largely dry track, but the rain came back midway through and that allowed some of the smaller-engined single seaters to earn their place in the run-off. From the ranks of the big-engined cars, only Hall, Menzies, and Ryder were able to qualify for the run-off- leaving many of the top 12 regulars watching on from the sidelines. 

Ryder squeaked in as 11th fastest qualifier, but that meant he was one of the first to go in the run-off and had to set a marker on a still wet track. He pushed as hard as he dared and set a 48.67s run. Hall was next of the title contenders to run but knew when he slid wide at the first corner that it wasn't going to be a winning run. Earlier in the day, a problem with second gear had left his Gould understeering at Museum and losing critical time. 

Menzies, meanwhile, went into the second run-off knowing what both Ryder and Hall had done and the Scot knew that he had to attack. Sure enough, with enormous commitment on the fast sweeping curves of Cedar Straight, Menzies stopped the clocks at 48.38s for a fine victory in tough conditions.

Others to shine in the second run-off included Dave Tatham (DJ Firehawk), Stuart Bickley (Force TA) and Tom Weaver (Empire Evo 3) from the 1100cc racing car class - who all scored big in the rain-affected final Run Off.