Hill Climb Topics

The British hill-climb season got off to a good start with the Aston Martin O.C.’s two-day Daily Mirror Trophy event at Wiscombe Park, Devon. Most of the leading R.A.C. Championship contenders attended by the chief opponent was the weather which made a nonsense of the times. Peter Boshier-Jones’ 1.3 supercharged Lotus-Climax went up in the dry to record 46.83 for fastest time of day. Current champion, Peter Westbury, drove the Ferguson P99 in the wet but could not better third best time behind Patsy Burt’s Cooper-Climax. The GT class went to Brian Hetreed’s Aston Martin, who set a new class record at 48.94 seconds, beating Fry’s Ferrari in the process.

The first round of the British Hill-Climb Championship takes place at Loton Park on April 26th, where Westbury will again drive the Ferguson. In addition to the other regular machines seen at previous events Ian McLaughlin will be running his Clewer Special, based on a Kieft chassis, with a 4.7 Chevrolet V8 engine. Following this event is the Bugatti O.C. Prescott Championship event on May 3rd, where two cars will be seen on the hill at the same time. Full details of this event can be found in “Fixtures for May.”