Championship update Results uploaded after Round 26. Click here to see results
We are just over halfway through our 2022 Championship Calendar having had a mixture of Sprints and Hillclimbs.
Following the start of the season at Angelsey we made our way south the Gurston and Loton on the 16th & 17th April. The weekend brought some beautiful weather to Gurston with seven Championship Competitors setting some great target times potentially for 2023 (as we have a further visit to the hillclimb on the 16th & 17th July). Lyndon Evans in his Fiat Punto surpassed last years target, achieving a time of 45.59 in the Standard Car Class (SC1), next to take to the hill in the Championship was Anthony Shearman in the Road Cars - Specialist Production, on the Saturday Anthony set a time of 39.33 and then on Sunday managed to chip away at the time set the day before finishing on a time of 38.77 in his Caterham 310R. Similar to Anthony, Paul Meadows set a great time on the Saturday (41.13) and then on Sunday pushed a little harder and set a competitive time of 38.29, and this was also the pattern of the weekend for Carol Nicholls in her Nike Mark 4, setting a time of 43.47 on Saturday and then a stella time of 42.53 on the Sunday. The remaining three Championship drivers swapped places between Saturday and Sunday with all of them improving their times. Saturday saw William Hunt in his Ford Sierra take the win from Alison Lock, in her Mitsubishi Evo and John Morgan in his Ford Anglia. All three drivers within a breath of each other all weekend. So, Saturday we had William Hunt on 37.88, followed Alison Lock on 38.06 and John Morgan on 38.31. On Sunday things changed, Alison took the win, with John Morgan second and William third. Their respective times were 36.85 (AL), 37.12 (JM) and 37.38 (WH)
Images > Gurston 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06 & 07
Loton saw four compete over the Easter Weekend and the longest hillclimb on our calendar. It was to be a frustrating weekend, with none of the Championship competitors being able to achieve their own PB’s or meet/exceed the target times for their class. Dave Ashurst best time of the weekend was achieved on Saturday with a time of 76.17, similarly the same applied to Gordon Hick posting a time of 61.33 on Saturday and 64.78. However, this was not be the case for Phylip Evans in his MG and Garry Morgan in his Vauxhall Chevet, with both posting a quicker time on Sunday, Phylip improving by over a second and half, posting a time of 68.48 and Garry improving by just under a second posting a time of 59.80.
Wiscombe and Anglesey saw only one Championship competitor enter each of the events. Wiscombe’s only attending Championship driver was Lyndon Evans in his Fiat Punto on Saturday 23rd April. Lyndon managed to exceed the target time by 0.18s, publishing a time of 53.22. Anglesey’s only attending driver was another Fiat Punto driver, namely Dave Ashurst. Our second visit to the Angelsey Circuit was to be hosted by the MG Car Club. This was Dave’s first time at Anglesey and as is the case with circuit, during a sprint weekend, the hosting clubs choose to run different circuits on each day, giving drivers a variety of speeds and corners. Dave posted a time of 157.87 on 2 laps of the National circuit and on the International a time of 130.08.
BARC Wales hosted its annual sprint at Pembrey Circuit, seeing 10 Championship competitors take to the circuit for the weekend. Saturday saw competitors commence to the Clubman Circuit and the National Circuit on Sunday. The weather proved to be challenging over the weekend, with Saturday being the better of the two days. Some competitors managed to exceed their target times setting new ones for 2023 on the Clubman, namely Ben Burggraff in his Lotus Elise (134.41), Gordon Hick in his VW Golf (146.2), Chris Edwards in his Mazda 323GTX (127.23), unfortunately due to the weather conditions Sunday was far more demanding.
In the Standard Car Class we saw two championship competitors battle it out in their Fiat Punto’s, with Lydon Evans publishing a time of 164.62 and Dave Ashurst at 167.78 on Saturday, with a turn of the tables on Sunday, with Dave Ashurst piping Lyndon to secure a time of 153.63, with Lyndon following on 156.41.
The weather hampered both Ben Burggraff and Gordon Hick achieving their target times on Sunday, but managed to exceed their target times on Saturday.
Due to mechanical issues, Paul Meadows had to retire early, only being able to complete one timed run, posting a time of 145.55. In the Modified Series Production cars, we had a similar situation with William Hunt also only completing one timed run, leaving Alison Lock and Christ Edwards to battle it out and complete both timed runs. Chris secured first in class and also setting a very challenging target time for 2023, Alison Lock came second (139.55), and due to mechanical issue William posted a time of 153.33. Unfortunately, Chris was unable to achieve the class target time, due to the weather but once again managed to secure a class win with a time of 123.76 with Alison Lock securing second with a time of 129.25. Mike Smith in his Sylva Striker set some new times, improving each time run as the day progressed on both days.
Lloyd Bettinson established a target time for the Sports Libre class for the Clubman Circuit and managed to exceed the target time for the National with a time of 120.41, by just under 7 seconds ! Due to an incident on the circuit during his second practice run, Terry Brown had to withdraw his Darrian T9 from the timed run, but managed to get the car back up and running on the Sunday and set a time of 123.02 exceeding the class target time.
Our return to Gurston, for our second visit of the calendar, saw 3 competitors take to the hill. Lyndon Evans in his Fiat Punto once again surpassed the Championship target times for the Standard Car Class, on both days. Similarly, William Hunt (Ford Siera) and Alison (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo) both surpassed their target time on the weekend.
After a two-year break of competing at the Epynt Military ranges, which sees drivers take to challenging hillclimb course with steep hills and various bends. Eight Championship competitors took to the hill, once again the weather proved to be challenging over the weekend, especially on the Saturday. We are accustom to seeing Carole Nicholls in her Nike Mark 4, but this was not to be the case this weekend, we were to see Carole in her newly acquired Mini, which she double drove on Saturday and set a time of 79.81 on Saturday, improving by over 6 seconds on Sunday, ending the weekend on a time of 73.54. Within the Sports Libre class we had three Championship drivers take to the hill, with Terry Brown in his Darrian T9 setting an impressive target time for the class of 52.83, on his first and only timed run of the day, with John Morgan in his Ford Anglia setting a time of 54.36 and Lloyd Bettinson in his STM Pheonix (54.42) also setting their best time of the day on their first timed run. Unfortunately, due to an incident on the hill for Terry Brown, Sunday saw the Darrian retire and Terry drive his Ford Escort, leaving Lloyd Bettinson and John Morgan to chase down the target set by Terry the day before. Lloyd managed to exceed the class target time set, by over 3 seconds on his first timed run of the day, which means that the Class target time for 2023 will now be 49.33 (LB). John Morgan also managed to exceed the target time achieving a time of 51.13 in the Anglia. In amongst the Stage Rally cars, we saw Angharad Williams set a great target time of 61.77 on the Saturday and then on Sunday, amongst one of the biggest class of the day (9 cars), set a time of 57.81, finishing 5th in class. Within the Modified Production Class we had Nigel Smith in his Ford Escort, improving on each and every run through the weekend, finish the weekend on a time of 62.11. It was with a heavy heart that many competitors said goodbye and Goodluck to Gordon Hick who chose Epynt to be his final event and retire. Even the greatest cannot hold back time and there comes a point for everyone when they must hang up their boots, helmet, race overall and gloves.
Llandow saw some new Championship Competitors take to the track, namely David Kirk in his striking Gardner Douglas T70. The morning practice sessions for the majority of the drivers was mainly done in the dry, but as the day progressed, the drivers had to contend with random downpours, with many drivers changing tyres at a drop of a hat. Dave Ashurst unfortunately missed his target time by just over half a second. Nigel Smith put his Ford Escort to go around the circuit, especially at the bus stop, not letting any rain damped his enthusiasm to push the car to its limits. Both Alison Lock and Chris Edwards in the Modified Car Class once again jointly achieved their target times, with Alison posting a time of 85.43, and Chris setting a very competitive time of 82.11. Mike Smith in his Sylva Striker set his best time on his first Timed run (90.94) having overshot the Bus Stop on his third Time run and having to challenge with the rain during his second time run. Similar to Mike, David Kirk was very unfortunate to not have the opportunity to get a dry run during the timed events, however he managed to set a great time of 93.74 on his first Timed run. This was not only David’s first entry as a Championship Competitor but this was the first time for the car to be driven on a track having only recently completed the build of the car.
Our last event of a very busy June was to take place at Shelsely Walsh for their Summer Spree Weekend. Saturday saw four competitors compete on the hill with a furth four joining them on the Sunday. Lyndon Evans managed to exceed his target time on Sunday, but just missed out on Saturday. Dave Ashurst joined the Standard Car Class on the Sunday but was unable to hit his target time. David Wheeler in his Renault R8 Gordini achieved a great time of 40.86 on Saturday.
Chris Edwards in his mighty Mazda 323GTX continued his good run of form on the weekend with once again setting a new class record on the Sunday at Shelsley, with Alison Lock and William Hunt also exceeding the class target time, with the three drivers achieving some great times within the Modified Car Class, Chris Edwards – 30.82, William Hunt – 33.72, Alison Lock – 33.96
We saw the return of Carole Nicholls in her Nike Mark 4, improving run by run all weekend, achieving a time of 39.8 on Sunday.
Spring for many, is a symbol of new beginnings, and for many of us in Anglesey it was. This year we kicked off the Championship at the Anglesey Circuit on a cold, wet April morning with 5 contenders in attendance.
Saturday was to see the competitors use the National Circuit (course is approximately 1,816 yards / 1,661 metres) with wet and cold conditions in the morning, and then a mixture of rain, hailstones and sun in the afternoon (a typical spring day in Wales). On Sunday it was a change of track and weather, with the International Circuit on the second day (course is approximately 3,400 yards / 3,109 metres), with a dry track.
First to take to the circuit was Lloyd Bettinson in his STM Pheonix, in a very competitive class (Sports Libre Cars up to 2000cc) with a Radical 1400cc . This was to be Lloyd’s first sprint event at Anglesey and with each and every run he managed to chip away at his time, getting down at the end of the first day to a very competitive time of 56.72 (finish 8th overall, out of 96 cars) and on Sunday on the longer circuit down to a time of 92.45 (5th overall).
In the Modified Kit, Replica & Spaceframed Cars up to 1800cc (car derived engines), Mike Smith in his Sylva Striker was next to take to the track, similar to Lloyd, chipping away at his time throughout the day/weekend, getting down to a time of 63.23 on the National Circuit and 100.31 on the International Circuit.
A new competitor to the Trident Championship was next to take to the track, namely Chris Edwards in his Mazda 323 Gtx. Whilst Chris is a new competitor to our Championship, he has a great deal of experience in Sprinting and Hillclimbing. Joining Chris in the Modified Saloon Cars over 2000cc class was Will Hunt in his Ford Sierra. Unfortunately, Will experienced some issues on both mornings, but managed to set a time 68.91 on Saturday and 115.19 on his only run on the Sunday, retiring the car after T1. Chris having only entered the Saturday having other commitments on the Sunday, set a great time of 58.32 for the National Circuit, coming 10th overall on the day.
Last of the Trident Championship contenders to take to the circuit was Anthony Shearman in his Caterham 310R 1596cc (which is a recent purchase). Anthony was in amongst one of the larger classes of the weekend (ie Lotus 7 Speed Class 4) which is a very competitive class (Caterham R300 and 420R in amongst the mix). On Saturday a time of 66.37 was posted, which was achieved on T3, and 105.90 on the first timed run of the day on Sunday.
Whilst the weather proved to be challenging on the Saturday morning, by close of play on Sunday, all competitors were as per usually singing the praises of a great track on looking forward to their next Sprint/Hillclimb.
The 2022 Championship have published the Supplementary Regulations, just follow the link.