The 2005 Season
GROVES TAKES HILL RECORD AT SHELSLEY
A sizeable crowd took their regular summer pilgrimage to the most historic of all motor sport venues hoping for the gloomy weather forecast to fail. Their wishes were answered as the threatened rain avoided the Teme Valley except for spots at lunchtime. Hill record holder Adam Fleetwood predicted that the his record could fall and was quickly proven correct.
It was one apiece at Shelsley Walsh for Martin Groves and Willem Toet on the 5 th of June in the Nicholson Mclaren British Hill Climb Championship. Martin sped to victory in round 11 with a performance to remember that shaved a further .01 off the hill record at the centenarian venue. Standing on the prize giving podium Martin said "I never really expected to challenge the record with this car on its first visit but I saw all those 24 second runs...." Willem pushed the others aside in round 12 after qualifying fastest. "I went for safe points but it just didn't work out that way!" joked the BAR F1 Aerodynamics guru, mopping his brow.
In a further display of determination Mike Dean took 2 nd and 3 rd in the two rounds to climb into 4 th place in the table surpassing his previous best Shelsley time twice in one successful day. The Guernseyman has netted 35 points in two weekends of top class action, second only to series leader Martin Groves in the points snatching stakes on successive Sundays, sounding out a warning to those above him.
Reliable Paul Ranson also managed a personal best time and a 5 th and 6 th place but saw Guernsey garage proprietor Mike Dean slip ahead of him in the table.
The father and son team of Roger and Scott Moran from Ludlow gathered some points with Scott climbing to 10 th in the table but Roger can see Willem Toet close behind as the chase for points and the top ten numbers livens up.
Of the rest, evergreen Rob Turnbull a 7 th and 8 th place, with Simon Durling two 9 th places. Chris Merrick an 8 th and 10 th .
Shelsley specialist and Yarkhill resident Deryk Young managed a single 4 th place as wife Sue knocked some more time off her Shelsley ladies record down to 26.97 in the same car.
Giant killers Trevor Willis and Phil Cooke saw scant return for their extreme efforts but Phil slaughtered his up to 1600 cc record again down to 26.09 to make life even more difficult for anyone looking for glory in smaller engined cars.
Graeme Wight Junior qualified the sweet sounding Predator for a single run off place but ran into a timing glitch and could not take his rerun as the power train was too hot.