Shelsley Walsh Speed Hill Climb 2008

On the May Day Bank Holiday of 5th May the 2008 Shelsley Walsh speed hill climb season began with a successful meeting where Best Time of the Day (BTD) went to Trevor Willis who won the second of two Avon/BMTR Top ten challenge run-offs with a time of 24.29 seconds driving his 2.8 litre OMS-Powertec racing car. This was the first ever Shelsley BTD for Trevor and for the OMS marque. Trevor said "I had a very close battle all day with both Deryk Young and Chris Merrick and there is no better place than Shelsley to get a BTD". Merrick, in his 4 litre Gould GR55-Judd finished behind Willis with second BTD in 24.31 seconds.

Young, from Yarkhill, was winner of the first run-off from Willis with what eventually proved to be 3rd BTD in 24.53 seconds.

Notable performances in classes came from Darren Luke and Brodie Branch, who share the same Force-Suzuki racing car in the up to 1100cc class. They both qualified for the second run-off, but declined to run, and Brodie said "We felt we had done enough". The up to 1600cc class was taken by another Force Suzuki driver, Llangollen's Robert Kenrick, whose time was 1.25 seconds better than the best of the two litre racing cars. He finished 6th in both run-offs.

In the sports car class, Worcester residents Ian and Simon Fidoe finished first and second in their shared Pilbeam MP43 sports racer.

All Photos By Richard Robotham - Rhodopsin Photos