TWO days of championship hill climbing saw a number of drivers net double victories at Wiscombe Park.
Among those to take a brace of wins were Geoff Blake from Weymouth and Frampton’s Rod Thorne.
The former was dominant in the over 1800cc division of the Modified Spec-ialist Production Car category in the two-litre Westfield SEi he shares with his father, Graham.
Recent significant improvements to the engine left the duo quietly confident of a good performance and Blake junior did not disappoint.
The first meeting of the weekend saw Geoff claim the win over his father and mentor by more than one-and-a- half seconds.
The next day, following overnight rain, the track dried sufficiently for Blake junior to take another victory with a climb of 41.77secs, which represented a personal best on the East Devon course.
Gremlins with the Judd engine of his Pilbeam MP58 single-seater brought about the decision from Thorne to withdraw the car and ‘take the dust sheet off’ and substitute his MP43 sports racer, which he and Colin Pook campaigned last season.
The duo soon became reacquainted with the power delivery of the 5.0 litre Rover V8 motor and Thorne forged to the head of the Sports Libre class in front of the highly modified Sylva Striker of Doug Bennett.
The next day Bennett was again the Frampton garage proprietor’s nearest challenger but with warmer conditions and more heat in the track, Thorne took the class with a time of 38.71secs.
Although Lyme Regis driver Craig Moore was unable to get his Ford Cortina Mk2 in front of the Escort of Tim Porter in the Rally Car class during the two events, his determined driving ensured that he performed well against the class bogie time to amass sufficient points in the Bridge Tyres and Wheels championship.
This saw the motor technician elevated from third position, prior to the final two events, to a provisional first.
Having recently conducted husband Rod’s MP43 at Gurston Down, Framp-ton’s Hayley Thorne returned to the driving seat of her Westfield and fended off the challenge from Exeter’s Paul Sullivan to take second place in the Road-going Specialist Production Car class.
This weekend sees the final events in the Wiscombe season.
The National Hill Climb Assoc-iation, with an array of motorcycles including solos, trikes and sidecars, will be on track tomorrow, featuring Weymouth’s Keith Haines, who will campaign a KTM 450 SMR in the 500cc class and an Aprilia SVX 550 in the 750 category.
Portland riders Sara and Kevin Dewell will also be contesting both classes on a KTM RFS and a Husq-varna SMRR while Tom Clifford from Weymouth will be busy in the role of passenger on both sidecars and Alex Warren’s Suzuki trike.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here