Matthew Ryder secured this year's British Hillclimb Championship with a resounding victory in the opening run-off at Loton Park on Sunday.
Ryder went to the Shropshire hill with one hand on the title, as it would have taken a massive turn-around in fortune for his remaining rival, Alex Summers, to come through and take the crown.
Among other things, Summers needed two run-off runs underneath the existing hill record and when Sunday dawned cold with the prospect of rain, he knew any slender remaining chance was gone.
Ryder, meanwhile, capped an incredible season to take his first BHC crown and join an illustrious list of previous champions. Ryder (Gould GR59) sealed his title in style with victory by seven tenths of a second in the first of the two run-offs, which ran in dry but cool conditions. He was the only driver to break the 43s mark and his 42.97s climb was the best of the day, but still some way adrift of Wallace Menzies hill record of 41.76s.
“I wanted to attack like I've done all season, and not just pootle up the hill,” said Ryder after the opening run-off. Summers (DJ Firestorm) gave it his best shot and ran second while Will Hall, Trevor Willis and Dave Uren packed out the top five. Johnathen Varley and Alex Coles were the stars in the smaller engine cars, but out-going champion Menzies was not in the run-off. He'd fallen foul of the conditions in the class runs and overshot the first corner, albeit without any harm to his Gould GR59.
The second run-off, which closed the season, was all about the weather as increasingly dark clouds moved in as the afternoon progressed. Knowing that the weather was due to close in, Summers had cleverly taken a modest approach to the class runs to only qualify sixth best. Importantly, that left him running ahead of most of his key rivals in the run-off and, just as he had surmised, the rain came at a critical point.
With spots of rain appearing on his visor. Summers stayed committed and fired in a 44.17s climb. Uren quickly chased him up the hill in 45.10s and then the rain came on harder and harder. Willis abandoned his run after a big slide, and by the time Menzies came to the line it was pouring down. The Scot tried for the first two corners and then wisely backed out of it, rather than risk damaging the car. That left Ryder on the line as the fastest qualifier. But he sensibly elected not to run on slicks on a now soaking wet hill.
With his tenth win of the season, Summers ended the year with a perfect record of top four finishes across 27 run-offs. “I could see the rain coming as I got to the top of the hill, and I was just praying that it would come down more,” joked Summers after a smart piece of thinking. Young Alex Coles starred with a 45.75s to take his best ever result in fourth just ahead of Varley.
And so ended another fantastic season of top level hillclimbing. Ryder was a worthy champion and the first person to congratulate him was his season-long rival Summers after a wonderfully sporting contest.
Written by Paul Lawrence and published in partnership with Autosport
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