HAVING seen off the challenge of Mike Lee to take victory at Woolbridge Motor Club’s double-header last month, Rod Thorne was on top form again during the 500 Owners Association event at Wiscombe Park.

As had been previously, the Pilbeam MP43 sports racer driver’s nearest challenger was Lee in his Suzuki Hayabusa powered OMS 2000M.

But with the torque of the mighty five-litre Rover V8 in the Pilbeam there was no stopping the Frampton garage proprietor.

He paced himself through the wet and slippery morning practice runs and then produced two neat and rapid timed runs come the afternoon to lead the battle for the Harry Foster Memorial Trophy.

The first competitive runs saw Thorne take the lead by 0.49 seconds following a climb of 40.60secs, which he improved on at the second time of asking with the only sub-40 second ascent of the day.

In doing so the winning margin was increased to 0.98secs, but OMS pilot Lee was well aware he also had to race Thorne’s wife Hayley, who claimed second in the class behind Lee.

The meeting catered for cars and motorcycles, with the later utilising the two timed runs as qualifiers for the Top Ten Run-Off for the National Hill Climb Association championship.

Weymouth Aprilia SXV rider Keith Haines was in good form during the class runs to take his 549cc machine to third in the 501-750cc category with a time of 45.78secs and as a result qualified for the run-offs.

Haines focused on a smooth and error-free climb in the run-off, and he improved his time by 0.58secs to take a handsome haul of points.

This weekend sees another two days of championship hillclimbing at Wiscombe Park.

There will be five OMS pilots looking to deny Thorne a hat-trick of sports car victories over the massed ranks of single-seater racing cars.

Current Wiscombe championship leader Anthony Wright will be seeking to increase his advantage in his rapid Audi A3.

Meanwhile Weymouth’s Geoff Blake, having recently set a new Modified Specialist Production Car class record, hopes conditions allow him to attempt a further improvement on his benchmark.

The meetings include action on two, three and four wheels, gates open for the practice runs at 10am, and the competition starts after a lunch break.

Further details can be found at wiscombepark.co.uk.