THE Wiscombe Park speed hillclimb season was brought to a close by a double-header weekend featuring cars and motorcycles in two meetings on which the wet and windy weather made an impact.

Heavy rain plus an extensive oil slick from damaged car curtailed the Saturday event just as the single-seater racing cars were preparing for their second official run which prevented Andrew Forsyth from delivery a repost to the challenge of Ben Wheeler who had taken victory just a week previously.

The wet condition of the track would have, in all likelihood, prevented a successful challenge by the Shillingstone driver even if the event had continued so the OMS CF04 single-seater driver took the win in the 1100cc to 1600cc racing car class following the elevation to fastest time of the day of Wheeler’s 45.11 second climb in his Suzuki Empire Evo2.

The Kilmington driver securing his third win, two at Wiscombe Park, in only six events since taking delivery of the lightweight carbon fibre machine.

In the Road-Going Series Production Car class, the pairing of Weymouth duo Simon Curtis and Debbie Blake in their Peugeot 106 Rallye were always in the battle for podium positions but unable to unable to defeat the MG Midget of Keith Wilson. Curtis finished runner-up 0.95 of a second off the sports car’s pace with Blake just over half a second in arrears.

More trophies returned to Weymouth with Debbie’s brother Geoff taking a win in the Modified Specialist Production Car class in the Vauxhall-powered Westfield SEiW he shares with his father Graham.

Having not participated in the Wiscombe meeting a week before Geoff played himself in during the practice runs getting accustomed to the slippery nature of the first part of the 900 metre course.

In the official runs though it was ‘hammer time’ with a best climb of 49.36 seconds which secured the win ahead of Blake senior and the Sylva Phoenix of Andrew Hurle.

The Downton Motor Club class for Mini enthusiasts saw Bere Regis driver Stephen Wareham take a second-place finish in his Morris Mini having to give best to the more contemporary Renault Clio 172 Cup of Marc Morris who posted a best time of 51.80 seconds against the 52.15 of Wareham.

The Classic Marque Speed Championship saw two representatives from Dorchester in the form of Merv Brake in his Mazda MX5 and Alan Hugh Davies with his 4.3 litre TVR Griffin.

The latter achieved the third fastest time in the class with a best climb of 52.98 seconds easing ahead of Matthew Eady in his Ginetta G4 by a tad over one fifth of a second.

The second meeting catered solely for motor cycles, both solos and sidecars and it was in the latter category that local crews enjoyed close competition.

The pace was set by Ian Guy and Jed Pilmoor-Brady aboard the LCR F1 machine.

The accomplished pairing showed their pace with a winning time of 49.49 seconds at the same time setting a target for the rest of the class including Weymouth’s Kevin and Sara Dewell on their SKR Honda and Dorchester/Winterbourne Abbas pairing of Rod Thorne and Kevin Young.

The Dewell pairing set a first time of 54.52 seconds which their adversaries on the Shellbourne F2 unit were unable to match with a 52.74 second climb.

At the time of their second visits to the hill conditions had deteriorated and the tables were turned with the Frampton garage proprietor guiding his 600cc machine to the top in 53.04 seconds against the 53.68 of the SKR.