Wiscombe Hill Climb. Porsche Club GB Speed Championship

May 17th saw the Porsche Club Speed Championship at Wiscombe Hill Climb in south Devon. Despite its picturesque location Wiscombe has built a reputation for poor weather in the last few years and, unfortunately, May 17th was no exception. Most of the practice sessions were run in heavy showers along with an unseasonably cold wind that did little to help dry the track surface for the afternoon sessions. Despite the weather there was still a good day of competition to be had with nine Porsche drivers attending our southernmost round.

Sole entrant in Class P1 at Wiscombe was Robert Lancaster-Gaye, driving the 964RS he last competed with in 2007 before a season driving a Cayman. Following practice sessions in the morning Robert completed one timed run in 55.41 seconds before a puncture prevented him from taking a second, final run. It was a good turnout for Class P3 at Wiscombe with five drivers starting the day. A fuel feed problem meant that Wayne Eason’s 914 only managed one practice run before having to withdraw while Tim Barber (911SC) whittled his times down over the day for third place in 52.91 seconds. Consistent time improvement over the day was also a hallmark of David Hilton’s (3 litre 911) performance as he drove his times down to finish in second place in 52.18 seconds. Given the conditions on the day it was a superb final drive by David Chivers that clinched the class win for P3. Driving his 3 litre 911E David created a 0.85 second margin for a well deserved first place in P3 and fastest Porsche on the day with a 51.36 second finish.

Newcomer Jonathan Thompson made his Speed Championship debut at Wiscombe in a relatively standard 2.5 944 for third place in Class P4. After gaining confidence on the always tricky Wiscombe hill, Jonathan put in a final, fastest time of 56.97 seconds. Cutting nearly a second off Jonathan’s time was Ray Bignell (924S) who took advantage of the slight improvements in weather over the day to continuously cut down his times until finishing in 56.02 seconds for second place. Wiscombe continues a superb start to the season for Graham Rose after he finished in first place for the fourth time in as many rounds. Graham picked up class honours for P4 after a fastest time of 54.06 seconds in his 924S.