Heavy rain showers and unseasonably cool temperatures meant that competitors were never going to trouble existing class records on the sixth Porsche Club Speed Championship round at the fast and challenging Gurston Down hill climb in Wiltshire. Despite the wet weather, however, we still saw some very tight and close competition amongst the fourteen drivers attending.

Three drivers entered Class P1 at Gurston, with Mark Cowne (996 GT3 RS) marking his third outing this season with a 51.25 seconds finish for third place. Also enjoying his third championship round this year, Mel Spear (964 Cup) bettered Mark’s time with a six second margin for second place in 45.13 seconds. Given the slippery conditions it was an impressive timed run in the afternoon for Tim Barber (964RS) who used all his experience to create a winning gap of over four seconds for first place in 40.94 seconds and fastest Speed Championship Porsche on the day. Class P2 saw Geraint Evans and Jeff Archer competing at Gurston and finishing the day with just over a second between them. Their times over each run were remarkably close throughout the day but Jeff (3.2 911E) had to concede for second place with 45.25 seconds. With a margin of 1.08 seconds over Jeff, Geraint (911 3.2) fastest timed run won the class in 44.17 seconds.

As we have seen many times before in the Speed championship, Class P3 competitors were neck and neck with just a fraction under a second separating all three drivers. David Hilton’s (911E 3.0) fastest time of 43.76 seconds earned him third place while David Chivers (911E) and Ian Wadsworth (911 Carrera 3.0) had a very close fought battle for second and first. In the end, just 0.07 separated them with David Chivers taking second place in 42.84 while Ian claimed a hat-trick of class wins in three rounds this season with a class winning time of 42.77 seconds. It was almost a full turnout for Class P4 registered drivers with six competitors entered at Gurston. Jonathan Thompson (944) claimed third place trophy for the third time this season with a fastest time of 45.28 seconds. Graham Rose (924S) had two consistent runs in the afternoon and earned himself second place in 44.34 seconds. Running a shared car meant that Donald Peach (924) was able to take advantage of slightly drier conditions after the main batch of Porsches had gone out. He made the most of the opportunity and finished his first time run with a class winning time of 43.75 seconds.