A part of our calendar now for very many years, this June National Shelsley Meeting is an important round of the British Hillclimb Championship. All the top single seaters turn out, many having F1 levels of performance, that can be watched at really close quarters as they reach nearly 130 mph before the Esses on Shelsley’s narrow track with its very close surroundings. The same place seems quite exciting in a road Ferrari, so heaven knows what their impression of the speed they are doing must be like!

We filled our allotted twelve slots with the usual good selection of tipos and, unusually and indeed nicely, two of these were Dino 246s. Tony Willis had brought along a very pretty and immaculate dark blue 246GT as a substitute for his 330GTC, presently in for an engine rebuild. The other car was in the hands of new FHCC player Colin Campbell. No stranger to motorsport, Colin is a senior citizen who could well rival Keith Maddox as our most venerable competitor! At MIRA a couple of weeks previously the Ferrari class was awash with F355s – here there were none, and class record holder Jon Goodwin was missing pedalling away for England down under in Australia.

Geoffrey Rollason is always right up with Goodwin here, and he had brought along his 360 Modena Spider – a car he reckons is much more user friendly on Bridgestones than his previous 360 which was on some other tyre we will not mention! Geoffrey looked a sure-fire class winner as his 360 easily outgunned the opposition.

Saturday's practice sessions were held in very agreeable weather, and Rollason duly topped the time sheet with a best run of 34.92 about half a second off Goodwin's mark - he was well clear of the next Ferrari, Richard Allen's 328GTB on 36.02. The present Championship leader Richard Prior (348ts) started with his best yet at this venue on 36.24, but peaked too early. Going even faster on his second practice, he spun going in to the Esses and luckily just missed everything by a fag paper! This mistake was to cost Richard - his confidence blunted, he never recovered his speed in the official runs.

After that Mike Spicer was rather pleased to have his 308GTB in front of Geoff Dark's similar car, both of them ahead of the 328’s of Andrew Duncan and John Marshall. Nick Taylor was going really well on his first visit to Shelsley, with the Mondial 3.4t on a mid 37 comfortably eclipsing his usual rival Chris Dixon’s 348tb. Chris only put in one practice run as he had to go early to attend a wedding – it must have been some party as he disappeared without trace, failing to appear at all on Sunday! Barry Wood was out for his second hill climb with his 308GTS on 41.80, with Tony Willis close behind in the 246, a long way clear of Colin Campbell’s similar car.

The weather deteriorated and rain fell overnight ensuring Shelsley’s notorious “under the trees” Esses would remain dampish for much of the day. It was like this on our first competitive runs on Sunday and some prudence was necessary, although unusually Geoffrey Rollason, known not to like the wet in his valuable kit, fairly blitzed evberyone on this run. His 36.26 was nearly two seconds ahead of second man Richard Allen’s time. Geoff Dark next had just moved ahead of Spicer, and Marshall and Taylor were next. As the day wore on and we waited for our final run there was much speculation on the weather which was alternating between sunshine and overcast with the odd heavy shower. One of these caught out Geoffrey Rollason's 360 – he had the car in chiffon scarf mode and apparently the hood goes up in only seven seconds. That’s OK if you are at hand, but he was elsewere at the time and when he returned he had to look around for a drain plug!

By the time we were in the startline queue the weather was not bad and the track mostly bone dry. Nobody, however, really got their best out of this run with all the times from the Shelsley regulars a little down on their best here. Geoffrey maintained his class-winning position on 35.15, a second or so ahead of second place man Richard Allen on 36.20, a time that just took the maximum points from Rollason by a whisker. Geoff Dark held on to third with 36.69, whilst Richard Prior was next, disappointed to be down the order somewhat.

Mike Spicer had been going well, but he also slipped back from his practice position and was overtaken by Nick Taylor. John Marshall, a long way off his pace here a few years ago, still kept Andrew Duncan at bay, whilst Tony Willis improved remarkably on his final to get his 246 ahead of Barry Woods 308GTS. Colin Campbell started to get his times down towards the end, but was some way off the pace.

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