The Tony Marsh Memorial Weekend bought a fabulous array of cars and motorbikes to Gurston Down Speed Hill Climb last weekend.

The Tony Marsh Memorial Trophy is awarded this weekend to the BARC SW member who is nearest to or breaks their class record. If more than one record is broken, the largest improvement wins the trophy.

Mark Crookall won The Tony Marsh Memorial Trophy. He had the best improvement in a class record by a BARC SW member. The new class record for the Mazda MX5 Class is now 41.86, a 0.32s improvement. Well done Mark!

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Sunday, the morning’s weather looked like it could be another promising days racing. However, the afternoon’s timed runs were mostly run with a damp and drying track.

Sunday’s Invited Classes:

The Morgan Car Class took to the hill first. Clive Hall’s 4/4 managed a great sub 40 second run turning in a 39.95s on his first timed run, holding off Alan Foster +8 by just 0.08s.

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The Bugatti Owners Club Class had a huge variety of cars competing! Nick Stephens’ Lotus 51b took the win from his first timed run – 35.84s. The Brabham BT21c of Martin Jones came second on 36.18s. That Dodge Coronet of John Harrison managed a 48.76s second run which considering the size of the car was great! John wasn’t afraid to make some proper tyre smoke between Karousel and Ashes – check the gallery for pictures.

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The Service Hydraulics Speed Championship Class ran next. Dave Reed and his Westfield won again but he could not match his previous days time and ended on a 40.10s.

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The Road Going MX5 Class was won by Mark Crookall with a new record – 41.86s and the Tony Marsh Memorial Award!

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The long standing record in the Up to 2000cc Road Going Series Production Car Class looked like it would be beaten by a good margin after some great practice times by Adam and Andy Greenen. The weather conditions in the afternoon for the timed runs didn’t look good enough for that to happen, But we should never say never. Adam pulled a fabulous run beating the record by just one hundredth! It now stands at 37.26s. Andy came second and Paul Webster third.

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Stephen Moore, last year’s Gurston Down Champion, was again dominant in the Over 2000cc Road Going Series Production Car Class with a 33.87s run just 0.01 slower than Saturday’s winning run. Jennie Stangle improved her time by a second in the Audi TT and took second place ahead of Simon Neve in his spare car (Mitsubishi Lancer GSR 1.8).

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Copyright: Akina Media

Clive Skipper and Adrian Lewis both fought hard for the Road Going Specialist Production Car Class. Clive Skipper and his 2.0 Caterham HPC repeated their win (36.41s). Adrian Lewis in his 1.4 Westfield Megabusa and the rest of the class just couldn’t match Clive’s pace.

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The Modified Limited Production Marque Sports Cars up to 2000cc Class saw Graham Beale and his Ginetta G20 turn the tables on Mike Tooth and his Lotus Elise. Graham’s second run came in at 39.76s, more than half a second ahead of Mike’s time.

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Simon Purcell in his Lotus Exige won the Over 2000cc Modified Production Marque Sports Car Class. But he couldn’t match the previous days time as the conditions weren’t really good enough. His second and winning run was 35.26s. Steve Holley’s TVR came second on 37.77s.

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Neil Turner and the Mini Cooper S were in form this weekend. Neil took the up to 1400cc Modified Series Production Car Class. But Derek Mullis was leading but just 0.06s after the first timed run. Neil managed a 36.90s second timed run.

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Richard Wood and the Yamaha Mini had a good day too. His times were only 0.04s different between the two timed runs in the Modified Series Mini Class.

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Kevin Plummer and Ian Plummer went head to head again in their shared Opel Corsa in the 1400 to 2000cc Modified Series Production Class. Kevin winning again with a 37.85s first run.

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Tim Painter over-turned Saturday’s result in the shared Aston Martin Vantage. He won the the Over 2000cc Modified Series Production Sports Car Class beating Mark Walker, Mike Butler, Brendon Jones and Andrew Fraser. Tim’s time was 36.28s.

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Mike Rudge, Anthony Orchard, Martin Watson and Steve Holland all had some amazing second runs in the Modified Specialist Production Car Class. The first timed runs saw Mike over two seconds ahead of the rest of the class. But the second class runs saw the first five beat the previous class leading time. Mike won, on the final run in the class, with a 32.25 in his 2.3 Westfield Sei, just 0.32s ahead of Anthony Orchard. The first four in this class were covered by just over one second.

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Fyrth Crosse and the Dempster Ensign LNF3 couldn’t repeat their Saturday performance in the Historically Interesting Class. Hugh Kemp and the Palliser WDF3 lead the class from the first timed run and didn’t look back. He ended on a 35.99s. Fyrth Crosse came second, half a second adrift.

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The Hill Climb Super Sports Class saw the Mallock Mk20b shared by John and Jonathon Weeden run. Jonathon cut John’s commanding first timed run lead to just 1.5s with a great second run but it wasn’t good enough. John took the win with a 39.35s run.

Jonathan Gates had a reversal of fortunes on Sunday, beating Pete Sexton in the up to 2000cc Sports Libre Class. Jonathan ended on a 29.97s which was Fastest Time of the Day in their shared Force LM.

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The Manic Beattie and Nic Mann came and conquered on Sunday, pushing Chris Cannell and his Force SR8 into second place in the Over 2000cc Sports Libre Class. Jeffrey Way’s Camaro sounded great but was no match for the other cars in this class! Nic finished the day with a 30.17s second run.

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David Cuff had the up to 600cc Racing Car Class, to himself again. ending the day with a small improvement over his first timed run – 36.99s

James Moore and the Empire 00 won the 601cc to 1100cc Racing Car class with a second timed run of 31.68s. It just wasn’t anyone else’s weekend in this class.

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With a second timed run of 37.72, Simon McBeath and his Swift SC92F won the Formula Ford Class. His margin was reduced a tiny bit over Saturday’s results.

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Peter D Smith couldn’t match Saturday’s performance but he did win the 1101cc to 1600cc Racing Car Class. His time was 31.03s. Pete Hammock coming in second.

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Simon was on form on Sunday, beating his brother Peter in the 1601cc to 2000cc Racing Car – Forced Induction class. Simon’s second timed run was 30.54s almost a second and a half ahead of his brother.

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The Tony Marsh Memorial Weekend was a great two days of motorsport. With cars and bikes competing, there was something for everyone!

We would like to thank everyone who made the day possible, the office staff, the marshalls, timekeepers, scrutineers and officials without whom we couldn’t run the meeting. Thanks to Ashley Wood Recovery, TSL Timing, Insight Medical Services, Insight Security and Peter Crutcher from Ringwood PA.

Next Meeting July 23rd and 24th – See you there!

Anthony Record – Gurston Down Press Officer – BARC SW