Here is a very brief introduction to one of the oldest forms of motor sport this is a simplistic view of how the sport is organised.

Speed hill climbing is about getting your car from a standing start to the finish line on a tarmac track in the fastest time. The course must have the finish line higher than the start line and must have at least 1 corner and 1 bend.

Gurston is unique as it is the only course where the cars plunge downhill from the start line before they start the climb to the finish and has been running since the early 60’s when it was designed and is 1057 yards long with both fast and slow corners.
It is one of the most challenging courses in the country.

• Cars are split into classes for
  Modified production saloon and sports cars with 3 engine size splits, up to 1400cc, 1400cc to 2000cc, and then over 2000cc
• Hillclimb supersports with 2 engine size splits up to 2000cc and over 2000cc
  Racing cars up to 500cc, 500cc to 1100cc, 1100cc to 1600cc, 1600cc to 2000cc and then over 2000cc

The large engined racing cars are often running ex Formula 1 engines producing around 600 to 700 bhp. Cars are timed electronically to 1 100th of a second from a standing start to a flying finish. Each driver gets 2 practice runs in the morning and then 2 competitive runs in the afternoon with the best time being taken for the class positions, awards and championship points.

Points are awarded by competing against the class ‘bogey’ time. Each class has a class record so for the class we run in the class record is 33.97 seconds. To this is added 8 seconds making a class ‘bogey’ time of 41.97 seconds. To score points a driver has to clock a faster time than the class ‘bogey’ time, so if a time of 37.06 is recorded then that equates to 4.91 points.

If a new class record is set of for example 33.57 then the score would be 8.4 but that class record will stand for the rest of the season so it is possible to score over 8 points for the rest of the season.

• Introduction to Gurston Down
• Gurston Down Hill Climb August National Meeting
• Gurston Down HillClimb April 2008
• Gurston Down Hill Climb Meeting June 2008
• Gurston Down Meeting July 2008
• Wiscombe Park HillClimb
• Gurston Down Final 2008 Hill Climb