Event Round-up…. Wiscombe

From the Channel Islands the championship continued in the South West of the British Isles with the annual visit to the twisting, tree-lined, parkland hill of Wiscombe Park in Devon.

Hall’s weekend was nearly over before it began… Fortunately gearbox issues in P1 were easily sorted.

As in previous years, the Moran team chose not to compete at Wiscombe, so it was a golden opportunity for the other championship contenders to play catch-up and put pressure on Scott and Roger ahead of the series run in.

Trevor Willis has always been a master of Wiscombe, hurling a variety of OMS chassis between the hairpins over the years to devastating effect and he was clearly fired up for this event. Also, many paddock wags (including Mr Editor) had predicted that the small, light and now ferociously powerful GWR Raptor of Jos Goodyear would be in its element at Wiscombe and would savage Willis’ Outright Hill Record if conditions allowed… And we were nearly right!

We hadn’t considered the raw pace demonstrated by Will Hall and the greatly improved Force WH, the car with perhaps the best inherent traction in the series…

Hall dominated the event in Devon, heading back up the M5 with two Run Off win trophies, his first Outright Hill Record and a new pair of lucky pants!! He was pushed very, very hard though by Goodyear for the Run Off wins and by Willis for the hill record which Scary Trev challenged during second qualifying.

Willis could have challenged Hall for the points but for a hairy, understeering attack on Wis Corner during the first shootout and a massive tailslide through The Gate (which left the paddock crowd assuming the worst as the car disappeared into the trees, until we all heard the RPE V8 singing through The Esses) in the second. Goodyear was a little conservative on the lower section of the hill first time up and then got Sawbench Hairpin all wrong in the second.

Hall however, barely put a wheel out of place all weekend and thoroughly deserved his best ever weekend in the sport, as did his hardworking crew Ian Dayson, Ray Rowan and DAD Danby.

Comments

Yes, what a transformation of Force WH. It is as if the new glorious sound is symbolic of the driver and machine doing catch up, and wow, the times tell the story. All this achieved in a seemingly assured but undramatic fashion led by Ian Dayson and Ray Rowan. Classic cards close to chest, and all the more exciting for that.