RACING driver Jos Goodyear lowered the outright Bouley Bay record to an incredible 37.82seconds while Jersey hosted rounds 17 and 18 of the MSA British Hillclimb Championship Thursday 19th July, kindly sponsored by Apex Trust Company Limited. 

The days racing started with competitors facing difficult conditions with a slippery track surface caused from a couple of light morning showers. A few competitors had some near costly moments while racing the hill. However, once the 2 practices had finished, majority of competitors were safely through for the official runs and for competition to commence.

From the outset, driver and current outright record holder Trevor Willis racing his powerful OMS 25 racing car was leading the fastest of all national contenders by posting practice times of 39.11 and 39.09sec. A few other drivers showed impressive speed at these early stages and would no doubt be observed closely by Wills. These included Goodyear in his GWR Raptor racing car, who posted a 40.89 and 39.28sec on incredibly his first two ever runs up the hill, and also the 1997 British Champion and long championship campaigner Roger Moran, who posted a 40.75 and 40.04sec runs in his Gould GR61X racing car. It must be noted that times of this calibre have never so early on have never been seen at the event – this through most definitely left a sense of record breaking runs soon to happen.

Now practice runs had been complete, the next run was a competitively timed run that would qualify the top 12 drivers for round 17 of the Championship. Four drivers managed to post sub 40sec times being, Willis, Goodyear, Moran and driver John Bradburn who was new to Jersey and also racing a powerful Gould racing car. The top 12 times drivers were regrouped and a shoot out qualifying style competition was implemented to class 1st place through to 12th for round 17. Goodyear was on impeccable form and lowered the hill record by 6/100th of a second with a mighty 37.82sec run and took winning honours for a forth time this year in the Championship. Willis closely followed in 2nd place with a 38.10sec run, and third was reigning British Champion Scott Moran, driving the same racing car as his father Roger, with a time of 39.23sec. Willis and Moran were no doubt impressed with Goodyears record time and were refining car settings to find this extra performance to match.

Now on to qualifying for round 18! With the same format, all competitors completed a final timed run and the fastest 12 drivers were regrouped for the final round of the hill. The qualifying times remarkably saw Goodyear and Willis post the exact same time of 38.98 – they were the only drivers to time a sub-39sec run. However, a few drivers were showing signs of increased speed and looking to compete for round 18 winning honours. On Willis’s run he was actually up on time and looking set to reclaim his outright record. However, a few tenths of a second seemed to be lost on one corner exit and was only able to manage 38.14sec. This was enough to take winning honours of round 18 and it was no surprise that Goodyear was a close second with a 38.47sec run and Roger Moran with 38.96.

The motorcycle 350-500cc class was always set to be as competitive as usual. With a great battle recently seen between James Barrette and Lee Le Feuvre at the Liberation day hillclimb, both batted once again with an inform Oli Holmes riding his KTM bike. Only 6/10ths of second separated the 3 riders with Holmes taking the honours with 43.90sec, a smoother riding Barrette taking second with 44.29sec and Le Feuvre in third with 44.51sec. It was also an impressive day from young Charley Mills in his debut hillclimbing season posting a personal best time of 45.20sec and fourth place in the class.

JMC & LCC officials would like to thank in advance sponsors Apex Trust Company Limited, St John Ambulance, Normandy Rescue, Paramedics, Trinity Honorary Police and residents in the area for their assistance at the event.