Wallace Menzies and Will Hall were the stars of Harewood as the British Hillclimb Championship presented by Nova Motorsport made its second visit of the season to the Yorkshire venue.

On a day when mechanical challenges beset several of the leading crews, Menzies and Hall each took a run-off win, while Matthew Ryder claimed a brace of second places as the fierce championship battle continues.

With a total of eight championship run-offs during the month of July, this is the busiest time of the year for the BHC contenders and the events through the month will undoubtedly shape the final championship outcome. Issues at Harewood have also given several crews, notably the Tom New-headed Menzies crew, a lot of work before they start travelling to the Channel Islands next weekend.

It all started very well indeed for Menzies who won the first run-off as he returned to using Pirelli tyres for the first time in several seasons. His 47.58s climb shaded Ryder by just five-hundredths of a second but Hall had reason to be disappointed after he lost six tenths of a second at the first corner.

“It just understeered wide and it wouldn’t turn in,” said Hall of the first right hander after the start line at Harewood. That moment as the Gould ran very wide cost vital time and although he clawed some back on the balance of the hill, he finished his run half second down on Menzies. Even before the run, Hall had a scare when he went to warm the car up and they discovered a failed fuel pump. A frenetic few minutes followed as the crew quickly changed the pump and got him out and ready to run just in time.

Meanwhile, Ryder wasn’t quite having his typically strong day at Harewood and was chasing a launch issue that was costing him time. Added to that were  concerns about the diff in his Gould GR59. Before Ryder took the startline, Dave Uren was out after the morning’s practice run with a suspected diff failure on his Gould.

Out in the first run-off went Alex Coles when he bounced over the kerb into Orchard and his foot slipped from brake to accelerator. That pushed the car on into the gravel, though no damage was done. The drama continued in the afternoon class runs as Menzies clattered to a stop just before the farmhouse with a suspected engine failure. His day was over, having gone from hero to zero.

After finishing a fine fourth in the opening run-off, Jack Cottrill stepped up and set the pace in the second run-off with only Ryder and Hall left to run. Ryder did a fine job, despite the diff woes, to post a time of 47.81s to move ahead of Cottrill but then, on the final run of the day, Hall pulled it all together to claim victory with 47.68s.

Hall said: “It’s a shame I couldn’t have done that in the first run-off, as we could
have had two wins today.” The Harewood results leave Hall and Ryder tied on points after 14 of the 26 championship run-offs. Menzies, meanwhile, was pleased with his victory but accepted that his team has a big job in hand to fit the spare engine before leaving for the Channel Islands. Others to score strongly included Trevor Willis and Johnathen Varley while Paul Haimes lost a good result in the opener thanks to a detached turbo pipe but bounced back for fourth at the end of the afternoon.

Simon Bainbridge took his SBR Chrono to an impressive double win in rounds three and four of the Tin Top, bagging a Harewood personal best along the way. Damien Bradley chased until the Subaru Legacy cut out in the second run-off. Steven Darley jumped up to second while Roger Moran took two thirds in his Ford Fiesta that was previously used in hillclimbs in Greece.

The next round of the series is Bouley Bay in Jersey on Tuesday 14th July before Val des Terres in Guernsey on Saturday 18th July.