Friday, October 13
Full of speed, spectacles and sliding around the Pardon hairpin, the Prescott Speed Hillclimb championship season has come to a close with a day which saw its fair share of red flags.
The Bugatti Owners’ Club season finale was blessed with warm weather over the hill in Prestbury, Gloucestershire for the event on Sunday.
Despite a number of red flags throughout the season and cars off into the dirt and grass plenty of times, the extent of the most recent incident did enough damage to close the track entirely.
Late in the second timed runs, John White in his Mazda MX5 impacted the Armco safety barrier on the hill on the exit of the Ettore’s bend, bringing the action to an early end.
White fortunately walked away from the strike into the barrier unharmed from the incident.
After an extent of delays and waiting around in the paddock, it became clear that the barrier was unable to be repaired in time to continue, deeming the track unsafe and forcing an end to the day.
During the first timed sessions, the on-site tractor was summoned onto the track to remove the Porsche 911 C2 of John Pawsey after being unable to firm the sharp turn at the pardon hairpin.
The AMOC Speed championship is underway but John Pawsey (#33) finds the gravel at the pardon hairpin in his Porsche 911 C2 #PrescottHillClimb #BOCChampionshipFinale pic.twitter.com/jv0fTJOlem
— Jasper Hudson (@JHudsonSJ) October 7, 2023
A usual location for mishaps, the pardon hairpin has seen a great number of lockups as drivers drag their cars around the bend before shooting up the straight.
Catching another driver out, Alistair Dent had no choice but to roll back down in his Cooper MK5 when he suffered engine failure as he exited the troublesome hairpin.
Similarly, John Jones rolled back down the hill and into the paddock in his Pilbeam MP82 after suffering an unfortunate mechanical failure.
With the last of the timed climbs abandoned, all results were down to competitors’ first timed runs.
The quickest time of the day was set by Pete Tatham in his OMS 28 1300cc single seater with a time of 38.42 seconds.
With their next hill climb event being on the 4th of November for their Rallye Prescott competitive hill climb event, the barrier won’t cause any more disruptions for the hosts.
