#ANICC #CroftHillclimb Houston Takes Maiden Win – by Tony Gregory

Last Saturday the 16^th April, Croft Hillclimb, Holywood, Co Down played host to Round 1 of the 2016 Millers Oils ANICC Hillclimb Championship, with Ulster’s hillclimbing fraternity producing a wide ranging entry of 69 cars of which 64 completed the course and posted a time.

This popular Thoroughbred Sports Car Club NI run event was again rewarded with fine weather and a local winner in the form of Bangor’s Christopher Houston, who also convincingly took his OMS CF04 to its maiden Championship counting win.

As the first practice runs which got underway at around 10.30am, the public road course witnessed action straight away with various competitors suffering mechanical woes and trips into the scenery and even the finishing line’s timing equipment didn’t escape an excursion.

Practice two was just as busy with first time competitor Eldoras Eglerius clipping a bank in his Ford Focus, Gary Milligan’s mini suffered with a loose bonnet and Gordon Fogarty’s Fiat X19 rolled to a halt after his throttle cable came loose, but after a quick fix went on to a class win later in the day. Newtownard’s Robert McGimpsey survived a heart stopping tank-slipper at the top of the hill in his newly acquired VW Beetle and the Harvey’s Escort was hampered by a loose exhaust pipe.

Continued good weather and growing crowds of spectators greeted the afternoon’s timed runs, but unfortunately it also brought the longest hold-up of the day. From class 14 Brendan Flynn’s OMS PR00 suffered a catastrophic engine failure and dropped a large quantity of oil on the start-line.

After the oil was dressed the hillclimb featured some great battles throughout the field, the Gage’s in their respective Maguire Mini’s particularly stood out, with son just piping father. Also the dual entry of Ian and Mark Lancashire provided plenty of spectacular and crowd pleasing moments, in their highly modified Subaru Impreza,

This year’s Top 3 TSCC committee members were Tony McLaughlin’s who also took his Ford Escort to 2^nd in class 16a, 43.63. Bangor’s William Heaney clocked 44.94 and took his Ford Puma to a class1 win and local farmer Wallace McKee’s MX5 clocked 45.11 in a very crowded class 2.

As in previous years the province’s Ford Escort brigade provided lots of fast sideways action and it was Adrian Mullholland’s RS example that took the class 2 win, setting a very competitive time of 40.20. Mervyn Johnson’s 911 and the fastest Porsche took 2^nd, 40.90 with another Escort taking 3^rd in the hands of David Gibson, 40.92, missing second by two hundreds of a second. A fitting result for the best supported and most varied class of the event.

Even though class 14, was hugely depleted throughout the day, its single-seater exponents still provided the top 2 times overall. Christopher Houston’s times improved on every run so it was no surprise that he set FTD on his fourth run clocking 34.50. George Stevenson used his Jedi MK6 to great effect in keeping Houston honest and set the 2^nd overall time of 35.65 and 2^nd class 14 and It was class 15 competitor Newtownard’s Richard McGimpsey who rounded off the top 3 overall, clocking 35.98 in his RMG.

A touch of nostalgia was provided by the four strong UVCC vintage class with Magherafelt’s John Keatly taking the class win in his splendidly prepared Invicta 55.21, with Holywood resident’s Dermot Johnson, Samson 2nd 56.76 and Sheelagh Glover’s Riley Special 57.96 3rd

After such a successful event TSCC, President William Heaney said, ” After such a successful day and great opener to the 2016 ANICC Miller Oils Hillclimb Championship, a big thanks must go to the competitors for their support, the marshals and club members for all their hard work in delivering an event that still managed to offer competitors a fourth timed run, despite various delays. The Club is especially grateful to the residents of Ballymenoch and Creightons Green Road and the local PSNI for their continued support.”

FTD

Christopher Houston

OMSCF04

34.50

Class winners were-

Class-1	William Heaney	Ford Puma	44.94
Class-2	Adrian Mullholland	Ford Escort RS	40.20
Class-3	Conor Hamill	Toyota Celica GT4	43.40
Class-4	Gardiner McIIwaine	Westfield SEI	39.94
Class-5	Robert Davison	MEV	39.09
Class-6a	Gordon Fogarty	Fiat X19	40.14
Class-6b	Steven Gault	Citroen Saxo	39.06
Class-8	Roger Gage Maguire	Mini	36.46
Class-9	Gary McWilliams	Toyota Starlet	41.55
Class-10	Alan Roddy	Citroen Saxo	40.77
Class-11	Conor Lavery	BMW M3	39.07
Class-12	Ian Lancashire	Subaru Impreza	38.07
Class-14	Chris Houston	OMS CF04	34.50
Class-15	Richard McGimpsey	RMG	35.98
Class-16a	Gordon Buckley	Ford Escort	42.64
Class-16b	Robert McGimpsey	VW Beetle	46.33
UVCC Class-17	John Keatley	Invicta	56.37