Torbay Motor Club’s Wiscombe Hill Climb has once again attracted the support of H R Owen Ecurie of Cheltenham, who will bring a selection of their performance and luxury cars for the public to view, as well as providing a Porsche 911 as the course car, writes Rupert Barker.

The event has a near-full entry of saloons, sports and racing cars, and both two- and three-wheel motorbikes, with points in regional, club, venue, one-make and the National Hill Climb Association national championships all up for grabs.

The Tipton Garage and Alansway Body Repairs continue their long-standing support for the event by funding the event’s recovery vehicle and crew.

The season-opening events at Wiscombe on April 28 and 29 saw a fierce contest for early points in the various championships and another weekend of intense action is in prospect on the 914 metre parkland track near Southleigh.

This latest round of action takes place this coming Saturday, May 19. One notable absentee will be the winner of this event in 2017, Dorchester’s Rodney Thorne, who will have to miss the weekend having comprehensively damaged his Pilbeam MP43 in a dramatic multiple spin on the Castle Straight on the championships’ opening round at Wiscombe.

Four of the 11 entries in Class A2 are Lotus Elise-mounted, with Jonathan Langmead facing opposition from Mike Ford, Neil Catling and Tony Wiltshire, whilst perennial class-winner Jonathan Wright (VW Golf-mounted) will be looking to trounce the sports-car marques’ quartet. The man to beat in A3 is likely to be 2016 ASWMC hillclimb champion Anthony Wright, whose Audi A3 faces opposition from a wide range of saloon marques, including the shared Civic Type R of Dan Friel and Phil Tucker.

Class A4 looks likely to be equally fiercely contested, with the eight entrants including turbocharged four-wheel drive Ford Escort, Subaru Impreza and Mitsubishi Evo variants, and local Colyton ‘lad’ George Koopman in his Porsche Cayman. Classes B1 and B2 are the exclusive domain of Westfield and Caterham variants, the exception being the pretty Ginetta G4 of Roger Coote. In the modified classes, C2 features Russell and Gerald Tout in their rapid Ford Fiesta, although Gordon Iles (Vauxhall Tigra) and Ottery St Mary resident Martyn Pike (Ford Escort Mk1) will provide stern opposition.

C3 looks likely to be the province of Porsche 911s, with Jonathan Williamson facing Bob Mortimer’s similar model.

C4 sees Exeter father and son pairing of David and Jan Yeo sharing their Westfield Sei, with only Paul Reynolds’ Caterham for competition. Yeovil’s Stewart Lillington (Radical SR1) once again has Tom Pitfield’s DJ Firecat to contend with, whilst Rodney Thorne’s absence means that Doug Bennet’s flamboyantly modified Sylva Stryker has D2 all to himself.

The racing car classes have a healthy entry, with 10 entrants across the three capacity classes, with the hot-favourite being local national hill climber Ed Hollier. Others seeking to challenge his Wiscombe expertise include Tony and Ben Bonfield in their Jedi, Saltash-resident Mike Lee (OMS), Ottery St Mary’s Dave Gardner (Pilbeam MP62), Andrew Short and Andrew Forsyth also in OMS machines, and Ben Wheeler (Empire Evo 02).

In the one-make classes, six DEWS club, three TVR Car Club and five Luffield MGs will all be aiming for top scores in their respective championships.

Action on the hill starts with practice in the morning and the first of the competitive timed runs are scheduled to take place after the lunch break.

Discounted advance tickets at are available online at http://www.wiscombepark.co.uk/