Located on the edge of Holywood in County Down sits the Creightons Green Road which comes alive to the sights and sounds of racing cars each and every spring.
Those involved with motorsport will know that this stretch of road signals the start of the Northern Ireland Hillclimb Championship and an event that is hosted by the Thoroughbred Sports Car Club of Northern Ireland.
It sees competitors meander their way up this short but technical course towards Whinney Hill and see’s everything you can imagine with 4-wheels from vintage Alfa’s to Subaru Impreza’s, from a classic Porsche 911 to a Ford Ka, and from an Austin Healey Sprite to open wheeled single-seater race cars.
There is absolutely everything in between, too. However, the highlight for me was seeing the vintage cars being enjoyed, all of them very aware of the stopwatch keeping their track. Outside of this, the top three of Tim Woodside and the McGimpsey brothers who’s class this as their home event, tried their best to demolish the stopwatch.
With two practice runs and three timed runs in order, drivers had three chances to set their fastest time for overall honours, and the day got off to a dry and sunny start. As predicted, the clouds rolled in and the course became sodden. Though thanks to a stiff breeze, things soon dried out and the times came rolling in.
The OMS 2000M of Phil Dorman set the fastest time on the first timed run, closely followed by Tim Woodside, with the Casmat Buggy of Dermot McCullagh a couple of seconds adrift. The second timed run saw a position switch of the top two from the first run, but again with Dermot third.
One shock on the results from the second run is a fail from both McGmipsey’s, who had whoopsies in both the low and mid sections of the hill.
Fastest time of the day came from Tim Woodside who had entered his new Gould GR55, but actually competed in his more familiar Millington equipped Pilbeam. Coming within 2.05 seconds of the hill record that has stood since 2006, Tim finished the day 0.72 seconds ahead of second placed Ryan McGimpsey, who finished 1.4 seconds ahead of his brother, Ricky. All of these times achieved in the final run of the day.
It was great to see a world rallying stalwart on the hill aboard his VW Golf GTi, as former co-driver, Chris Patterson enjoys his retirement in the drivers seat at clubman level. Meanwhile, Sheelagh Glover was the sole female starter this year, and it’s always great to see her nip round the corner from home to compete each year.
Top 5:
1st – Tim Woodside – 34.23
2nd – Ryan McGimpsey – 34.95
3rd – Ricky McGimpsey – 36.35
4th – Daniel Campbell – 37.22
5th – Phil Dorman – 37.42
Class Winners:
Class 1 – Gareth Whiting – MG ZR.
Class 2A – Adrian Mulholland – Ford Escort RS2000.
Class 2B – Stephen Newell – Mazda MX-5.
Class 3 – Chris McCarthy – Subaru Impreza.
Class 5 – Gardner McIlwaine – Westfield SEI.
Class 6A – Gordon Fogarty – Fiat X19.
Class 6B – Pete Dornan – Peugeot 206.
Class 9A – Daniel Campbell – Toyota Starlet.
Class 9B – Richard McGimpsey – RMG V2.
Class 10 – Alan Roddy – Citroen Saxo S1600.
Class 11 – William Carey – Ford Escort MkII.
Class 14 – Ryan McGimpsey – Jedi MkI.
Class 15 – Tim Woodside – Pilbeam.
Class 16A – Colin McDowell – Morris Mini.
Class 16B – Paul Taggart – Ford Escort MkI RS.
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