Shelsley Walsh 5 & 6 July 2025
Lots of Morgans and their teams having Fun
Tony Quinn
Photos. Stephen Kay, Mark Beckett & Tony Quinn
Saturday 5 July
- The NHCA’s Bike Bonanza grows in stature year by year and we as a club are pleased to be invited. This year we fielded 15 entries, up from 8 last year.
- Octogenarian returns to passengering after over half a century – Mike Sythes passengered Steve Lister, the duo more usually seen together at the MCC Classic Trials. Mike recalls that he last passengered in a hillclimb with Bob Bunn at the 1970 Prescott 60th anniversary meeting.
- Hamish Bibby and Mia Weston took the class win just 0.1 seconds over their record time for the hill.
- Novice passenger enjoys his ride on a Triumph sidecar outfit – Bill Tuer passengered for Nick Weston, Mia’s father.
- The Paddock Rebuild Award went to Tom Cowley who unfortunately holed a piston on his first practice run. Undaunted and with help from Duncan Mould, Tom removed the head and barrel, fitted a new piston and had it running for second practice.
- Stephen Kay had to cancel his entry as he was recovering from an eye operation, but took some excellent photos of the paddock scene.
- Phil Yarnall was the only 5-speeder entry. Scheduled passenger Eugene could not attend so Tom Mould climbed aboard.
- Danny Hodgson was fastest of the pump fuel racers with Tony Pearson exactly two seconds adrift.
- Good result for the historic Halec JAP with Ewan Cameron and George Rousell taking second place just 0.2 seconds behind Hamish Bibby.
- Fresh from a superb 2nd place at VSCC Cadwell, Fin Cameron gave way to dad Ewan and came 3rd in class with a sharp 41.57.
- The ex-Steve Lister C type Super Aero was double entered. Steve registered 49.56 in practice. New owner, Ian Hughes with Stephanie Barnes clocked 51.22 seconds whilst Steve and Mike Sythes could only manage 53.42.
- With Alistair Rew choosing ballast over partner Jenny Baker, Jenny had a ride with Cathy Quinn in her F2.
- Everybody else had a good time.
Sunday 6 July
- Running without passengers or ballast under MS(UK) rules at the VSCC event Fin Cameron cleaned up in Class 12 – Racing Cars up to 1,100cc – with a time almost under two seconds quicker than the previous day.
- In the 1,000 to 1,500cc Racing Car class, Bill Tuer came 2nd to Patrick Blakeney-Edwards’ Frazer Nash with Chas Reynolds 3rd and Alistair Rew 5th.
- Fergus Cameron ran in the Post-war Racing Cars class with an alloy Mk1 JAP on his light blue 3-speeder, but for some reason was seven seconds slower in his timed run than in practice.
- In the Shelsley Specials class Steve Lister took the Blackburne V twin engined Freikaiserwagen up the hill with no issues.
Reflections on Shelsley
From Tim Giddens –
We certainly had an excellent weekend, the weather was much kinder to us than forecast and I’m very happy with a 9 second improvement on last year (9.06 seconds, actually).
Although this was achieved in the main by being embarrassingly slow last year. At least we can now see the back of the class. I’ve only just started paying attention to times, knowing mine weren’t very good. Things will improve further, I know I was driving badly, making the same mistakes on all 4 runs. Just need to do it properly!
KJ never missed a beat, even with the electric tacho switched on. Unfortunately I mostly forgot to look at what it was showing, although I remember about 5200 at one point, which sounds about right.
Always knew that bikers were good people; I used to be one (but now feel safer with stabilisers). The paddock atmosphere was fantastic.
We enjoyed spectating on Sunday, although it’s very much easier to drive up than walk up (and fractionally faster). Useful to see how it should be done, and occasionally how it shouldn’t.
From Alistair Rew –
I’m so chuffed that the Aero went well. I did a low 42 sec. I’m not going to analyse the 2+ sec difference to my best…(down to my driving), but 75mph over the line indicates that the Mog is going very well.
Chapeau to Tom for overcoming adversity and driving the wheels off the racer!
Next time out for me is September VSCC Loton…
From TQ –
Great fun. This was my first event in 2025 when the spanners stayed in the tool kit!
It’s a really steep hill; you only notice how steep when driving back down to the paddock. It’s power that counts here. It was predictable that my times would be similar to previous years, quicker than 2024 but marginally slower than the previous year.
The Racing Class F types are usually quicker than my Modified MX2 SS, so I was pleased to come in just behind Danny Hodgson and to squeeze in ahead of Tony and Charlene Pearson.
Shelsley Walsh is a lovely historic venue. The chat in the paddock with competitors, other club members and the spectating public makes this such a special event. Many thanks to the National Hill Climb Association for the invitation. MTWC has been promised a class again next year.