It has been a fantastic year of speed hillclimbing for Ottery St Mary’s Ed Hollier in his Force HC - he has just clinched the Association of South Western Motor Clubs TyreMarks Hillclimb Championship, writes Nigel Cole.

The Championship proved to be a very close battle all season long, however, Woolbridge Motor Club member Ed’s incredible form just kept him in front. His incredible season included eight records - Wiscombe Park 4; Tregrehan 3; Gurston Down 1 - out of 12 rounds – only 10 rounds counting in the 16 round Championship.

In addition, he also finished third in the Wiscombe Park Tillicoultry Quarries Championship – Ed’s home hill. At Wiscombe, he set the Fastest Time of the Day at eight meetings – including two new E1 Class records – breaking the long-standing Class record set by Alex Summers in July 2016.

Ed made his hillclimb debut in 1994 at Torbay MC’s Oddicombe Hillclimb, sharing a highly modified Austin Mini – a very rapid race spec machine – with his father Bob. At just his second event, on the challenging Tregrehan hill in Cornwall, he finished an impressive runner-up behind Mark Shillabeer, probably one of the South West’s fastest drivers at that time, in atrocious conditions. Innumerable class wins and records followed.

By the early 2000s, Ed graduated to single seater racing cars. He made his British Hillclimb Championship debut in 2004 and was crowned MSA Hillclimb Leaders Champion in 2007. He made further appearances in the BHC in 2007, 2013 and 2015-2017 – achieving a best Championship event finish of 7th in July 2016. His best BHC season was 2016 finishing in 9th place overall – to finish in the top 10 battling against cars with much larger engines was an incredible achievement.

It is a family team – Ed's father, Bob, still assists with the maintenance of the car and is always in the paddock on race days helping to make adjustments for those impressive high speed runs. If you want to see Ed in action, the first event of the 2024 season at Wiscombe Park is on April 27/28 – for all the latest news please visit www.wiscombepark.co.uk