The winners of the weekend’s Three Clubs Manor Farm hill climb had a prime ministerial ring to them, with Newton Abbot’s Dave Sims taking FTD on Saturday and Ian Cameron snatching the honour in Sunday’s worsening conditions.

Co-promoted by Taunton, Burnham-on-Sea and Torbay Motor Clubs, the events were rounds of two regional contests, the Bridge Tyres and Wheels Point S 2013 Association of South Western Motor Clubs Hill Climb and the Top Performance Services 2013 Association of Central Southern Motor Clubs Speed Hillclimb Championships. The two days of competition proved to be very different, with Saturday’s entrants enjoying largely fair conditions, enabling Sims (2-litre Ralt RT33/34 SRD) to dip into the 27 second bracket on his second run, a full one and half seconds faster than his nearest rival in the racing car classes, John Burton (Ralt RT3) only managing a time of 29.19 seconds; more intense competition for the top of the podium came from Andrew Short’s Sports Libre OMS SC21, and Colin Satchell and Paul Drowne in their modified-class Peugeot 205’s. All three set sub-29 second times, with Drowne snatching the C3 class award from Satchell by the slimmest of margins, just 1/100th of a second. Robert Thomson (Vauxhall Nova GTE) initially dominated the packed ranks of 13 competitors in Class A2 with two runs under 32 seconds, which none of his rivals could approach until Jonathan Langmead (Lotus Elan S3) topped the times with a last-gasp run of 31.35 seconds.

Sunday was a very different proposition, with erratic bursts of rain and drizzle making track conditions hard to read, a progressively wet practice period and only marginally better conditions for the second timed run. Unable to put down the full power of the SRD-powered Ralt, Dave Sims had to be content with a class win whilst Cameron’s nimble 1300 cc category Chaplin Hornet was better able to cope with the slippery track, taking the win with a second run of 29.37 seconds. For the second year running, Stuart Browne (OMS SF2) was once again the ‘best of the rest’, with a Sunday time of 30.12 seconds.

In A2 Jonathan Langmead was inexplicably off-form in the wet conditions, allowing Honiton-resident Robert Thomson to exact revenge for the previous day, his winning time of 34.91 being almost a full second ahead of his nearest rival. The long-standing battle for supremacy in the largest capacity standard production class was ‘honours-even’, with Yeovil’s Simon Neve (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo6) taking the class on Saturday and Exeter garage-owner Steve Clarke (Subaru Impreza) settling the score with half-second advantage on Sunday. Father and son pairing David and Jan Yeo, who share their Westfield SEi, scrapped for the class award once again in B2, with David this time turning the tables on his son by taking victory on both days, exactly the opposite result from 2012.

No less than ten drivers completed double victories, winning their classes on both days, including David Foster (Mini 1275GT), Burnham-on-Sea member Anthony Wright (Audi A3), Andy Cawsey (Westfield SEW), Gordon Iles (Vauxhall Tigra), Paul Drowne (Peugeot 205 GTi), Tim Porter (Darrian T90) and Andrew Forsyth (Alfa-Dana). Graham Gonzalez was also a double victor, taking the honours in the DEWS Speed Series class with his 1380 cc Austin Mini.

Other class winners from the organising clubs included Tim Dodwell (VW Scirocco) and Crediton’s Kevin Frost (KMD Sports), both from Torbay MC.