FASSI Classic Speed Championship Round 2

Posted on | by Fassi UK

Round 2 of the Bugatti Owners Club FASSI Classic Speed Championship took place at Shelsley Walsh Hill Climb on Saturday 4th May.

Shelsley Walsh is the oldest motorsport venue in the world still to run events on the original course and is older than Indianapolis, Le Mans or Monza. The hill is a steep 100m climb over its 914m length & a favourite venue for high powered cars.

This year the 15 competitors were blessed with dry, warm & sunny conditions in contrast to last year’s torrential rain, with the entrants split evenly across the saloon, sports car & racing car classes.

The sports car class saw two championship debutants with Oliver Slater in the Ginetta G15 & Dominic Cheater in the Porsche 914. Oliver quickly found his feet, improving his times with each run & beating his handicap time by 0.5 seconds to take the class win. A great performance first time out. Gary Cox took second in the Scimitar with Dave Fripp third in the Fiat Abarth 124 Spyder, which was enough to see Dave leading the championship sports car class after two rounds.

Another controlled drive by 2023’s champion & ‘King of the Hill’ Alistair Clark saw him take saloon car class honours from Matt Clarke in the Austin Mini & Martin Saunders in the Ford Escort Mk1, all within a few tenths of their handicap times. Matt has put down his marker with back-to-back second place finishes to lead the saloon car championship.

Martin Jones registered the fastest time of the day at 33.25 seconds in his Brabham BT21 on his way to racing car class honours, shaving 0.2 seconds off his handicap time. Ben Fisher brought the Mallock MkII home in second which leaves him & Martin neck & neck in the championship. It was good to see Christopher Wigdor & his Mallock Mk6b back on the hill & he blew away the cobwebs with a solid third place.

Many thanks to Stuart Wing & Max Hawkes for the excellent photography. The variety of their images really captures the essence of a great day of classic motorsport – top work gentlemen. Finally many thanks to all the staff & marshals at Shelsley Walsh for a well-run event.

Click here to go to the championship photo gallery.