There was plenty of action at the first hill climb meeting of the season, which was held at Bouley Bay on Easter Monday.

The weather was kind to the competitors and three records tumbled, the first came just after the lunch break, when Guernsey man Darren Warwick in his Ford Escort lowered his own record to 46.20 seconds. 

When the second ran began during the middle of the afternoon, the sun was warm and the tarmac was nicely heated, but only one record fell and this was to Anthony Wellesley in the Kart 125cc class and he lowered the record by 18/100th of a second to 42.95 and was the first 125cc karter to go below 43.00 seconds.

However the third run commenced and by this time the clouds had appeared and it looked very unlikely that any more records would be broken.  But along came Marc Le Sueur on his Honda 998cc machine and he has been knocking on the record for some time, which has been held by the legendary Marcus Bisson.  The record stood at 44.92 and Le Sueur lowered this to 44.64 seconds.

Meanwhile Bouley Bay also played host to the 2nd round of the Ferrari Hill Climb Championship.  Jon Goodwin took the honours in this event on his very first and only run of the day, as during the second run he collided with a tree between ‘Slemens’ and ‘Les Platons’ and his day was over.  Thankfully Jon was unhurt, but this could not be said for the immaculate 360 Spider Ferrari.  He recorded a time of 51.29 seconds with second place man Roger Prior having a best time of 52.12 seconds on his third run.

All the Ferrari competitors loved the hill and the atmosphere that Jersey provided and hope to run another round next year.

Meanwhile back to local action and the Rally car class saw no record times, but plenty of action from the drivers as they ‘threw’ their cars around ‘Radio Corner’.  Jeremy Baudains, who has not competed on the hill for a couple of years was quickest in the 1601 to 2100cc class with a time of 49.43, while Chris Le Bonniec in the ‘popping’ Escort was fastest in the Unlimited class with a time of 45.87 seconds.

Barry Moignard took honours in the Sport Libre class with a time of 45.22 seconds while Steve Hewlett took the new class for Historic cars, with his best time of 56.58 seconds.

Pamela Romeril and Neil Touzel were newcomers to the hill on four wheels and they set respectable times in their classes.

On two wheels, Lee Le Feuvre again was the man to beat in the 250cc class and he only just held onto the class win with a time of 47.04 seconds, but Justin Bush is hot on his heels and only a fraction behind.  Bruce Dingle took the 351cc to 500cc class in a time of 45.80 seconds, but the biggest class of the day belonged to the 501cc to 750cc motorcycle class.  The tussle was between Cliff Langlois and Greg Allen and Langlois left it to the last run of the day to win the class in a time of 47.02 seconds.

There were plenty of newcomers to the two wheels with Paul Woosnam and Stephan Ward recording low 50 second runs, which is very impressive for their first time on the hill.

The 100cc kart class saw another new competitor and Carl Vardon recorded a very good time of 46.30seconds, but it was his colourful overalls, which attracted most of the crowd.  Once again, Nigel Davis on his 250cc kart was fastest overall with a time of 41.04cc

The racing cars class was not very well supported at this first event, but it was full of experienced drivers.  In the 601cc to 1100cc class, Richard Twinam got the better of his Colin Le Galle, who both share the OMS Kawasaki car, with a time of 44.77 seconds.  In the class for 1101cc to 1600cc, Mick Lancashire was the quickest with the time of 44.52 seconds, but Barry Eloie was in a close second in a time of 44.75 seconds.  In the Unlimited class, Car Captain Jeremy Phillips reigned supreme in a time of 43.47 seconds, followed by vice car captain Rob Romeril in a time of 45.56 seconds.