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[Rick]

Prescott 80th Anniversary and Bugatti Festival – Saturday 14th July 2018.

Champions and Record Breakers to return to Prescott.

To commemorate the 80th anniversary of Prescott Hillclimb the Gloucestershire venue will celebrate this landmark occasion with a special reunion of former hill record holders. The July celebration centres on gathering together as many former hill records holders as possible.

The list of confirmed attendees reads like a who’s who of Hillclimbing: from 1960s pacesetter and multiple Hillclimb champion David Boshier-Jones, Martyn Griffiths, David Grace, David Franklin, Alister Douglas-Osborn to Chris Cramer who plans to compete in the 1985 British Hillclimb Championship winning Gould 84G and six-time Hillclimb champion Scott Moran also competing in his Gould, which is the most winning car in British Hillclimb history. The ladies record holders will also be well represented with former record holders Joy Rainey, Margaret Blankstone-Schoiber, Sandra Tomlin and Sue Young attending. The latter two will be competing in their modern single seater Pilbeam and Gould respectively. Many of the racers will be re-united with suitable cars from their era, either for a parade or for full-on competition.

The event will feature a strong field of 150 cars on track, including a special class for Bugattis. The event is supported by a round of the Bugatti Owners’ Club Aldon Classic Championship and New Barn Cheltenham Land Rover Specialists “B” Licence Championship.

Just like the first event back in 1938, Prescott remains access all areas. As motoring enthusiast Nick Mason said ‘It’s club motor sport at its best, where visitors can mingle with the cars and speak to the drivers’.

The Prescott 80th Anniversary will be a relaxed day of competition featuring a full racing paddock, a strong nod to its history and some of the most delectable Bugatti’s in the UK.

First car on the track approx. 8.30am: Scheduled finish time 5.30pm.

Ticket Price:
Advance tickets are now available priced £12.
For further details or to book tickets, please visit: https://www.prescott-hillclimb.com/events/80-anniversary-bugatti-festival
Children under 14 years old are free when accompanied by a paying adult.

About Prescott Hillclimb:
Prescott is owned and operated by the Bugatti Owners’ Club; it’s very first meeting was held on April 10th 1938 and was proudly announced in Motor Sport magazine at the time. It was for Bugatti Owners’ Club members only and was more like an ‘informal opening of the property’ and afternoon tea party. The inaugural race meeting on May 15th saw the first official fastest time of day (50.70 seconds) set by Arthur Baron in a 2,270c.c. supercharged Bugatti Type 51. The next meeting on July 3rd was ‘open’ to other invited clubs and included a ‘practice’ day on the Saturday. The race meet saw a tremendous tussle between a Bugatti, Alta, ERA and Frazer Nash. George Abecassis broke the record with a time (47.85 seconds) in his supercharged 1½ litre Alta, later that month Raymond Mays took it (46.14 seconds) in the 2-litre E.R.A.

Prescott has had an illustrious racing past, 70 years ago (May 1948) Stirling Moss competed in his first ever hillclimb driving a Mk2 Cooper. He had hoped to enter at Shelsley Walsh earlier, but had been thwarted in this ambition as there were no spaces left on the entry list. On his debut at Prescott, Moss came fourth out of twelve, in the 500c.c. class – the rest as they say is history!

Prescott is regarded as one of the most prestigious motoring venues in Britain. Prescott hosts major motor racing championships, driver schools and a range of classic car and bike meetings. The Prescott estate is located in the picturesque Cotswold Hills just North of Cheltenham, encompasses a very demanding 1127-yard course being completed in under 36 seconds by the fastest modern racing cars.

Event Address: Prescott Hillclimb, Gotherington, Cheltenham GL52 9RD
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[Rick]

Prescott 80th Anniversary and Bugatti Festival – Saturday 14th July 2018

Champions and Record Breakers to return to Prescott.

Eighty years after Prescott hosted its very first meeting, some of the greatest names in hillclimbing will gather at the famous Gloucestershire venue on 14 July to celebrate its anniversary. From David Boshier-Jones to Scott Moran, the glittering line-up includes 30 previous holders of the hill record at Prescott and multiple British Hillclimb Champions.

Not only did Boshier-Jones win three titles in a row from 1958 to 1960, he set the hill record on both Prescott’s original ‘short course’ and its extended layout, for which he cut the ribbon when it opened in 1960. In total, he posted Fastest Time of the Day on seven occasions, the last of which also sealed his final championship.

West Countryman David Franklin, the 1978 hillclimb champion, will join Boshier-Jones at Prescott, as will Martyn Griffiths, Alister Douglas-Osborn and David Grace – a trio with 11 titles between them. They will all take to the hill in parades or as part of the main competition.

Stroud-based two-time champion Chris Cramer will compete in the Gould 84G-Hart which he won his 1985 crown. Cramer’s hill climbing exploits started in 1969 in a hot Mini Cooper S which he won the ‘Prescott Gold Cup’ and set 27 national class records. Over the years he has achieved outright course records at eight out of ten venues in the championship, including Prescott and was voted “British Club Driver of the Year” at the 1985 Autosport Awards, ahead of such luminaries as Damon Hill, Johnny Herbert and Mark Blundell. He can also be credited for introducing “Ground Effect Cars” to speed hillclimbing when he raced the Jimmy Jack’s Toleman.

It will be the first time that Cramer has stepped into the cockpit of a hill climb car at Prescott for over 30 years. “I have no intention of doing anything heroic” said Cramer, “but I’m grateful to Gould-Racing and the Bugatti Owners’ Club for giving me this wonderful opportunity to roll back the years.”

More currently, Scott Moran – who won the most recent of his titles in 2016 – is set to attack Prescott with his own Gould. Moran has won six championships in his GR61, making it the most successful single car in British hillclimbing.

There’s a long tradition of female aces at Prescott, and holders of the ladies’ record will also be at the event. Former rivals Joy Rainey and Margaret Blankstone-Schoiber – who took turns to break the record during one memorable weekend in 1980 – are set to be reunited, while Sandra Tomlin and Sue Young will be tackling the hill as part of a capacity 150-strong entry. Young was the first woman to climb Prescott in under 40 seconds.

As you’d expect at a venue that was founded by the Bugatti Owners’ Club – which owns and operates it to this day – there will be a mouth-watering line-up of Molsheim beauties, from saloons and sports cars to single-seaters. The weekend will also host a round of the club’s Aldon Classic Championship plus its New Barn Cheltenham Land Rover Specialists ‘B’ Licence Championship.

Overhead, the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight’s Hurricane will perform an evocative flypast, while ‘One Man Frank’ – a tribute to the legendary Frank Sinatra – will be returning to Prescott to perform at regular intervals throughout the day. Two more highlight in what’s sure to be a memorable weekend celebrating one of the UK’s most atmospheric motorsport venues.
_________________
Rick - Admin
Home:https://www.oldclassiccar.co.uk
Videos:https://www.youtube.com/user/oldclassiccarRJ/videos
OCC & classic car merchandise (Austin, Ford ++):
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