Ryder wins as red-hot Coles stuns with second in British Hillclimb Harewood trip

Unpredictable weather, difficult tyre choices and a sublime performance from young Alex Coles were all elements of the British Hillclimb Championship’s second visit of the season to Harewood last weekend. But, through it all, points leader Matthew Ryder emerged with another important pair of victories.

Sunday morning was wet, on and off, and by the time it came to the first run-off in the middle of the day it was still wet, but no longer raining and starting to dry slowly. In the class runs, 20-year-old Coles had been magnificent to qualify fastest in his 1.3-litre turbo Force with a sublime display of natural talent in testing conditions.

However, as the track continued to dry for the first run-off, tyre choice was thrown into confusion. Decisions were split between all wets, all slicks and wets on the front and slicks on the rear. While the burn-out at the start would get heat into the rear slicks, warming up front slicks on a cold and damp track was always a challenge and some opted to run wets on the front, which would pick up heat quicker through the first few corners.

Notable performances included that of a flying David Warburton, who ran a 54.20s with wets all round on his 1600cc Gould, while Will Hall slotted into third in his Gould GR59, similarly with wets all round.

Ryder then stormed up the hill with a charging 50.83s to set the bar way higher than anyone could match by an unusually big margin. Finally young Coles went to the line and turned it on once again with 53.04s to seal second and his best ever run-off result.

Coles’ rivals were quick to applaud the Plymouth youngster. “Matt was fantastic,” said Wallace Menzies, who was back in sixth after an electrical glitch left him struggling with launch and traction control issues. But his biggest praise was reserved for Coles. “That’s a big day in his career and Alex absolutely delivered,” said the four-time champion.

The weather had improved by the end of the afternoon and the hill was fully dry, despite the ever-present threat of more rain, so it was slicks all round. That took away some of Coles’ giant-killing opportunity, but he still took a fine sixth as Jack Cottrill and Paul Haimes rounded out very good days with fifth and fourth places respectively.

Hall, on 49.82s, was again third on a hill that has not always been good to him and then, with the electrics sorted, Menzies put a marker down with a very strong 48.59s. Only Ryder was left to run but, once again, he turned it on in style at Harewood, and a 48.27s ensured his ninth win from 16 run-offs this season.

However, it took a quick change of nose assembly on the Ryder GR59 after Sean Gould slid off at Orchard in the class runs. Fortunately, the team carries a complete front assembly ready to bolt on.

“I also locked a wheel at the same corner as Sean but got away with it – that was quite a cold track,” Ryder said of the challenge of getting heat into the tyres. “But I knew what I had to beat and I knew the car was good enough.”