Ryder claims back-to-back British Hillclimb titles with Prescott win

Matthew Ryder is the 2025 British Hillclimb champion after another superbly measured performance at Prescott on Sunday.

Ryder and Sean Gould in the Gould GR59 they share were the class of the field as the championship returned to the Gloucestershire venue for the second of two visits. When they each took a win and a second place in the two championship run-offs, and Will Hall twice edged Wallace Menzies back to fourth, Ryder’s second title was secure.

This was a day when changeable weather conditions played a part but, through it all, the Ryder and Gould team swept to another resounding performance in the car that had been significantly rebuilt after Gould’s accident at Shelsley Walsh four weeks earlier.

With rounds at Doune and Loton Park still to run later in September, Ryder’s nearest rival, four-time champion Menzies, can no longer grab the title and Menzies was among the first to congratulate Ryder on securing back-to-back crowns.

A heavy thunderstorm in the morning upset the qualifying process and Paul Haimes was one of those to suffer the most as the rain got even harder as he sat on the startline. But there were no such problems for Ryder, who stormed the still wet track in the run-off to win on a 40.68s climb. Gould, Hall and Menzies were very closely matched in second, third and fourth as Alex Summers wrapped up the top five.

The story was much the same later in the day for the second run-off on a much drier track. But, this time, Gould edged ahead to take his second win of the season when he pipped Ryder by 16 hundredths of a second with Hall, Menzies and Summers once more rounding out the top five. Once again, Alex Coles was one of the stars in the smaller-engined cars and took his Force TA to a brace of eighth places.

Ryder’s win in the opener was his 14th of the season from 26 run-offs to date and that statistic alone proves his second title was richly deserved.