barbon bikes

Optoma Loans Percy Duff Barbon Speed Hill Climb 2007

Sun and Stars shine for big crowd at Barbon

The Barbon motorcycle hill climb took place on Saturday 28^th July in front of a bumper crowd, where the long awaited sun shone on the stars of the motorcycle world. Taking part in the Optoma Loans sponsored event, were 13 times TT winner John McGuinness, Kendal’s World Super Bike racer Dean Ellison and former 3 times British Supermoto Champion Leighton Haigh. Added to this were the appearances of top British Superbike racers Michael Rutter and Optoma Loans rider Steve Plater. Racing got underway after the stars were introduced to the public and Leighton gave the crowd some entertaining wheelies up and down the main straight.

The event in doubt due to the bad weather was held in the dry with only one very brief shower, which did not even wet the tarmac. Number 1 Adam Bentley was flagged away in bright sunshine to start his first run and the event proper. In class 1 Les Wilson was fast out of the traps and never headed, with a big winning margin in hill climb terms of 0.8 of a second over Morecambe’s Karl Geary. Class 2 was closer with hill climb regular Robin Sim getting the better of Ulverston’s Chris Byron on the Kendal based D3 Racing KTM.

Class 3 was where the action was though, this class is for bikes not over 500cc, not the biggest bikes, but this is the size of bike that holds the outright solo hill record. Standing guard and present, was the record holder himself, Paul Bird, Team Principle of the Stobart Honda Racing Team, who were displaying at the event. Due to track temperature, his record would be safe for another year, set in 1998, every passing year is testament to how impressive his time was at the time. In this class were TT flyer John McGuinness, Leighton Haigh, together with hill climb regulars Glynn Poole and Paul Jarrett. Glynn was first up and quick with the only time under 27 seconds on the first run. John was to follow and was very quick, sideways through the second corner and very quick into the hairpin, only to find his brakes still weren’t fully cured and he over shot, staying upright and rejoining the course to set an irrelevant time, Leighton ran at the end of the class and backed it into the hairpin as only Leighton can do, entertaining the crowd on the way to a 27.17, this would leave him third behind Glynn and the fast starting Paul Jarrett. Second runs saw improvements for all four but Leighton made the biggest improvement to net second from Glynn who stormed up the hill to set the quickest overall solo time of 26-24 which the others couldn’t match. John finished fourth but crucially quick enough to make the top 6 run off, held at the end of the day.

Class 4 was a closely fought affair featuring again Paul Jarrett on his second machine, Dean Ellison on the D3 Racing KTM, also local flyers and supermoto aces Karl Geary and Neil Crayston from Holme also on a D3 Racing KTM. Add to this multiple hill climb champion Paul Jeffrey, and we were on for a ding dong battle for the class win. As the weather got hotter the times dropped and Jarrett’s second run was to be best beating Jeffrey by just one tenth to post 26-53. The local grudge match went the way of Neil beating Karl by only three tenths, but with it the bragging rights! Local ace Dean Ellison did a best of 28-72, but Dean was carrying an injury that he struggled with all day, and the club were very happy that he choose to ride and entertained the spectators, giving the local people a rare chance to watch Dean race.

Class 5 for the biggest bikes was won by hill climb regular Alan Jolly with a time of 28-18 with Doug Parnell second. Class 6 for quads was a sea saw battle between Paul Dickinson and New Hutton Quad Dealer Pete Ellis, with each run breaking the class record, they just got faster and faster, unfortunately for Pete he was unable to go quite fast enough, still adjusting to and setting up his new KTM engined Polaris, Paul took the class win and new class record with a 28-59.

Class 7 for three wheelers and sidecars was a stop start affair due to a first run crash for Trevor Youens and Tony Jennison in the second corner, which resulted in a visit by the air ambulance. This meant a long delay and resulted in all classes loosing one run. The class was easily won by Jason & Dawn Reeves setting the fastest overall time of the day and taking with it The Handley Rose Bowl, second went to Simon Blenkin & Paul Nelson. Class 8 for vintage was won by Ian Cramp in 30-51 with second going to Grant Sellars.

All this left was the top six solos and top 4 threewheelers for the run off, the heat was rising and the times dropped with each run, resulting in a 26-29 for Paul Jarrett being the best and Jason & Dawn Reeves posting a 26-13 to take the three wheelers. This was finished off by some impressive wheelies up and down the main straight by McGuinness, Haigh and Kendal’s Simon “the wheelie” Walker to show appreciation to the large crowd watching. The club was pleased with how the event went, with the difficult circumstances leading up to the day, and the quality of the event on and off the track. The day finished with a presentation of awards by Club President Percy Duff MBE and Optoma Loans Representatives.

Results

Class 1: 1^st Les Wilson 2^nd Karl Geary 3^rd Ian Hainsworth

Class 2: 1^st Robin Sim 2^nd Chris Byron 3^rd Doug Parnell

Class 3: 1^st Glynn Poole 2^nd Leighton Haigh 3^rd Paul Jarrett

Class 4: 1^st Paul Jarrett 2^nd Paul Jeffrey 3^rd Jon Staden

Class 5: 1^st Alan Jolly 2^nd Doug Parnell 3^rd John Golda

Class 6: 1^st Paul Dickinson 2^nd Pete Ellis 3^rd Eddie Readfern

Class 7: 1^st Jason & Dawn Reeve 2^nd Simon Blenkin & Paul Nelson 3^rd Fred Reeve & James Beesley

Class 8: 1^st Ian Cramp 2^nd Grant Sellars 3^rd Michael Harrison

Handley Rose Bowl, fastest time of the day (ftd) Jason & Dawn Reeve

2006 event photos