Groves goes to Australia Bathurst for the 2006 Australian Nationals.

 
Andrew Howell and Martin Groves onboard

Peter Gumley breaks the hill record.	Rod Moody	Kevin Mackrell	Alan Foley rear onboard camera	Alan Foley

We worked with Philip Memery of www.hillclimbracing.com to provide news and updates from the Peter Rogers Real Estate, 2006 Australian Hillclimb Championship conducted by the Bathurst Light Car Club.

2 times British Champion Martin Groves co-drove Andrew Howell's 2.65 NME XB Gould GR55. A car Martin is familiar with, although usually with more cubes (3500cc).
Photo by Gary Hill - Elgee Words and Pictures.

The chances of getting any onboard footage were slim, but several competitors jumped at the chance to carry the cameras and the video ended the right way around.

We sent 2 onboard camera setups with the cars constructor, David Gould. Mike Endean the sponsor of the British Hill Climb Championship was also there representing his engine building outfit Nicholson McLaren engines.

Andrew Howell already runs his own onboard camera in his Gould so we put ours to work on some of the others. The first thing we captured was Peter Gumley setting a new course record!

Peter Gumley (shown left - picture courtesy Phil Memery) has agreed to carry one of these cameras. Peter Gumley is the 8 time and current Australian Hillclimb Champion and the 2006 NSW Hillclimb Champion. Peter drives the 3944 cc Supercharged VW engined Wortmeyer SCV .

So it was the Gould with 2650cc of normally aspirated V8 verses Peter Gumley with 3944 and a supercharger and Gary West with his blown 4500cc Lola and a whole lot of other big motors. Sounds like fun.

We wish we had gone.

Martin Groves is twice British Champion and holds 6 outright British hill records. His most impressive run of last year was his taking of Andy Prilaux's 11 year old record at Bouley Bay in Jersey. We captured it with on and off board cameras.

Did Martin just have the best car to win the British?

9 of the top 10 in the British Championship finishers ran roughly the same car as Martin, ranging from 2.65 to 4.0 litre capacity.

The British Championship was decided at the penultimate round of a very close season. Scott Moran came second, giving Martin a real flea in the ear throughout the season. After Martin had that removed service was returned to normal and Martin beat Scott to win his second championship. Next year will see the two of them (and maybe Graeme Wight Junior and Willem Toet) in an even more intense battle for the title.

Hillclimbing is a hard sport in the UK. Plenty of partying, friendship, and fun offset the serious 34 rounds at 17 venues with 7,000 miles of travelling from April to September.

The Results.

1st Gary West Lola F3000

2nd Martin Groves Gould GR55B

3rd Andrew Howell Gould GR55B

4th Peter Gumley Wortmeyer SCV

Martin Groves is co-driving Andrew Howell's Gould GR55 2650cc in the Australian Nationals at Bathurst.

Here a link from the Bathurst Light Car Club website to a picture of Martin in action

Earlier News. From Sean Gould.

There are more videos and interviews on Phil's www.hillclimbracing.com

Nicholson McLaren Engines XB	Gould on a boat - July 2006 (Photochop)

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