The class battles were as close as ever, starting with the up to 1300cc road cars, where the very quick Clan Crusader of Roy Sims took the section honours as expected. Two great runs by hillclimb newcomer Dean Vowden in his 1275cc MG Midget posed a real threat to the regular campaigners and resulted in his taking a well-earned second place ahead of the interesting Cox GTM of MIke Brend.

In Class 2 (road cars 1301 to 1800cc) the normally speedy Brian Gurney was dogged with bad luck. During practice his Davrian broke a CV joint and this was repaired in time for the competitive runs, only for the diff. to fail on the first run - Brian's challenge was over. This left the way clear for Tony Wiltshire to take the honours with his very tidy Lotus Elan, while another newcomer in the form of Andy Rice (Dutton 'B') made his presence felt, taking the runner-up spot ahead of Andrew Pegg's Europa.

The largest capacity road car group fell to the rally-prepared 2 litre Escort of Terry Rook, ahead of stalwart South Western campaigner John Turpin who finished a close second with his Porsche Carrera. Third place was hotly contested between two equally immaculate 2.3 Chevettes of David Bradburn and Dave Harris; the sparring pair finally finishing in that order with just 0.17secs separating them.

Mike Lee collected the trophy in class 4 (special saloons up to 1300cc), the division attracting just 3 entries plus a couple of cars which were transferred from the day's opening class. Mike's well-known and unique Nike Imp screamed its way up the hill, completing the 850 yard climb in just under 40 secs, a good opening to the season for the Saltash driver.

The over 1300cc special saloon car class fell to the consistently quick Roy Bray, who posted  a fine sub 40sec climb to hold almost 4secs in hand over his nearest rival, the Mini-mounted Richard Matossian. Amongst the small section of modified and limited production sports cars, it came as no surprise to see the reigning ASWMC champion, Jonathan Williamson, starting the season as he had left off in 1986. Jonathan, in the Parks of Exeter Porsche Carrera Sport, now enlarged to 3.2 litres, commenced the defence of his title in fine style, only just failing to break 39secs, showing that he would not surrender his mantle without a fight.

The clubmans and sports racing car division produced a fine start to the year for John Forsythe who powered his Mallock U2 Mk20 to victory in just over 40secs, while in the small racing car category the protaganists were faced with a real problem.  Relative newcomer Andrew Hale's little 350cc Halo Jedi ruffled a few feathers on its way to a well deserved class win. Class 11 contained the largest capacity single seaters allowed at Oddicmbe and with the elevation of Kevitt Payne to the top of the rostrum following his two storming climbs, the class trophy went to Steve Lydon and his home-built Virago DS2. A challenge had been expected from the usually rapid John Lloyd, but unfortunately his campaign was thwarted by engine problems.

The final class of the day was reserved for drivers of the T.R. Register and produced a grandstand finish to the well supported event as Nick Morgan.s TR6 was able to get the better of Lorna Rice's similar machine by just 0.07secs.
 
 

Results

BTD     Kevitt Payne

1.6 Ensign LNF3 Holbay

36.10s

Class Winnners

Roy Sims	1.0 Clan Crusader	43.61s
Tony Wiltshire	1.6 Lotus Elan	43.69s
Terry Rook	2.0 Escort Mk1	43.70s
Mike Lee	1.3 Nike Imp BDH	39.61s
LeRoy Bray	2.0 Ford Escort Mk1	39.37s
Jonathan Williamson	3.2 Porsche 911 Carrera	39.02s
John Forsythe	1.6 Mallock U2 Mk22 Ford	40.06s
Andrew Hale	0.4 Halo Jedi	45.83s
Steve Lydon	1.6 Virago DS2 TC	40.96s
Nick Morgan	2.5 Triumph TR6	48.48s