Fintray Hillclimb
Fintray House Hillclimb is a speed motorsport event held near Hatton of Fintray, in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Each event is a separate round of the Scottish Hillclimb Championship. The venue is a working farm for the majority of the year but Grampian Automobile Club (GAC) stage two, two-day events each year. The venue has been used since the 1960s, and continues to see record entries.[citation needed]
Initially run by Aberdeen & District Motor Club (ADMC), the event used to run as a National counter in the British Hill Climb Championship. Willie Forbes won here in 1967 driving a Lotus 35 in a record time of 28.11 sec on the 620-yard hill.[1] Willie Forbes won the 1969 round in his Lola T142-Chevrolet in a time of 30.83 sec.[2] In 1971 David Hepworth, Hepworth FF four-wheel-drive: "was the hill's record holder when he set a time of 29.9 seconds in a previous visit, but this time he was four-tenths quicker and took another BTD." [3]
"Martin Bolsover's outright Fintray record had stood for so long people had almost forgotten it was there. His magical 1982 run was the only single sub-26s climb in the history of the hill, and, at 25.99s, only a shade under it too." [4] On June 25, 1989, Roy Lane, Pilbeam MP58-1 DFL 4-litre, broke the longstanding record convincingly with a run of 25.72 sec at the British Championship meeting. The current track record of 25.28 was set in 2009 by Stewart Robb Jnr, breaking the previous record of 20 years' standing, set by Roy Lane in 1989.[5] Stewart Robb Jr finally broke the hill record at Grampian MC’s short, 725 yard hill at Fintray, near Aberdeen, Saturday 8th Aug 2009. Robb’s father, Stewart Sr, was first inside the record – by a mere hundredth – aboard their 4-litre Pilbeam-Judd MP88. But on a day when nine class records were reset, his son applied the coup de grace on the very last run of the day with a 25.28.
References
- ^ Motor, July 8, 1967, Page 56.
- ^ Motoring News, July 10, 1969, Page 24.
- ^ Derek Lawson, Formula 5000 Motor Racing: Back Then... and Back Now, Page 52, ISBN 978-1-84584-216-1
- ^ Autosport, July 6, 1989, Page 57.
- ^ "Welcome to the Grampian Automobile Club site". Grampian Automobile Club. Retrieved 2009-09-22.
See also
57°14′15″N 2°14′45″W / 57.23750°N 2.24583°W