The unusually warm and dry weather in much of England meant that the final round of the Speed Championship on 1st October was a glorious, sun-drenched gathering at Prescott hill climb in the Cotswolds. Fifteen Championship drivers enjoyed four runs on this prestigious but technically difficult hill climb. The day went well without too much incident other than the low, bright afternoon sun lining up perfectly with the sight-line on Prescott start and slightly restricting visibility.

We lost a couple of Class P1 drivers to racing at Silverstone for the final round when Mark Cowne underwent a ‘baptism of fire’ in his first foray into racing the GT3 Cup Challenge alongside Tim Barber in the Club Championship. However, we still had Melvin Spear (964 Cup) and Paul Howells (1973 911 RSR) battling for final points at Prescott and they both put in a series of remarkably consistent times over the day. After completing his eighth championship round Mel finished the day with a 50.13 second fastest time for second place. Taking into account a 2% penalty for running slicks Paul bettered Mel’s time by 2.10 seconds for first place in P1. The final round meant that Paul took third place overall in the Speed Championship and is the P1 class winner.

Two drivers also made up Class P2 at Prescott with Geraint Evans (911 3.2) and Andy Tomkins (911 3.2 Targa) making the most of the fine conditions. Andy only did one timed run under championship conditions (after running in slicks in one practice and timed run) and finished in 50.50 seconds for second place. Geraint has had an excellent season and he finished the day with a fastest time of 49.26 for first place in P2 at Prescott, second overall in the championship and winner of Class P2 by a large margin.

Five drivers entered Class P3 at Prescott with Wayne Eason making his second appearance this season in his Gulf liveried 914/6 and picking up third place trophy at Prescott with a 51.91 second finish. As at so many rounds this season David Chivers (911E) and Ian Wadsworth (911 Carrera 3.0) produced a day of close competition and finished the day with just 0.29 of a second between them. David’s fastest time was 50.56 seconds for second place at Prescott while Ian gained first place trophy with 50.27 seconds. With a string of class wins in seven appearances this season Ian is in second place in class P3 with David Hilton taking the class win and fifth position overall.

It has been a great year for numbers of drivers in Class P4 with reliably good turnouts throughout the season. Prescott was no exception with six drivers on the day and, as we have seen before, a really exciting and close battle between Stuart Maclean (924) and Justin Mather (924). Driving similar cars and with a similar talent for getting the most from these 2 litre machines, they have regularly been within fractions of a second of each other and so it was at Prescott. Stuart finished the day with a 53.80 second finish for third place which left a gap of just 0.08 seconds behind Justin Mather who collected second place trophy with 53.72 seconds. Eleven appearances this season have also put Justin in fourth position overall and second in class P4. The P4 class win at Prescott was taken by Graham Rose (924S) in this, his ninth win in eleven appearances.

The win at Prescott provided an emphatic full stop to another brilliant season for Graham. Despite engine problems at the beginning of the season and an upset at a very wet Gurston this year, Graham has been brilliantly focused and successful on both hills and sprints throughout the year. 2011 is the third consecutive season Graham Rose has claimed the title of Overall Porsche Club Speed Champion and the fourth time in total that he has won the championship – an outstanding achievement.