July British Hillclimb Championship. Saturday.
British Automobile Racing Club (BARC) Yorkshire Centre organised a weekend of track action for the second and final visit for the British Hillclimb Championship (BHC) in the 2026 season and the first visit for competitors from the BHC Tin Top Challenge for rounds three and four of this championship.
Saturday would be practice runs for both these championships, while Sunday’s event would have a practice run then a timed run followed by a top twelve run-off for Round 13 this would then be repeated for Round 14 of the BHC, it is the run-offs were the competitors would be awarded championship points.
A number of regular competitors from Harewood Speed Hillclimb would also join in for both days along with a number of competitors from the Porsche Club GB, taking part in the 2026 Porsche Club Speed Championship. Both of these sets of competitors would form the Inter-club classes.
For competitors taking part in the BHC Tin Top Challenge this was the first and only visit in 2026 to Harewood Hill.
Saturdays Results for the Inter-club Results Class 14
Saturdays Results for the Inter-club Results Class 42
Saturdays Results for the Inter-club Results Class 26
British Hillclimb Championship. Sunday.
All competitors no matter what championship got one practice run, then the event was into the timed runs.
After all competitors completed the timed runs the Inter-club classes had another timed run before the fastest top ten competitors in the Tin Top Challenge had a run-off for championship points. Then it was the turn of the fastest twelve in the BHC that had a run-off for Championship points. The timed runs were then repeated before another run-offs for both the Tin Top Challenge and BHC competitors.
Wallace Menzies set FTD in the first run-off, round 13 but during his second timed run his car had technical issues and came to a stop coming into farmhouse so missed out on a chance to score any points in round 14. This was after he had gone off into the gravel trap at Farmhouse on Saturday afternoon, during one of his practice runs.
So after these two rounds at Harewood Hill, this weekend, Will Hall and Matthew Ryder are joint leaders of the championship with 124 points, with Wallace Menzies in third on 110 points and fourth is Trevor Willis on 83 points.
Another competitor who ended up been towed up the hill during the second run-off for the Tin Top Challenge, was Damian Bradley in his Subaru Legacy, which came to a halt at Orchard.
Though leaving Harewood, Damien is joint championship leader with Roger Moran driving his Ford Fiesta ST hillclimb special (both 4 wheel drive) and the very quick two wheel drive Peugeot 205 of Stuart Reid is in third place. Simon Bainbridge won both of the run-offs in the Tin Top Challenge to take him up to fourth place. Simon driving his SBR Crono V8.
It was Mark Hemingway driving his Force TA, who set the quickest time by any of the Harewood Hill regulars and set a time of 50.83 during round 14 of the BHC run-off to claim one championship point.
Tin Top Challenge Run-off 1 Round 3.
Tin Top Challenge Run-off 2 Round 4.
Run-off 1 Round 13 of the BHC.
Run-off Round 14 of the BHC
FTD and Top four in Class.
Sunday British Hillclimb Championship Full Results:
Full Drivers British Hillclimb Championship
Many thanks to BARC Yorkshire centre for the opportunity to be track side. Also not forgetting all the volunteer Marshals, Medical and the Darlington & District Rescue Team, along with all the back office staff without which, the events at Harewood Hill could not take place.