Gurston Down

Photographing the Gurston Down round of the British Hillclimb Championship

A bank holiday weekend brings a wide range of motorsport for the spectator photographer. I chose to head to Wiltshire for my first visit to Gurston Down and round 8 of the British Hillclimb Championship. A deceptively simple course demands power on the straights and accuracy in the technical Karousel section. The track map had seen some sunshine – fittingly for the very hot weather !

I arrived as the first practice runs were concluding – the traffic in Salisbury at 9.30 on a Sunday morning was heavy – no doubt due to the twin attractions of nearby Stonehenge and the tallest cathedral spire in the UK. Access is, as ever at hillclimbs, very good with an open paddock and good viewing of the start.

Gurston Down Viewing Areas

The main viewing areas are on the right hand (east) side of the track as the cars head downhill from the start to Hollow Bend before the Karousel.

The viewing area at the Karousel is very steep but does have several benches to sit on and trees to provide shade.

Alongside the British Championship, the Gurston Masters Championship was in action. This included a couple of notable entries – Simon Taylor in the ex-Stirling Moss HWM Stovebolt Special #21 and Nic Mann in the Mannic-Beattie #27. There’s more about the Mannic later in this report.

There’s a good shot of the cars taking Ashes Bend with the further viewing area up towards Burke’s Rise. Given the weather – hot and sunny, I sought the shade in this area either looking back to Deer’s Leap or further up the course.

The welcome shade saw me stay here for a fair while. I was using the usual 70-200mm zoom – with the 1.7x teleconverter to give extra reach from time to time. There are places where a longer zoom could be used – I was travelling light!

It’s a good spot for oversteering shots.

Looking up to Burke’s Rise and before the sun has come round too far, there are gaps in the trees you can use.

Sharks will fly here, if the cars are setup low.

For the Top 12 Run Off, I moved to Deer’s Leap. This sought to emphasise the various lines out of the Karousel …

… and through Ashes Bend

British HillClimb Championships

As far as the Championship is concerned, it’s already looking like a three-horse race – at Gurston both rounds ended up Ryder, Hall, Menzies. It’s still early days and with dropped scores to include it’s far too early to make any hard and fast predictions.

Photographer’s notes

Gurston Down is a typical British hillclimb venue. Seemingly in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by glorious countryside and offering excellent viewing / photographic opportunities. I didn’t spend any time at the start which would give its own different view of the action.

As noted above, you could take a camera with a lens in the range of 70-200 mm and come away with a decent set of images. Will I return ?  Yes, but I will look for an alternative route that doesn’t take me through Salisbury !

Mannic Beattie

Many years ago, as a young commuter, I would read Autosport cover to cover. At the back of my mind was a hillclimbing Morris Minor which was eventually powered by a 550bhp V8 with nitrous injection (which was road legal).

Well, that was sold and over time replaced by the Mannic Beattie – based very loosely around Mallock Clubmans car but with four wheel drive and a 1700cc Cosworth BDT. Lag from the turbo is removed by using a helicopter gas turbine auxiliary power unit giving a distinctive sound. I’m not technical – there’s a fuller description here – The Manic Beattie Hillclimb Car

This was my first time seeing and hearing it – you can see it, and a few others., in action here.

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