Trevor Willis crowned 2012 Avon Tyres MSA British Hillclimb champion

Trevor Willis won the Avon Tyres MSA British Hillclimb Championship at Loton Park on 28-29 September to take his first ever national hillclimb title. Speaking after Sunday’s run-offs, Willis said he was glad to have secured the title: “That was a huge relief! I was so glad to take the title in the first run-off as I just couldn’t take the pressure anymore – it was getting too much,” he laughed.

“It all worked out brilliantly in the end and it was just an enormous relief to get it all out of the way in the second run-off. I knew it was a tough ask for Scott – particularly with the weather conditions playing such a strong part – but I still wasn’t going to feel home and dry until it was secured. I haven’t really thought ahead to next year all that much, but I’ll definitely be back to defend my title – it’ll be nice to have some free weekends for a while, though!”

Willis enjoyed a strong start to the season but was often eclipsed by dominant triple champion, Scott Moran, who scored five run-off wins in a row early on to build himself a cushion over his sparring partner, Willis. Willis’s patience soon paid off though, and the wins started coming for Trevor, who races an OMS 25 in the championship. A flurry of first and second-placed finishes saw Willis chip away at Moran’s lead and it soon became clear that the 2012 title battle was likely to go down to the wire.

A decision taken by Moran and his father – 1997 British Hillclimb Champion, Roger Moran – to miss two weekends of the championship proved costly for Moran’s title hopes. Willis capitalised on his opportunity, winning all four rounds and taking a hill record at each venue to lead the title race by a seemingly insurmountable 27 points on Moran’s return to competition.

Moran fought back hard, winning three run-offs in a row, but heading into the final rounds at Loton Park, Moran needed nothing short of a miracle to overturn Willis’s points advantage.

Only two wins and a hill record would be good enough for Moran to maintain his title at the Shropshire venue. Coming into the weekend, the triple-champion had expressed concern that he may well have put the hill record too far out of his own reach when he broke it earlier in the season, adding that conditions would need to be ‘perfect’ for a hill record to be on the cards.

Meanwhile, Willis – who arrived at the season finale in the box seat – was determined to end the agonising wait as early as possible, knowing that victory in run-off one would be enough for championship glory.

The championship protagonists traded fastest times in the three practice sessions but come qualifying for run-off one, it was advantage Willis. Last to take to the hill for the first run-off, the Wendover man ascended the 1349-metre hill in a time of 44.29 seconds – one-and-a-half tenths of a second clear of Moran – to secure championship glory with one round remaining.

Rain arrived for the final run-off of the season, which produced mixed results. Another impressive result in challenging conditions saw Willis claim second with a time of 52.34 seconds, while Moran was unable to complete his attempt.