Five Clubs; MG Car Club; Arnold Gimblett - Speed September 2025

Nigel Cole
Dec 3, 2025
3 min read

Updated: 1 day ago

Six times Wiscombe Park Champion Ian Ingleheart was trying hard to retain his title

The season at Wiscombe Park drew to a close with two consecutive weekends of action featuring the fastest cars, drivers and riders in the South West.

Speed September got off the start line with the 49th running of the two-day Five Clubs event. The highlight of the weekend was rounds 5 and 6 of the Wiscombe Tillicoultry Quarries Championship. This 7 round Championship was first held in 2002 and the 2025 title battle has been very closely contested. The driver who has maintained the lead since Round 1 is Ed Hollier in his motor bike engined Force HC. However, he has been closely pursued by six-time Champion, and current title holder, Ian Ingleheart – Westfield Se. The two drivers have traded times all season long – at the Five Clubs event, they matched each other’s Class wins on both days, with Ed ultimately setting the Fastest Time overall on both days – 36.13s and 41.37s. Matt Vann – Audi TT – in third place was ready to pounce should either of the front runners drop points. It was destined to go down to the wire!

The following weekend, we welcomed the MG Car Club and a wide range of iconic MG cars covering 70 years of the marque from the 1930’s up to the early 2000’s taking on the challenge of our tortuous 1000-yard course. In addition, there were also road going, classics, modified, rally and bespoke race cars including single seaters providing plenty of entertainment. The attraction of the sport of speed hillclimbing for both competitors and spectators is that there is a class for every type of car. MG honours were claimed by John Egan – MG Midget – with a best time of 51.86s.

The event also included the final round of the Wiscombe Championship, and all eyes were focused on Ed Hollier to see if he could lift the title for the second time and replicate his 2005 achievement. And in a season which had seen Ed set six Fastest Times of the Day including two new Class Records, his performance was faultless, and it was FTD number seven – 39.62s. Although Andrew Forsyth – OMS CF04 - recorded an identical time, Ed claimed the win by virtue of his second run being a 40.44s - 1.3s quicker than Andrew’s second run. The perfect end to his Wiscombe season and claiming the Championship trophy!

Ed, from Ottery St Mary, can now concentrate on the Fusion Fostering Association of South Western Motor Clubs Championship. He has won the title for the previous two seasons and is keen to make it a hat trick of back-to-back titles – a feat never achieved before. The outcome of that Title will not be decided until the final rounds at Tregrehan in Cornwall on the 4th/5th October.

The traditional season finale at Wiscombe is the Arnold Gimblett event – this is when the venue is taken over for one day only by the members of the National Hill Climb Association on their bikes, sidecars and trikes. Unfortunately, the competitors had to cope with poor weather conditions - heavy rain in the afternoon made the course even more challenging. However, these highly skilled racers put on an incredible display of bike control on the waterlogged tarmac. The riders described the track as being like a freshly greased baking tray!

The Top Ten Run Off was won by Tommy Hodges with a time of 42.69s riding his Team GV KTM from current Champion, Tom Short - KTM SMR – and Jimmy Hodges - Team GV KTM.

The 2026 Wiscombe Park season, which marks the venues 68th continuous year of motorsport, gets underway with the Woolbridge Spring event on 25th/26th April. See you all in 2026!