SHELSLEY Walsh hosts the first of its two national championship meetings this weekend and with the best of British, if not World, speed hill climbing in attendance the record is certainly in danger.

Over 140mph racing cars, an Aston Martin DB9, the fastest accelerating road legal car in the UK a 680bhp Audi Quattro, classes of Ferrari and Lotus and a celebrity driver are all part of Shelsley Walsh in its 99th year.

Reigning champion Adam Fleetwood has won nearly all the previous rounds by setting outright records, so there is an outright record at Shelsley Walsh on the cards, and that is what is exciting about this, the second meeting of the year at Shelsley.

This meeting last year saw Graeme Wight Jnr set 24.56 seconds to be the fastest ever driver up Shelsley, but he's outgunned this year as Fleetwood gets into his stride with a car that was brand new to him last season, and then had an engine upgrade to 3.5 litres over the winter.

That leaves two time champion Wight Jnr still with his 2.5 litre V6 Gould (similar chassis to Fleetwood) and a package that is having to be driven exceptionally hard to keep up with the extra power of the Fleetwood car.

Wight Jnr managed to outgun Fleetwood at Prescott, and get under the record at Harewood, but Fleetwood went quicker. Wight Jnr is building his own V10 powered car in Scotland and expects it to be out sometime soon. But he'll not have enough time to set it up against the sorted Gould GR55 of Fleetwood who will be putting the record time of 24.56 seconds under pressure if the conditions are good.

Elsewhere in the top 12 run-off Martin Groves goes well at Shelsley in the older, heavier Gould GR37. The Pilbeam MP88 of Scott and Roger Moran has had a new V8 engine over the winter, plus aerodynamical additions, whilst the sister Pilbeam of Willem Toet is shared with Ben Butterfield who will build his speed whilst learning the car.

There is also an excellent entry elsewhere in the programme. The intra class Midland Hill Climb Championship levels the playing field between cars, the Ferrari Hill Climb Championship and the Lotus Championship host one make battles.

However, the star class of the day is for Aston Martins featuring some very rare machinery including actor Rowan Atkinson in his V8 Zagato, who has driven in many high profile events all over the globe.

Elsewhere there is the brand new Aston Martin DB9 on show courtesy of Stratstone of Mayfair. This is a truly stunning motor car that will be seen by many for the very first time at Shelsley Walsh, unless you were in Monaco, Cannes or St Tropez recently.

Shelsley Walsh is 10 miles west of Worcester, just follow the yellow AA signs. Practice takes place tomorrow (Saturday) with a £6 admission fee and race day is on Sunday with a £12 admission fee. The action starts both days at 10am.