LARGE crowds greeted the start of a new hill climb season at Shelsley Walsh.

Good weather also helped pull in the punters as the historic Teme Valley venue, now in its 99th year, kicked off with a two-day meeting.

A wide variety of cars, from pre-war Frazer Nashes to Morgans and Porsches, took to the hill in several different classes.

Midland Automobile Club secretary Roger Thomas said: "It was a good weekend for us. More people came to see us than at the equivalent meeting last May."

The first day of competition was held up for over an hour when experienced Worcester racer Bob Gale crashed heavily at the Crossing bend in his Westfield.

He had to be taken to hospital by air ambulance with a fractured leg, but his first run time in his Westfield was still enough to earn him second place in the roadgoing kit cars section.

Gale's son Mike won the modified production cars over 1400cc section in his Nissan GTiR, while Leominster's Hugh Teagle was first in his Pilbeam MP62 in the 1100-1600cc racing cars class.

Kington's John Jones took fastest time of the day with 27.60 seconds in his Pilbeam MP82, but Malvern Wells driver Ken Sims, who was expected to challenge strongly, suffered a practice crash in his MG Metro 6R4 and was unable to compete.

Day two saw class wins for Droitwich's David West in his Austin Cooper S (production and road modified saloons and sports cars up to 1400cc), and for Whittington's Martin Baker in his OMS (racing cars 1100-1600cc).

Shelsley stages its first British Hill Climb Championship meeting of the season on June 5-6.