THE British RAC MSA Hillclimb Championship has got off to a late start this year, due to the foot and mouth epidemic.

The first round should have been in April, but had to be postponed and eventually started at Gurston Down, near Salisbury last weekend.

Mike McDonald is competing in the championship, along with the Leaders and Midlands Championship.

Mike is the senior partner of McDonald Churchill, independent financial advisors in Malvern and lives near Ledbury.

Mike secured a best time of 31.42 seconds last weekend, which gave him fourth place in the 1600cc class.

It was only his second time at Gurston and his preiovus best was 33.85 seconds.

Mike drives one of the new breed of hillclimb single seater racing cars, made of carbon fibre, powered by lightweight, six speed, motor cycle engines, which in standard form produce about 170 bhp. This gives a power-to-weight ratio similar to that of a Formula I McLaren.

He said: "Over the winter, the Suzuki Hayabusa engine was sent down to specialist engine tuners, Radical, who worked their magic to increase the horsepower by a further 40 bhp. The acceleration of the car is phenomenal and along with one or two other modifications, the car felt totally different and much more competitive."

This is not the first success that Mike has had this year.

At Llandow, near Cardiff, which was a racing circuit many years ago and has been re-surfaced and opened as a sprint and test venue, he won his class andwalked off with the award for fastest time of the day - with a time only a tenth of a second outside the outright lap record.

Mike used to race Clubmans cars and test for Alexis Formula Fords at the circuit some 30 years ago!

"I think my knowledge of the course and my instinctive circuit racing style, compensated for my increasing age and grey hair!" he said.

The event was well subscribed, including some very quick Pilbeam 2 litre cars.

The next round of the Championship will be held at Shelsley Walsh, followed by and event at Prescott, near Cheltenham.