A THRILLING day's speed hillclimbing at Gurston Down saw the outright hill record smashed by a rising star in the sport.

New pretender 23-year-old Adam Fleetwood reset the standard for the venue near Broad Chalke in his 3.3 litre V8 powered Gould GR55 single seat racecar.

The Shropshire driver triumphed in the second of the two Tran-X British Championship top 12 run-offs.

He was among 150 of the best drivers, cars and motorbikes in the country which put on some spectacular action for a large and enthusiastic crowd on Sunday.

Bank holiday showers played their part in keeping runs unpredictable, slowing some leading contenders in later qualifying and allowing some exciting local talent through to the championship run-offs.

Ian Chard of New Milton and Mike Gregory from Stockbridge were among the beneficiaries of the rain, both qualifying for the first run-off with Chard finishing seventh and Gregory finishing ninth to bag some British Championship points on their home hill.

A swift charge by Jonathan Goodyear in the 2.3 litre turbocharged Pilbeam MP87 netted not just the first win for the young pilot, but also his first championship points of the season.

The second Top 12 run off saw the expected gathering of the country's fastest car/driver combinations line up for their one-shot charges up the winding track.

Second fastest qualifier Fleetwood set the hill alight with a 140 mph finish line blast and a 26.61 second run time to lay down the gauntlet to reigning champion, current series leader and fastest qualifier Graeme Wight Jnr.

But as Wight Jnr left the start his engine stuttered and the fightback was over before it had begun.

Wight's 1600 mile round trip from Aberdeenshire yielded no points whatsoever, although the day's mixed results mean that he remains top of the British Champion-ship table.

There were plenty of strong performances from local drivers against the top British opposition in many classes. Yeovil's Derek Mullis took the up to 1400cc modified production saloon class in his 1.3 Mini Cooper S by over a second, while Andrew Russell from Alresford was even more dominant in the up to 1400c modprod sports car class in his 1.1 Ginetta, winning by more than two seconds.

Bournemouth's Andrew Crump has been a Gurston regular for some time but had never previously won an award there, so his victory in the up to 2000cc modprod saloon class in his 2.0 Ford Escort was especially sweet.

Gurston's next event is on June 14-15.