Italian exotica lined up for Loton Park
Motor sport enthusiasts will be seeing red this weekend – literally – when around 20 Ferrari cars take to the track at Loton Park Hill Climb, near Shrewsbury.
Joining the famous Italian exotica will be examples from Reliant, Cooper, MG and Morgan which will be taking part in their own championships, with around a dozen examples of each marque competing.Together with these, around 80 saloon, sports and racing cars will be competing for points in the Loton Park Members Championship which sees a range of machines driven by club members, ranging from Austin Minis and Renualt Clios, through Mazda MX5s and Ford Escorts, to purpose-built single seater racing cars.
One young driver making his debut will be 16-year-old Tom Austin, of Clifton-on-Teme, near Ludlow, who will be sharing the family Porsche Cayman with his mother Rachel, while father Clive represents the family in his latest technology Empire Wraith single seater racing car.
Other family pairs include Graeme Manton of Norton, Shifnal, sharing an MG Midget with daughter Becky, Charles Williams of Claverley, sharing an RPM racing car with son James and Phil and Dave Newell, of Telford sharing a Mazda MX5.
Shrewsbury businessman and Chamber of Commerce patron Craig Hughes will be representing the county honour competing in his Scimitar Sabre Turbo against drivers from across the UK as part of the Reliant Scimitar Owners Club event and said: "This is my local and favourite hill and fortunately I tend to do well here so I am looking forward to a very exciting and competitive weekend with fellow club members."
Other county competitors include Rob Morgan of Shrewsbury in a Peugeot 205, Kelvin Lee of Bridgnorth in a Lotus Exige, Graham Godfrey of Tenbury Wells in an Audi TT, Andrew Collins of Shrewsbury in a Rover Metro, Paul Owen of Wem in a BMW, Sean Toms of Shrewsbury in a Porsche Boxster and Colin Mee of Oswestry in an Austin Healey Sprite.
The action starts with practice and qualifying each day at 9.15am followed by timed competition runs in programme order, with Loton Park Hill Climb being situated in the village of Alberbury, accompanied children aged under 16 are admitted free and full parking and facilities are on site.
