The race that is 'like F1 up a country lane'

Motorsport is returning to Worcestershire with the 120th annual Hill Climb at Shelsley Walsh - described by an organiser as "Formula 1 up a country lane".

The track, near Stourport-on-Severn, opened in 1905 and has seen many champions from the sport take on the steep hill.

The record when it was first staged was 77.6 seconds for the 1,000-yard (914m) run but, 120 years later, it stands at 22.37 seconds.

Organiser Toby Moody said: "There's a lot going on in under half a minute when the car is hitting 150mph twice within that period of time. It is Formula 1 up a country lane. It's that mad."

Practice and competition events are being held on the track on Saturday and Sunday.

Asked whether this weekend's event would set a new record, Mr Moody responded: "Absolutely, by the record holding driver, Sean Gould, in a 410kg single-seater kind of smaller-scale Formula 1 car that's got 730 or 740 horsepower, with a big V8 (internal combustion engine) at the back."

Mr Moody said the first meeting at the track was on 12 August 1905.

"The first car didn't even make it up the hill because it's so steep here," he said.

"It is one in six in places but it was a way for the motor manufacturers in those early times to prove that their cars could even climb a hill, so what better way to do it than have a competition."

He claimed the track was the oldest motorsport venue still operating in the world.

"All the great and the good of motorsport have been here, particularly before the war," he added.

Mr Moody said it was a "huge" event.

"The first meeting after the war, there were still people queuing to get in at half past four in the afternoon and we had to delay the meeting," he said,

"It finished at half past seven in the evening because the country had been bereft of motorsport.

"We're still going today, so it's great...that juxtaposition of having the modernism of the modern cars against the old backdrop of Worcestershire is fantastic."

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