Last Sunday saw the second round of the Island Car Club Hillclimb Championship held at Xaghra hill. Sixty three entries registered, with the strong participation by Gozitan drivers that motorsport events held in the sister island have come to attract.

Cars ranged from a father and son team on go karts, modified road cars, custom built space frame chassis that beguiled the eye into the belief that the car beneath the skin was a run of the mill road car; through to sports prototype racers and single seat formula cars.

Runs began at half nine, with the initial feedback being that the recent road works carried out by the local council and the ministry of Gozo, had improved road conditions dramatically.

Results from the timed practice run showed that Zach Zammit in the Jagger Ralt was the man to beat with a time of 50.780. He was followed by defending champion Hubert Camilleri and Alan Curmi with 51.526 and 51.618 respectively.

Jason Muscat was leading Group 5 in his Radical, whilst Anthony Bernard put in a blistering 55.737 in his Mitsubishi Evo, placing him slap bang among the single seater category. Group 3 was led by Tony Vella in his Fiat X19 whilst Group 1 was led by Terrence Vella.

The second run saw little change in the rankings, with Zammit maintaining his lead and various drivers improving their times in a uniform and consistent manner that did little to upset standings, leading to an extremely competitive atmosphere in the pits, with drivers and mechanics scrambling to find that crucial tenth of a second that would enable them to leapfrog several competitors.

As is always the case in motorsport, leading the race is great as long as you lead it past the finish line, and as the cars lined up to thunder up the hill one last time, one could see that all drivers were out to push to the limits to safeguard their position.

This level of commitment inevitably leads to disappointment, with the occasional car being pushed beyond its mechanical limits and failing, as well as drivers pushing themselves past the limit (yours truly ran through the chicane, incurring a ten second penalty) and losing the chance for improvement.

The final standings were Zach Zammit with a 49.829 in first, Hubert Camilleri second with a 50.605 and Alan Curmi third with a 51.418.