The fourth round of the ICC Hill Climb and Sprint championship produced a third different overall winner this year when the dynamic racer Matthew Zammit propelled his Suzuki powered Service-Express Van Diemen to overall victory, clocking the fastest time of the day besides achieving the best time for Group 6.

Zammit’s exploits in hillclimbs all over Sicily with his Van Diemen F1000 has become common knowledge, but here in Malta he is becoming an ever increasing threat and his performance at Xagħra on Sunday confirmed this.

The second place overall of reigning champion Hubert Camilleri certainly was a surprise for the veteran driver. He has been having one of those seasons one would be glad to forget after transmission glitches marred most of this season. But following plenty of team effort and some recent modifications to his Mclaren-Garage Chevron, he was well back in the hunt on Sunday although having to retire in his last run. Nevertheless he still succeeded in winning his class.

In third place overall, Zach Zammit reserved his place on the podium with his Urban Jungle Ralt, clocking an excellent time which was just about enough to outpace last year’s winner Alan Curmi who clocked a time that was four tenths of a second slower.

The Xagħra hill climb attracted an entry of some 60 cars. These ranged from a father-and-son team on karts and modified road cars through to sports prototype racers and single-seaters.

As the start time approached, the sun was up and bright and by 10.30 a.m. all drivers were wheeling their racing cars out from under their gazebos and into the sun to get their tyres nicely warmed up ahead of competition.

The feedback coming from that early run was that the dust deposited on the slippery road was causing extremely low levels of traction. Indeed, some drivers struggled to get more power down and resorted to short shifting to prevent wheel-spin.

By the time the first timed run was up grip levels improved drastically and the participants were making most of the road’s satisfactory conditions.

The championship is split into six groups, each again divided into classes according to engine capacity.

In Autocross, Tony Agius was dominant with his familiar yellow Escort. Group 1 (standard cars) winner was young Kurt Camilleri with his new Mitsubishi Evo, as Sylvio Sciberras (Ford Fiesta) won class 2, Luigi Mifsud (Honda Civic) won class 3 and Gozo’s own Domenic Zammit (Alfa Sud) won class 4.

David Galea was once again fastest with his Subaru Impreza in Group 2 for modified saloons besides placing seventh overall, an astonishing performance from the young driver who even outpaced various single-seater cars. Jonathon Tonna (Mini) won class 1, Charles Cutajar (Escort Mk1) won class 2, Didier Bugeja (Peugeot 106) performed well to win class 3 and Julian Bernard wheeled his matt black Toyota MR2 to win class 4.

Star of Group 3 was John Zammit on board his Carfi Lotus Elise, placing ninth overall with a blistering time, three tenths of a second away from Galea’s Subaru, whilst Edward Calleja (Lotus Elise) performed well, winning class 2 in the process.

Joseph Cutajar won Group 4 in his ever so popular Cosworth powered Ford Escort Mk2.

In Group 5 Mark Micallef emerged as the fastest in his Radical Prosport. Jason Muscat (Radical Clubsport) won Class 1 followed by James Dunford (Radical PR6) who was only four tenths behind in his recently purchased Radical.

The next event will be held on 20 May at the notorious hill of Mtahleb, limits of Rabat.