SIMON Purcell hung onto his season-long lead to become the 2014 Gates of Brockenhurst Gurston Down Hillclimb Champion in a dramatic finale on Sunday, writes Luke Clifford.

It was another faultless display by Purcell in his selfdeveloped supercharged 1.4 litre Lotus Exige.

The fight for the Gurston top ten came to a halt as marshalls cleaned up spilt oil from Salisbury's Jerry Bailey on the track at Karousel.

Chris Cannell, another Salisbury racer, subsequently slipped off the track in his Force SR8 and on his second run gear failure left Cannell unable to beat his earlier practice time of 31.60, giving Cannell second and Sue Hayes third in the Sports Libre cars over 2000cc on the day and overall in the Championship.

Cannell was also knocked off the top spot for the Gurston Down top ten final positions, with Brockenhurst's Jonathan Gates first in his Force LM, Gurston’s long-time Championship sponsor becoming the first driver in the venue’s history to win both the Championship (in 2006 in a Westfield) and the Top Ten Challenge.

Nick Smith, from Salisbury, in his TR6 finished fifth in the TR class doing 41.15.

Fordingbridge's Miles Horne, in his Peugeot 306 GTI, finished second in class on Sunday with 39.23, which was enough for him to finish first in class overall for the year in the Roadgoing Production cars up to 2000cc.

Stephen Moore from Stapleford dominated again in his Mitsubishi Evo 6, recording 33.97 to finish first in the Roadgoing Production Cars over 2000cc class and giving him his second overall championship win.

Moore said: “I'm really pleased.

“The car has been 100 per cent reliable this year.

“Thanks goes to Janspeed for their great engine and continued support this year.”

Salisbury's Adrian Lewis had to change the sump in his Westfield Megabusa which was just completed before second practice, and he finished overall third in Roadgoing Specialist Production cars.

“I wasn't so keen to push today after doing the repairs myself,” said Lewis.

“But I've had a really good year and I'm pleased with where I have finished.”

See more from the weekend’s racing action at www.gurstondown.org.