THE Tony Marsh Memorial Midsummer Speed Fest at Gurston Down last weekend attracted more than 130 car drivers and 30 motorbike riders each day and produced some sizzling motorsport action against the clock.

Best recorded time on Saturday went to Jerseyman Jason Mourant in his 3.2 litre, V8-powered OMS 25 single-seater in 28.30 seconds while Sunday’s leading speed was set by Ed Hollier from Honiton in his 1.6 Empire Evo in 28.56s. The fastest Salisbury-based driver was Chris Cannell in his latest acquisition, the 1.3 supercharged Empire Evo sports libre car. Chris managed a time of 31.47s on Sunday as he familiarised himself with the new projectile. His partner Sue Hayes, who shares the car with him, was fourth in class each day as she too continued to shave time off on each run.

Stephen Moore continued his winning ways in the over 2000cc modified series production saloon car class as he guided his Janspeed 2.0t Mitsubishi Evo 6 to class wins on both days, going sub-33 seconds on his final run of the weekend and closing to within a quarter of a second of the class record. He also retained the joint lead of the Gurston Down Hillclimb Championship after three rounds.

In the competitive road-going specialist production class Adrian Lewis had a good weekend in his 1.4 Westfield Megabusa with fourth on Saturday and third on Saturday. Jason Martin and Mark Parrett made their competition debuts in their shared 1.6 Autotune Gemini and enjoyed chipped away at their times and trading places, Mark beating Jason on Saturday with the positions reversed on Sunday.

Steve Holley made a belated seasonal debut in his well-known 5.2 TVR Griffith and took third in the over 2000cc marque sports car class each day.

Tony Levitt made his and his car’s debut on Saturday, Tony fielding a brand new 1.0 Empire Evo single seater in the up to 1100cc racing car class. Knocking time off on each ascent of the hill netted a fifth in class but new car gremlins forced an early retirement on Sunday.

James Dean brought his rare 1.6 Raven 4WD single seater into second spot in the Historically Interesting class on Saturday.