Hill Climb: Arnside's Mansfield second in national championship (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Hill Climb: Arnside's Mansfield second in national championship

10:50am Thursday 26th January 2012 in Sport By Patrick O'Kane, Senior News/Sport Reporter

ARNSIDE’S John Mansfield has finished second in the Austin 7 Bert Hadley National Speed Hill Climb Championships.

Mansfield, 73, who used to run a catering equipment business in Windermere, has always been interested in motorsport and started racing his Austin 7 almost eight years ago.

And after a third place finish in the championship last season, he went one better in 2011 and attended a prizegiving ceremony on Gayton to collect his prize recently.

He said: “I was about 11 when I went to the very first Barbon Hill Climb and have been interested since. There are about 30 of us in the championship and there is a big following in the hill climb. I have an old car from about 1929 while the guy who beat me, Terry Griffin, built his own car.

“My car goes about 80mph while Terry’s can go 90mph, so I couldn’t really compete to the same level.”

Mansfield said he finds the sport pretty affordable and he travels across the north of England for championship races, with entrants having to score points in five of the 12 races.

He added: “I am the oldest in the championship at 73 and will probably race again next year. I won at Barbon in June and when I go there I always think of when I was 11 and first went there.

“We also go to Aintree and that is brilliant because I remember Stirling Moss and Fangio competing there. It is such a privilege to race there.”