Martin Groves is a British
hillclimb driver, who won the
British Hill Climb Championship
The British Hill Climb Championship (BHCC) is the most prestigious Hillclimbing championship in Great Britain. Hillclimbing in the British Isles has a rich history, for example, the hillclimb held at Shelsley Walsh, in Worcestershire, England is t ...
in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2010. With older cars he had won five rounds of the BHCC between 2001 and 2004, but in 2005 he was exceptionally quick in his new Gould GR55B, clinching the championship at
Craigantlet in early August having finished first or second in every one of the 28 BHCC rounds up to that point. He retained the title in 2006, after fending off a strong challenge from
Scott Moran
Scott Moran (born 1976
) is a British hillclimb driver, based in Ludlow, Shropshire. Scott Moran has won the British Hill Climb Championship six times (2008, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2014 and 2016) driving the Gould GR61X he shares with his father, ...
.
Also in 2006, Groves drove a
Gould
Gould may refer to:
People
* Gould (name), a surname
Places United States
* Gould, Arkansas, a city
* Gould, Colorado, an unincorporated community
* Gould, Ohio, an unincorporated community
* Gould, Oklahoma, a town
* Gould, West Virginia, a ...
(though a 2.65-litre car rather than his usual larger-capacity machine) at Bathurst in the
Australian Hillclimb Championship
The Australian Hillclimb Championship is a CAMS sanctioned motor sport competition which determines Australia's annual hillclimbing champion. The championship has traditionally been awarded to the driver setting fastest time at a single meetingPe ...
, dipping well inside the hill record.
In 2007 Groves became the first man to dip under 23 seconds at
Shelsley Walsh
Shelsley Walsh is a small village and civil parish in Worcestershire, England, on the western side of the River Teme. For administrative purposes it is presently located in the Teme Valley ward of the county’s Malvern Hills district. In the 2011 ...
, when he recorded 22.86 seconds on 3 June.
However, he lost the record to Scott Moran later that same day.
At the final meeting of the 2007 Championship, at Shelsley Walsh on 7 October, Groves secured a hat-trick of titles when he won the first run-off, regaining the outright record in the process with a time of 22.81 seconds. On 17 August 2008, Groves lowered the record further to 22.58 seconds. This record stood for two days short of 13 years before being broken by Sean Gould, Wallace Menzies and Alex Summers on 15 August 2021.
At
Val des Terres in July 2009, Groves equalled
Roy Lane
Roy Lane (c. 1935 – 14 October 2009) was a British racing driver. He is best known for his great success in hillclimbing, having won the British Hillclimb Championship on four occasions (1975, 1976, 1992, and 1996) in a career spanning more th ...
's long-standing record of 90 wins in BHCC rounds.
He became the first driver to record 100 wins in August 2010, reaching the mark at
Craigantlet.
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]
Notes
British hillclimb drivers
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
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