Anastasi establishes new Xagħra record

Grimaldi Team Malta driver Joshua Anastasi was the winner of a closely contested hill climb at Xagħra, Gozo, last weekend when 70 drivers competed during the sixth round of the ICC Hill Climb and Sprint Championship.

It was a close thing throughout.

Current champion Hubert Camilleri was carrying on with the form he had shown a week earlier when he won the UISP hill climb at Mt Etna in Sicily, and both the Etna winner and current championship leader Anastasi fought tooth and nail for the win, breaking the hill record time and time again in the process.

In the end it was Anastasi, driving his Kawasaki, who stopped the clocks at a record 45.829secs.

The win moves him further ahead in the championship, with only two rounds left.

Fifteen drivers from Gozo joined a further 55 from Malta in this event which again ran like clockwork.

Camilleri, driving his Chevron Cosworth, was a close second. His performance at Xagħra confirmed that he has lost none of his skills, the gap to first being just 0.047 of a second. Does that constitute a new record for close finishes?

An excellent third was young Steve Zammit Cutajar (Tatuus Hyabusa) whilst Johan Spiteri gets more confident with his Jedi Yamaha with every outing and finished fourth.

Matthew Zammit had a suspension failure on his last run so he didn't improve, though his previous time was good enough to put his Suzuki fifth, as Miżieb winner Paul Deguara and his homebuilt Motoflash Yamaha rounded off the top half-dozen spots.

Mark Galea was ballistic with his Subaru Impreza WRX, posting the seventh best time in run one. He was followed by 'flying doctor' Anthony Bernard (Mitsubishi EVO 7).

David Anastasi (Honda) came out tops in the competitive Group 5 and Escort driver Charles Cutajar was fastest in Group 2, posting a time good enough for 18th place overall.

Domenic Zammit was not only fastest Gozitan with his Alfasud but also took the prize for best performance in Group 1.

Championship contenders Zach Zammit and Lino Brincat both had days they would rather forget, the former's Ralt Honda deciding to stick in third gear and Brincat's Dallara running erratically throughout the day.

The next event, the penultimate in the ICC championship, is scheduled for October 10.