The second round from the 2011 Island Car Club Hillclimb Championship was held at Xagħra hill on Sunday.

Sixty-three entries were registered with a strong participation also coming from Gozitan drivers who were again attracted to the motor sport event at their ‘home’ circuit.

Entries ranged from a father-and-son team on karts and modified road cars through to sports prototype racers and single-seaters.

Runs began early in the morning with the initial feedback from participants being that the recent works carried out by the authorities had significantly improved road conditions at the Xagħra hillclimb.

Results from the timed practice run also showed that Zach Zammit, in a Jagger Ralt, was the man to beat on the day after clocking 50.780.

Zammit was followed by the defending champion Hubert Camilleri and Alan Curmi with close times of 51.526 and 51.618 respectively.

Jason Muscat led Group 5 in his Radical as Anthony Bernard put in a blistering 55.737 in his Mitsubishi Evo to place among the single-seater category. Group 3 was led by Tony Vella in his Fiat X19 and Terrence Vella was fastest in Group 1.

The second run saw little changes in the rankings.

Zammit maintained his lead as various other drivers did improve their times in a uniform and consistent manner.

However, they did little to upset the provisional classifications, leading to an extremely competitive atmosphere in the pits, with crews scrambling to find that crucial split of a second that would enable their driver to leapfrog the nearest competitors in the provisional standings.

The level of commitment in the last-timed run was high but for some the day ended badly with the occasional car being pushed be-yond its mechanical limits and some drivers also incurring penalties and missing out on a chance to achieve a better time.

The final standings saw Zammit winning the hillclimb in 49.829 to finish ahead of Camilleri (50.605) and Curmi (51.418).

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