The sixth round from the 2014 Island Car Club hillclimb championship, sponsored by Grimaldi Lines, was held recently at Miżieb.

After a low-key start to the season, 2013 champion Mark Micallef was back and produced a high-quality drive, winning his class and topping the overall standings in the final round.

Micallef (Auto Trader and MBL Radical Pro Sport) was a convincing winner as he topped the timesheets with a 38.850sec drive, outsmarting runner-up Zach Zammit (Urban Jungle Ralt) by only four thousands of a second on the day.

Keith Camilleri, inside his familiar black and orange Chevron Creative Solutions Radical, was third in 39.993secs.

With former multi-time Mizieb winner Zammit out on the hill, it was clear that all major contenders were not taking chances and looked keen to make each practice run count.

Race marshals reported very few incidents as the teams in-volved blew off the cobwebs and shook down their machinery after a long summer break. It was en-couraging for the organisers to see this year’s top runners out on the hill, notably Zammit and Camilleri in their flawless cars.

It was equally enjoyable to see a few newcomers attain excellent results at Mizieb.

Kurt Camilleri, in his Supercharged Radical-Sr, grabbed fourth position and Adam Galea, in his custom made DALK, won his class and placed sixth in the overall standings.

Great comeback

Matthew Zammit, who was very close to winning at Miżieb in previous hillclimb championships, made a remarkable comeback in his Radical Pro Sport.

His effort yielded him a creditable fifth placing.

Ryan Mangion’s manoeuvres inside his red turbo-charged Ford Escort bagged him a 10th place in the classification as well as the top podium spot in the rear-wheel drive series after an impressive 42.931sec drive. John Zammit (Lotus Elise) had to settle for second place in the category.

The Peugeots dominated the front-wheel drive group.

Didier Bugeja, in his 106, was first (43.633sec) and his brother Roswell second in a 205 Gti.

Steve Baldachino prevailed in the four-wheel drive class and Mark Borg, at the wheel of his Alfa Romeo GTA, emerged winner in the Classic Cars Group ahead of Dion Borg in his Fiat X19.

Meanwhile, it was revealed that special guests from the Salerno Corse Team, the Auto Sport Sorrento Team and a Sicily club will be joining the Maltese drivers for the next round of the champion-ship in Mellieha, tomorrow.

The by-pass will be closed for traffic from 8am till 4pm.

The Island Car Club is expecting an entry of over 70 drivers for the hillclimb in Mellieha.

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