This year the combined efforts of museum and the team at the Thoroughbred Sports Car Club definitely delivered a feast for the eye with many varied displays and unique competition cars, many of which have never been seen in Ulster before, one of these cars was the Issigonis Lightweight Special, making its first trip to Irish shores. Built from 1933 to 1938, the car has a unique rubber suspension and given its historical significance it is on permanent loan to British Motor Museum. Driven by Andy Storer, the car drew admirers all day long.

In the case of the ex Alec Poole ‘The Cyclops’ Sprite, it was returning to the province after fifty plus years away. In the sixties the 1275cc Sprite competed at Irish motorsport events from 1962 to 1964, notably Dunboyne and the 1964 Circuit of Ireland. The ‘Irish Green’ car was taken to 3rd in class by its current owner James Thacker.

The event also played host to the MG Car Club’s ‘Ulster Triple M Tour’ which perfectly reflected the events theme ‘Midget Gems’ and with cars visiting from three continents and ten different countries, it certainly made this year’s event a truly international affair. Fifty one cars took part in the tour with three entered in the main hillclimb competition.

One of the ‘Top Picks’ from the tour was Australian John Gillett’s K3 Magnette, which was also competed in the hillclimb competition, finishing 5th in the vintage class. Raced during 1935 and 1936 by Prince Birabongse Bhanudej of Thailand, better known to motorsport enthusiasts as simply, Prince Bira. His cousin Prince Chula Chakrabhongse, managed a racing team in England and Bira drove in his cousin’s team cars of which this K3 was one. At the end of the 1936 season the car was sold to Australia, where it has remained ever since. It competed in half a dozen Australian Grand Prix up until 1955, winning the 1949 Australian Hillclimb Championship along the way.

A hundred cars could be seen doing battle on the 700yd hillclimb with slots being filled in a record ten days, the annual Cultra Speed Hillclimb crown saw its fourth different champion in the past four years as man Jaye Nevin piping the current NI Hillclimb Championship leader, Chris Houston, to claim his maiden hillclimb victory with a last run time of 32.58secs in his Reynard Formula Lotus.

The top 3 MG runners in the field were covered by just one second, with Jack Brien's Midget Atlantis taking 24th overall, Aaron Bunning's 1963 MG Midget 27th and Jack's dad Simon Brien 28th in his 1973 MG Midget.

Records also fell as Gerard O'Connell pedalled his rapid radical to a new outright sportscar record, nicking 0.27 secs off last year's previous best and Stephen Strain's MK1 Escort lopped almost 2secs off the previous best historic car time. However, drive of the day came from 'Young Gun' Roger Gage who hustled his venerable Maguire Mini on to the podium on his first visit to the twisty track.

It has also become customary to have a Top10 Shoot-out to bring the day to a close and this year it was fought-out between 10 specially selected Post WW2 MG Midgets and AH Sprites for the 'Mike Wylie Trophy'. Mike was a TSCC member who succumbed to a short illness seven months ago and was everybody's motorsport friend and known worldwide as 'The Auto Numerologist'. Mike was an archivist/historian for our sport as well as being an accomplished competitor in historic and vintage cars and most of all a wicked raconteur.

Amazingly the Shoot-out provided the closed battle of the day with Aaron Bunning's, MG Midget taking the trophy by just one tenth of a second 36.64 to Jack Brien's Midget Atlantis 36.65.