Southampton father-and-son duo Jim and Steven White competed at the Gurston Down Hill Climb Race last weekend, with dad Jim narrowly missing out on winning his class.

The modified production saloon cars up to 1,400cc class was won by Steve Harris, with a time of 37.78 seconds with Jim White just 0.27 of a second behind in his Mini that he shares with Steven.

Steven recorded a time of 38.76, finishing fifth in class as he competed in his first national meeting since having his licence upgraded.

The Hill Climb National Championship had already been wrapped up before last weekend's meet, by Oxfordshire's Martin Groves, but that didn't stop him from charging to two more victories in the 'Top 12 Run-offs' and a new outright course record at Gurston Down.

In his Newbury-constructed 3.5 litre class Gould GR55B racer Groves guided the 650 horsepower machine along the tight twists and fast sweeps of the 1,057-yard Wiltshire track and into the record books with best time of the day at 25.89.

The first ever 25-second run seen at Gurston brought spontaneous applause from the large crowd. His typically modest comment after was: "I hope I don't have to drive that fast again!"

A number of local drivers had successful outings in the Championship, such as Lymington's Peter Sexton and Jonathan Gates.

Sexton won in the up to 1,600cc racing car class, as he fended off national opposition with his 1.6 OMS, and Gates took the glory in the 2,000cc modprod sports car class in his 2.0 Westfield, a second clear of his nearest rival.

Tom New (Southampton) was one of only four drivers in the up to 2,000cc racing car class to break 29 seconds, but he had to be content with third in class in his 2 litre V6 Pilbeam.

Meanwhile Chris Guille, pictured above, also from Southampton, narrowly missed out on the up-to-2,000cc sports class record in the family Mallock Mk 32.

His winning time just 200th-of-a-second shy of the class mark. Totton's Duncan Barnes came third in the up to 1,100cc Racing Car class.