DEFENDING champion and current series leader Graeme Wight comes under fierce pressure from "new boy" Adam Fleetwood in his Newbury-constructed 3.3 litre Gould GR55 in Sunday's British Hillclimb Championship event at Gurston Down near Salisbury.

Fleetwood scored his maiden Top 12 win and set an outright course record in the first of the two championship run-offs at Harewood earlier this month but crashed out in the qualifying class runs before the second run-off.

Wight won the first four rounds at Loton Park and Prescott but had a mixed weekend at Harewood and managed just a single win at Barbon Manor. He reset the outright hill record in his 2.5 Gould GR51 at Gurston last August, but not before Tim Mason had lowered the old mark first.

Mason opened his 2003 win account at Barbon on May 10, and could emerge top at Gurston with yet more power now available from his mighty four-litre Judd V8 engine.

With a total of 29 unlimited capacity racing cars, and some extremely quick two-litre racing cars that could qualify for the run-offs, it's sure to be a spectacular event.

Many local drivers are expected to feature well in the class battles.

Steve Harris (Cranborne), Neal Masters (Southsea) and Derek Mulis (Yeovil) all field Minis in the up-to-1400cc modprod saloon class while Andy Russell (Alresford) looks a likely winner in his Ginetta in the up-to-1400cc modprod sports class.

Karl Stevens (Andover) and Andrew Crump (Bournemouth) run their Escorts in the up-to-2000cc modprod saloon class but will be hard pressed to beat record holder Richard Marshall's highly developed Peugeot 205.

Terry Luff (Bristol), Andrew Forsyth (Poole) and Gurston sponsor Jonathan Gates (Lymington) run Westfields in the up-to-2000cc modprod sports class and any of them could emerge the winner.

Hedley Hutchins and John Frampton (Christchurch) share their venerable Phoenix in the up-to-2000cc sports libre class, while Chris Cannell and Sue Hayes from Salisbury pair up in their amazing twin-engined Force SR8 in the over 2000cc sports libre class.

Among the entries in the racing class are Duncan Barnes (Totton) and Simon McBeath (Blandford) in a Force 12, Rob Barksfield (Corfe Mullen, 1.1 PCD Saxon), Geoff Hunt (Andover, 1.6 Lotus 22), Peter Sexton (Lymington, 1.4 OMS), Ian Chard (New Milton, 1.6 DJ Firehawk) and Tom New (Southampton, 2.0 Pilbeam).