ORLETON ace Roger Moran will be retiring from racing in the MSA British Hillclimb Championship at the end of the season.

The veteran driver and 1997 British champion revealed his plans to retire from the large capacity racing car class.

Roger’s seat will be taken next year by Alex Summers, from Tenbury Wells, who has been campaigning a DJ Firehawk with great success this term.

Roger’s son, Scott Moran, remains on course for back-to-back titles after finishing first and second in the run-offs last weekend at Shelsley Walsh.

Scott leads this season’s championship and will be hoping to strengthen his grip on the title race at Gurston Down this weekend.

Scott said: “I won the first run-off and then came runner-up in the second and I think that I am 11 points ahead on dropped scores.

“I was four points ahead going into Shelsley Walsh and I picked up 19 points and Trevor Willis collected 12 points.”

Speaking of Roger’s decision, Scott said: “This is my dad’s last season in the Gould he’s 62 years old now.

“My dad has had a really good run and he still wants to be among the best.

“But he knows that he can no longer do what he’s achieved in the past and he still wants to be competitive.”

Tenbury star Summers, who is fourth in the leaderboard, will be sharing the Gould next term.

Scott said: “It will be good because Alex is a young, up-and-coming driver and he’s more than capable of operating that sort of machine.

“It will take Alex a few meetings to get settled into the car. Alex is a young and enthusiastic and an undoubtedly a very good driver."

Scott added: "I will be doing less next season but Alex will be there and he’s hoping to do the whole season in the car.

“It will be very good for him and a fresh challenge.”