ORLETON ace Scott Moran leads the British Hill Climb Championship after taking top spot in both run-off events at Prescott, near Cheltenham last Sunday.

The five-time champion's new partner, Alex Summers from Tenbury Wells, took second place in both events in their shared Gould GR61X car for a local one-two.

However the opening event of the championship was plunged into disarray when several other top drivers were excluded from the meeting after failing stringent and controversial noise tests.

Offending drivers were shown a 'yellow card' during practice and some attempted to rectify the issues with their cars, but they had no means of checking or testing their efforts until they failed the drive-by test again during the actual competition, which resulted in a number of disqualifications.

This caused both bemusement and frustration for drivers who had to seriously modify their driving styles just to continue and also prompted many complaints to the organisers from disgruntled spectators.

One driver excluded from the event was Clive Austin of Clifton-on-Teme in his new Empire Wraith racing car. However his co-driver Chris Aspinal was allowed to compete and such was the confusion that there is now a big question mark over whether Prescott is a suitable championship venue.

Reigning Midland Hill Climb Champion, Mike Turpin of Hereford, won his class in his Vauxhall VX220 to make a good start in this year's series and will continue in his quest at this coming weekend's event at Shelsley Walsh Hill Climb.