The sixth round of the AMOC speed championship was held on 6th June at the iconic Harewood Hillclimb venue, within a couple of miles of Harewood House – a distinctive family owned house used for scenes in Downton Abbey and Victoria and also the location for ITV’s Emmerdale filming set.
As we arrived the skies were grey, rain threatened but nothing dampened the spirits of the three committed AMOC entrants. Our numbers were reduced by family commitments and an AMOC event at Alnwick castle the same weekend so just 3 regular competitors were on the start line.
To add strength to our team Peter House roped in his son Philip to peddle another Aston GT4 thus giving us 4 Astons in a varied field of over 150 entrants.
Our AMOC entrants:
No 45 Tom Whittaker in his Vantage F1,
No 42 Peter House in his Vantage GT4 Race Car,
No 43 myself in my trusty DB2/4 Mk II,
and honouree contestant No 41 Phil House in his Vantage GT4 Rally Car.
Harewood is one of the few Hillclimb venues where the whole course can be viewed from the top of the hill, an impressive sight for spectators, and a great position to view the weather sweeping across the valley.
The practice and first runs were quite wet and therefore punctuated by a few incidents where cars left the track, with related red flag delays. At one point the paddock Tannoy announced that three of the corners and one straight were all contaminated with oil so caution was highly recommended.
We were enthusiastic and cautious and all completed the morning runs without incident. Peter H was consistent at 79 seconds both run, Tom W 87 secs then 84,
myself at 95 seconds and 94 - I was the only entrant with a pre practice target time issued by AMOC HQ based on previous year’s results and that was set at 86.74 - 8 seconds faster than my second run!! and Philip at 76 and then 74 seconds.
After the break for lunch, the weather improved, with our third runs showing some improvement: Peter H improving by an astonishing 6 seconds, Tom by 2 seconds, myself by 2 seconds and Philip by 3 seconds.
But then the sun came out and dried the track, what a difference that made. Our fourth and final run of the day:
Peter H achieved his personal best ever on the Harewood Hillclimb, at 65.45 seconds. An astonishing improvement through the day of 14 seconds.
Tom W at 66 seconds, on the day improvement of 10 seconds.
I managed a final run time of 86.72, with some excitement crossing the finish line more than a little sideways – an improvement through the day of 9 seconds and just beating my 2025 time by 0.02 of a second.
And Philip H at 66 seconds, a 10 second improvement on the day - he was a close second to Peter H.
Peter H was delighted with his Class win, a Personal Best and he beat Philip!
Peter’s weekend successes do not end there, he and I travelled up to Alnwick to join Guy Staudt from Luxembourg, another loyal AMOC speed competitor. We totalled three of the 4 cars entered in the concours competition class.
Peter and Guy were awarded second and third places respectively - well done to them both.
A great weekend for the AMOC speed championship team, an event in Yorkshire, with competitors from Yorkshire. Come and join us, we are keen to encourage others to enjoy their Astons in a safe and fast environment.
You can see more photographs from the day here:
2026 Harewood Hillclimb
Report and Photos by Peter Watts.