Maltese Racer Scores Silver Medal At International Racing Championship
Sliema-based racer Zach Zammit absolutely crushed it at the 70th annual Shelsley Walsh British Hillclimb race last weekend, finishing the two-day event with the 14th fastest overall speed, and placing second in his class of racing cars – from 600cc to 1100cc engines.
Approximately ten-thousand spectators gathered in the Shelsley Walsh stands in Worcestor, which the oldest motorsport venue in the world – and with both Zammit’s performance, and Robert Kenrick, the racer who topped Zach’s speed coming in 1st place in the 600cc to 1100cc class, breaking a 5-year record in the meantime by a whole half-a-second – the crowd were certainly in for an exciting weekend.
Zach discussed the hurdles that he faced leading up to his second participation in the historic annual race. Zammit told Lovin Malta, “Our car had an engine failure a weekend before, and we just bought a standard engine and put it in the car a few days [prior].” Even still, Zammit managed to top one his bigger rivals and reach his own personal goal of breaking the 26 second mark.
On Saturday Zach steadily progressed towards his mark, starting the day with a 30.49 second finishing time, and finishing the day with a time of 27.14. Sunday, however, started much smoother- as the Maltese racer hit times of 27.25 seconds, 27.38 seconds, and 27.14 seconds.
“We had the last run left and I wanted to do was to break the 26 second barrier.” Zammit recollected. “You can imagine how happy I was when I crossed the line with a 26.64 second time. I still can’t believe that I managed that time – it’s surreal. My hands were shaking all the way back down the hill.”
“It’s a very short race, but the adrenaline you get from reaching 100mph on a tiny, steep lane road is unbelievable.” Zammit explained. “And on the oldest venue in motorsport history…I was over the moon!”