season's championship was robbed of a classic battle for the title when Wight Jr pulled out in June to wait for the arrival of a new car - this had still not been driven in anger by the end of the year. However, crowds around the country could console themselves by watching a true master of the hills at work. Fleetwood won all but six of the year's 34 BHCC rounds, breaking hill records for fun - and in turn became the first person to climb Shelsley in under 24 seconds. Fleetwood's announcement in April 2005 that other commitments would prevent his defending his title meant once again that the two most successful drivers of the 2000s would not go head-to-head, and the stage seemed set for Wight Jr to regain his crown, although his new V10 Predator proved unreliable, allowing the impressive Martin Groves to open up a lead at the top of the points table; Groves had the championship wrapped up by early August. With Wight Jr still nowhere to be seen, Groves retained the title in 2006, although he had to wait a month longer than in the previous year thanks to a spirited challenge from Scott Moran. Groves again held off Moran's charge in 2007 to complete a hat-trick of titles, but in 2008 Moran took his first championship win, retaining his title in 2009. Moran has since won a further five titles, and his Gould GR61X (by far the most successful car in the history of the championship, with over 170 run-off wins) has won a total of seven. After several seasons in a supercharged Suzuki Hayabusa-engined DJ Firehawk, Alex Summers co-drove the GR61X with Moran and became champion in it at his first attempt. Pirelli developed a new tyre for British hillclimbing in 2019, giving Avon its first rival in the 21st century. (Avon responded by introducing its new Hillclimb GT Super Soft Compound tyre on 4 June 2020.) Several drivers made the switch, including that year's Champion Wallace Menzies. Driving a Gould GR59 with a 3.3-litre V8 engine derived from the Cosworth XD, Menzies made it mathematically impossible for anyone to catch him after Round 27 (of 34) at Gurston Down on 25 August 2019. He became only the second Scottish driver to win the title after Graeme Wight Jr. Since 1998, the only non-Gould driver to win the championship has been Trevor