Sandra Tomlin writes after setting the new Loton Park Ladies record 11th June 2006

At first I was rather reluctant to write anything for Richards site but I thought I should fly the flag for Pilbeam as Willem is temporarily absent...........and also represent the Ladies !............. so here goes.

Team Tomlin is perhaps a little different from other hillclimb competitors because I am the person preparing the car! The week's preparation of unloading the car, cleaning, checking it over, changing ratios, buying whatever is required, cleaning the camper, providing the food for the weekend, re-loading and towing the car to the meetings is down to ME! (and husband Bill if there is an engineering crisis )

Oliver just turns up and drives !!!!!!!!!!!

No I lie. He does a lot of work during the winter and would help more if we lived closer together, well that's what he tells me!

The week's prep can be fraught at the best of times because having a small farm I seem to be fire-fighting most of the time. At present I am waiting to shear my sheep and with the recent hot humid weather they are getting fly-strike (maggots) and it's a constant worry to avoid them being eaten alive........... but you probably don't want to hear too much about that! And I'm sure other drivers have more important tasks to deal with during the week! So back to the Loton weekend, it started with a quick belt round the farm on the ATV.........all seems OK, so I escape! As it has been a hectic week: Australian relatives staying, mowing and preparing our home for Amy's wedding in 7 weeks, Oliver has volunteered to change the ratios at Loton .......brilliant ............ except "mother" as he often cuttingly refers to me, had left the critical 3rd gear at home! That is not too much of a surprise as I usually manage to leave something vital behind in my workshop! So I suggested we improvise.........you see being an Art teacher trains you to do that! whereas Oliver the engineer doesn't like this! Anyway on to practice, I am a disaster at Loton usually........ and true to form was 5 seconds behind Oliver on first practise.......... How embarrassing. But only 3 seconds behind by the end ! Not TOO bad !

We have both struggled for a year with the 72 . There were certain venues last year where we hadn't improved on our personal bests in the MP58 and with twice the power and a newer chassis we had been disappointed, but with help we are getting the handling more to our liking and we now feel more confident in the car !

Sunday morning after a chat together we altered the rear camber added more brake bias, raised the rear ride height and added a Gurney......... what's that about only doing one thing at a time ? I ran through the hill in my mind........ I am getting better at remembering Loton because last year I informed Oliver that they had installed a new corner around the back ! There are times when he despairs of me, and I know I am not as focussed as him, but I am here because I enjoy the driving experience and just love the F1 power.

No-one was more surprised than I was for me to have done a 51 second run......... it's amazing how I can never assess whether it has been a fast run or not........ it felt messy. I had mixed feelings about breaking Lynne Owens Record. It had been a brilliant record and stunning to have been set in a 2 litre. She deserved it. I find Loton a really tricky hill to drive and definitely scary.......... Lynne was a good sport and I'm sure if she and Steve have a car like Trevor's she will take it back ! Oliver managed to qualify for the top 12 in the morning runs and was very pleased to set a personal best of 48.13

It was a really successful weekend for Team Tomlin but also for the Moran and Groves Clans !

and now I am about to go and dag some more sheep.........you still won't want to hear what THAT involves !!!!!!!!!!!

Sandra