Hillclimb News – Loton Park – 16/17 April 2006

Summary

The new engine (Pride Cosworth 2650cc twin turbo XD) in my Forced Pilbeam was delayed, eg. originally we got the wrong spec from Cosworth which necessitated shipping another from America which cost us 6 weeks, which meant that we didn’t get any testing done at all. A huge effort from Bill and the boys and Neil (Pride) after Bill got the engine on Tuesday meant that we made it to Loton. You can’t believe how impressed I am that it got there.

Both Chris Merrick and Mike Dean had big accidents on practice day – fortunately without injury to either of them. Chris was able to run his car on the Monday (giving grateful thanks at prize giving to all those people who had helped repair it) and Mike accepted the offer of a drive from Simon Durling. Talking of Simon, he seems to be really enjoying the car as he qualified 1st and 2nd fastest for the run offs, finishing up with a 3rd and 4th.

Run Off 1 Run Off 2

1st Scott Moran Roger Moran

2nd Roger Moran Martin Groves

3rd Simon Durling Scott Moran

4th Rob Turnbull Simon Durling

5th Willem Toet Paul Ranson

6th Tom New Chris Merrick

7th Basil Pitt Willem Toet

8th Jim Robinson Tom New

9th Mark Coley Rob Turnbull

10th Matt Harrison Mike Dean

11th Steve Owen Basil Pitt

12th Chris Merrick Mark Coley

British Championship positions

Place Pts

1 19 Roger Moran

2 18 Scott Moran

3 15 Simon Durling

4 10 Willem Toet

5= 9 Rob Turnbull/Martin Groves

7 8 Tom New

8 6 Paul Ranson

9 5 Chris Merrick

10 4 Basil Pitt

11 3 Jim Robinson

12 2 Mark Coley

13= 1 Matt Harrison/Mike Dean

Fellow Edwards Hospitality sponsored Rob Turnbull and I had a close battle for points, which I just managed to win (more by luck than judgement). From the photos I’ve seen the car looked under control, which is a pity because from the driver’s seat it felt “quite lively”. It probably looks under control because I was worried enough about it that I was not taking any risks with excess throttle in the corners. I’m told the onboard footage tells a bit more of the story!

It was a doubly satisfying weekend for Bill Chaplin because he also won the 600 class in a time that was faster than his customers, even those in bigger-engined cars! Russ Ward, when asked what sort of weekend he had had, stated that it had been “ok”. One wonders what he would have responded if sons Chris and Ashley had NOT finished 1st and 2nd in class! I was pleased that Sue was able to come along and see the car run as I’m not sure how many events she will get to this year. She had come back with me to visit her Mum for Easter and I was able to persuade her to come as snow was not forecast on the Monday (we’ve been seeing rather a lot of it lately).

For anyone who does not know, I left BAR at the beginning of December as I was not happy with the way things were going there (well what options I was offered in particular). Sue and I then went to Australia for a month, on a trip which had been planned months before to see family. On my return, things really started moving and BMW Sauber offered me the job of Head of Aerodynamics. This is a similar role to the one I had at Ferrari but also meant moving to Switzerland (hence the comment about a lot of snow). Sue unfortunately had to give up another job she really enjoyed doing at Sibford and we moved over here in the middle of March.

We are currently renting a house in Hinwil, which is where BMW Sauber are based, which means that I am only 10 minutes away from work (by car or by bike). Work starts early at 7.30am and everyone stops for lunch for an hour and a half, which means that I can go home for lunch and see Sue as I don’t see much of her in the evenings (finishing time as you can imagine is late for me). Work is exciting as I am coming in at a time when BMW is expanding the team, future expectations are high and we’re hoping to build on the results we’ve had so far this year. I’ve just started German lessons twice a week at work but am finding it difficult to practise it as English is the language everyone uses at work (except for meetings with the engine people).

Sue, as usual, is sorting out all the bureaucracy, organising the house and re-learning German. Getting a job here will not be as easy because she will need to get a work permit. I’m also encouraging her to get fit by riding the bike as there are some wonderful roads around here. Hinwil is 565m above sea level. The Bachtel, the ‘hill’ behind our house, is 1,115m above sea level and we managed to get up it on the tandem a couple of weekends ago. This took some effort as the stretch is a 1 in 5 gradient but it was worth it – the views from the top are stunning as you can see most of the mountains in Switzerland from up there (particularly if you climb to the top platform of the tower on the summit). You can even see our house and the wind tunnel from up there.
I don’t know how much of the season I’m going to be able to do as I will have to see how things go with work and workload, not to mention money with all that travelling.

Big thanks to Bill and Livvy, Steve, Tony, Colin, Neil and Jo and a special thanks to Steve Phillips at Pi Research.

Willem