Hi All,

Summary - Shelsley 100^th birthday celebrations and British Championship rounds

  Shelsley magic.   Martin Groves set a new record, I set a quick new personal best time to win one runoff and consolidate second place in the championship.   There were winners and losers in the points table this weekend but it was all quite exciting to watch and hear over the 3 days.    The sounds of some of the VERY special older and less usual hillclimb cars was just as spectacular as the sights and the massive crowd seemed to enjoy it immensely. 

 
The Chevy Camaro brought back some really old memories and what a sound it made - it got my vote for the sound of the day but there were so many great musical engines on show it was almost overload time!  

  I'm told that on Sunday they had double the Saturday number and the biggest crowd since before the second world war - over 13,000 people - that's 13 people per yard of track......    In the friendly rivalry between the Gould and Pilbeam marques we're keeping the Pilbeam up there amongst them!    And the Force boys are taking more records as well.

More details are followed by Results - next events are at Gurston Down www.gurstondown.org and then at Prescott www.prescott-hillclimb.com

More details

Great Weekend - see www.2t4t.co.uk and www.shelsley-walsh.co.uk for pictures soon.   Saturday - Nicholson McLaren British Hillclimb Championship www.top12runoff.co.uk .     A new hill record for the Shelsley crowds was set by Martin Groves when he won the first runoff by nearly a second - quite embarrassing really, that margin.   I only managed to take the Edwards Hospitality www.edwards-hospitality.co.uk Pilbeam to a fourth in the first runoff when rear wheels locked going into the esses - was the driver trying too hard? - OH YES, but then 4th was much better than a little spin!!!   However, in the second runoff I managed a win with a personal best run, which, at the time I thought would be a nice strong second, but then Martin Groves made a mistake and there I was, "Johnny on the spot".....   At least I cut the best time of day deficit to Martin down to a not so embarrassing margin.   On the day I had two personal best times and a feeling of satisfaction (quite rare) that there really wasn't much more left in the car/hill/driver combination on the day (you always learn more for the future and we know of ways to improve both the car and my driving for another time).   With the results that Roger Moran and Mike Dean had, I sneak into second place alone again with Roger just 3 behind, but with points to drop with our scoring system, and with Mike 6 points behind with very little to drop (I've failed often enough that I don't have any to drop).   Scott Moran scored very well and sneaks ahead of Simon Durling in the battle for 5^th with Paul Ranson getting closer as well and Karl Davison takes a share of 11^th with Trevor Willis.   My team mate Rob Turnbull was in the V6 car this weekend due to the gearbox problems he had last weekend and with the power difference managed a 9^th in the second runoff which is also where he stands in the championship.

Earlier the necessary repairs completed from the Loton "spin" last weekend had had the boys running around just a bit!    Much midnight oil was burnt, but when I finally arrived (late!  these poser drivers, I don't know!!) on Friday morning the car was in its spot in the covered if cramped luxury of the Shelsley Walsh paddock with the heater already running to get everything up to temperature.   Ah the joys of "arrive and drive"!!!    Friday practice started with a little more than the usual excitement.   There won't have been anyone filming out there but I had the onboard video running and you can even see from that how wild a ride I was having (giving myself).   Surprisingly the time I managed wasn't even that bad.   The problem turned out to be at least partially caused by something jammed up in the suspension (I know what it was, and I could tell you, but that wouldn't be any fun now would it?).    I was sharing with David Grace this weekend and his first run up the hill after not having driven a car like it for several years must have been a bit of a shock with near solid rear suspension.    Initially we both though it was us, but David wouldn't stop the investigation until he was satisfied that we'd left no stone unturned (and it didn't take that long to track down the main cause of the problem).   This calmed things down a bit on the driving front and allowed us to play on car setup and driving a little more!

It was really very interesting in the most positive sense of the word working with someone like David Grace.   David is confident and thoughtful, has a wicked sense of humour (helps everyone get on together) and this combined with the benefit of many years of experience (did I mention the 5 British Hillclimb Championships he's won?) means that he can really help in the search for improved setups and driving styles.    It's just wonderful at my age to find someone more experienced and knowledgeable than I am about so many aspects of this game of Hillclimbing, and importantly willing to share that knowledge (that's the wonderful bit).   I had my ears wide open and I set personal best times as well as having more clues on how to improve further.

Have to send a huge thanks to all who helped.   Bill Chaplin - the force behind "Force Race Cars" www.forceracingcars.co.uk had his birthday on Saturday.   What a day he had.    He won his class (600cc open wheeler) - yes he still finds time to compete himself despite looking after a "full time job" like me.   His cars won 4 classes on the day and Rob Stevens took a record in his class (sports car) in Rob's first run at Shelsley with the Force.   And then I went and won the second runoff and set the second best time of day which was the icing on his day's cake.   Thanks to Tony for his efforts on the car during the week.   Big thanks to Colin (work during the week as well as the weekend) and Steve who worked their tails off all weekend.   It seems as if nearly every Force car there needed help on the day so with lots there the guys were flat out.   "Clever" Dave came along for the weekend proper and was a huge help as well - especially with the others running around like blue tailed flies helping people.   Mind you when the clock reads beer o'clock the work takes a back seat for a while and that was certainly the case after the last runoff on Saturday!    Poor Steve blew his car up on the way up to Shelsley and had to be recovered back home to collect a different tow car for Bill's race car!    Hope it all gets fixed OK Steve!

Sunday was definitely like being at Monaco from the space and crowds perspective.   Huge queue to get in - arriving at about 7am or 1pm and later would have been the trick as it turned out.  It was quite hard to manoeuvre about especially without the engine running as people just didn't realise we were needing to move around the paddock to get to and from our pit spaces.   That day was all about the birthday party celebrations for Shelsley and you will just have to wait and get the DVD of the event because, trust me when I tell you - it will be something else......   Sound as well as vision was the order of the day.   See www.shelsley-walsh.co.uk in a month or so (could be less).   I was about 3^rd fastest on the day with a bit of a mishap on the first run trying too hard and a steady run in the afternoon to earn the "fastest time by an MAC member" title

Another huge thanks to Bill and the boys and to Sue for putting up with me especially after Sunday when I bounce the car off one of the banks in the esses and gave her a fright.

All the best to you all

Willem

Results and Championship positions (my own calculations - not the official ones).

Willem...

www.edwards-hospitality.co.uk

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