Hi All,

Here's the latest from my Hillclimbing (this weekend just gone was at Craigantlet in Northern Ireland

Note for your diaries - Saturday 20th and Sunday 21st of August Shelsley Walsh - 100th Anniversary Meeting - see www.shelsley-walsh.co.uk biggest event of the year!

If you can only come to one event every few years, or haven't come to a hillclimb before then this is the one.   Saturday is the British Championship meeting and Sunday an invitation only event (I'm invited) with both modern and historically important cars.   Expect big crowds but it will be worth it.

Summary

Despite pessimistic weather forecasts the rain didn't materialise for this one and we were able to have fun pushing ourselves on his fantastic and challenging course.   There were 4 of us fighting to win the runoffs at this one - more competing of course but 4 people seriously able and wanting to win.   In the end I had one win with the best time of day as well and then only managed a 5th place in the second runoff due to a fairly big mistake.   There will be some pretty special on board and off board footage of my mistakes on that run when the preparation work has been done.   Roger Moran pulled off the other win despite strong challenges from Mike Dean and Martin Groves with Paul Ranson picking up good points as well.   Martin Groves now has officially tied up this year's championship (congratulations again mate) and despite not winning was top scorer on the day (there's a message there but it's lost on me - I like winning too much).  

The other good news for the Edwards Hospitality www.edwards-hospitality.co.uk supported car was that as well as getting the win and best time of day, Martin Elsmore, who'd made the trip over as well for this one, managed to score points in both runoffs with a 10th place in the first runoff and a 7th in the second (and times getting better with every run).  Great effort.   This was a hard (one day) event and hence a really big thanks has to go to David Spires (clever Dave), Jamie and Martin as well as to Bill Chaplin who flew in to Ireland for a "holiday" and was, (as usual) roped in to help.
Results soon on www.top12runoff.co.uk and pictures and ways to get the dvd's available soon also on www.2t4t.co.uk

Martin Groves leads by a large margin and can't be caught, Roger Moran and I are equal on points for second and Mike Dean is just three points away in 4th.   Simon Durling didn't come to Ireland so he drops back a bit and basically is not that likely to catch the battle for second now.

The Details

With second place being so close the 3 of us who are battling for that place are pushing hard and as a result nearly all of us were making mistakes trying to get quickly to the limit of our cars.   My biggest mistake came in the second runoff when I went too quickly into the chicane.   Craigantlet, like the Channel Islands is held on closed public roads and this means they're wider than the courses we're used to on the mainland.   This chicane was created some years ago when cars were flying and landing twice as they crossed a bigger road that crosses the course and there were a lot of big accidents.   It is created each year with cones placed on pre-marked locations - cones with race tyres put on top of them - so you don't want to be clipping one with your wing (it would break the wing) or even with your wheels as that's likely to bend suspension components.   Anyway I was going too fast with the cooler conditions that were prevailing in the afternoon and couldn't slow down enough to avoid hitting something.   So while continuing to brake hard I centred the main cone of the mid part of the chicane on the nose of the car and smacked it fairly hard.   This slid the cone nicely out of the way and with the loss of about a second or so I was able to carry on my merry way.   The speed of the car was very low by this stage and to get it going again I had to give it some throttle to prevent the engine stalling, so to aid the process I pressed the clutch for an instant and lit up the rear wheels.   This in turn nearly caused a second accident as the car went very sideways.  At the next corners I backed off early and turned in about 5mph slower than normal, not being certain that I hadn't damaged the car (the nose is much stronger than the wing but one never knows...).   I was quite lucky to be able to rescue 5th place.   Martin Groves was lucky to qualify after a similar mistake for the same reasons when going for the second qualifying run.   His mistake cost him more time but there were so few registered contenders present in Ireland that he just scraped into 12th place.   Mike Dean too, pushing for a win, made mistakes on his last run and Tom New also had problems which prevented him scoring points.   Entertaining to watch though, I'm sure.

Mike Dean and Graeme Wight both had a scary moment as they entered the last corner because they were confronted with a person on the track sweeping up debris from an earlier moment.    This seems to have been a communication error which the Ulster Automobile club will address aggressively without doubt as it frightened them as well.    Other than that the event was great and the hill is one of the best on the calendar for us drivers due to the speed and in particular the g-forces you feel.

 Despite Martin Groves winning the championship there are battles going on throughout the rest of the order.  Paul Ranson gets very close to Scott Moran in the battle for 6th and Chris Merrick sneaks past my fellow Edwards Hospitality supported team-mate, Rob Turnbull to take 8th place and Graeme Wight moves ahead of his old rival Adam Fleetwood (Graeme trying to sort a brand new car and Adam having done just one event).

Speaking of entertaining.   We went to Kirkiston on the travel day (Friday) to watch the sprint there (this was the Ulster Automobile Club's "speed weekend") and were impressed with the speeds and entertainment value on offer for a sport that seems quite poorly supported by spectators.   Having marvelled at the prowess of John Lenster in his Pilbeam Judd (John smashed the old course record) and Tony Eyles in his Force Pride Opel  (who tied up the British sprint championship)  we were reliably informed that watching us race at Craigantlet was "far scarier and even more entertaining to watch".

This was a fairly different weekend from the perspective that with Bill "on holiday" I got to drive the truck myself for once.   Not something I'd have chosen to do but actually easier than towing the trailer especially given that the truck is actually narrower than the trailer and the mirrors are magic.   Hills are a bit more of a problem but it cruises quite well at "high" speed.   The other advantage of the truck is that it has comfortable accommodation including a toilet and shower.  Sheer luxury!   Next year we need better maps of Ireland  - Dave did well with navigating given my stupendous lack of ability in that area though.

On Friday evening after watching the sprint we went to the same lay-by as we had for the last couple of years (where the boys famously started the fix of my broken road car engine two years ago) and had a take away meal there as we have in the past.   The Chinese restaurant weren't keen to deliver a take away meal for 15 to "the lay-by on the Bxxx two miles from YYY" - I wonder why, so Billy and Bugsy went and collected it.   An entertaining family the hillclimb bunch - always a laugh and always looking out for one another.    Saturday night after the hillclimb they patiently waited for us to finish loading our truck (we're not used to doing it that's why it took so long, honest!) so that we could follow the trucks to Bangor and go out together for a meal.   We ate too much and some of us probably drank too much as well but it was a good gathering.   Graeme Wight's crew have flash "GWR" shirts but they're nothing compared to Mike Dean's new "team" shirts with individual's names and sponsor's logos on them (including series sponsor Nicholson McLaren) - very very flash!    I guess we'll have to look at that ourselves in the future.

The travel was the hardest part of going to Ireland as it always is   Paul Ranson and I tried to go from Holyhead to Dublin and drive up to Belfast rather than go from Stanraer to Belfast but I suspect that in the end it wasn't a better choice.   Sunday morning (the event was on Saturday) we left the car park in Bangor (Ireland) at 7am and apart from breaks on the ferry (where I typed most of this) and at Bill's workshops where we transferred our things to our private cars I was driving solidly until 10:30pm when I go home, by which time I had one heck of a headache.    In places delays due to traffic were just dreadful, which happens but the last part of the journey (the last 25 miles or so) I found the perfect scout - driving at exactly my pace so he led the way and I watched my mirrors - that sped the journey up a bit.   It was truly weird getting back into my own car again - the clutch felt feather light, the gear lever and steering ditto, and the lack of body roll felt unreal - all false impressions caused by spending so much time driving the truck.

Glad to be back home (wish I could convince Sue to come to more events but, on this occasion, she was helping an elderly friend whose husband died last weekend - the friend is disabled, housebound, has no family and was trying to organise bills, bank accounts, probate issues etc on her own as well as coping with grief) and back at work (for the rest!).

Thanks to Bill, Colin and Tony for the preparation of the car.   The suspension modifications work (enough said).

All the best to you

Willem

Next Meetings

Loton Park 14th of August - one of my very favourite hills - this is a Midland Championship round but not a British round so not all the regular contenders will be there.   I will be experimenting with driving with glasses for the first time (it's old age you know!!).   I wonder if seeing clearly will slow me down - or will it be misting up that does it?!!

Shelsley

Shelsley should be a great event to come and see.   Half a day is enough to see a lot of action so don't let a busy weekend worry you.   Expect queues early on Saturday and Sunday but if you arrive at 11am or so these should have subsided - you'll have missed some of the action but you can still see all of the fastest cars and still come and see the amazing selection of cars.   Have a look at the Shelsley web site for more information.

Results, Positions and Points

Runoff 1 - Craigantlet                  Runoff 2 - Craigantlet                         
Place   Driver          points  Driver          Place  
1       Willem  Toet       10   Roger   Moran   1      
2       Martin  Groves      9   Martin  Groves  2      
3       Mike    Dean        8   Mike    Dean    3      
4       Roger   Moran       7   Paul    Ranson  4      
5       John    Leinster            6   Willem  Toet    5      
6       Graeme Jnr.Wight            5   John    Leinster        6              
7       Paul    Ranson      4   Martin  Elsmore 7      
8       Chris   Merrick     3   Chris   Merrick 8      
9       Tony    Eyles       2   Tony    Eyles   9      
10      Martin  Elsmore     1   Karl    Davison 10     
11      Karl    Davison         Andy    Bougourd        11     
12      Tom     New             Tom     New     12     
 

Championship after Craigantlet

Pos.n.  Driver          Points 
1       Martin  Groves  247    
2=      Willem  Toet    149    
2=      Roger   Moran   149    
4       Mike    Dean    146    
5       Simon   Durling 111    
6       Scott   Moran   102    
7       Paul    Ranson  97     
8       Chris   Merrick 71     
9       Rob     Turnbull        69     
10      Paul    Haimes  56     
11      Trevor  Willis  46     
12      Karl    Davison 44     
13      Will    Mason   25     
14      Graeme Jnr.     Wight   18     
15      Tom     New     16     
16      Adam    Fleetwood       15     
17      Deryk   Young   14     
18      John    Leinster        11     
19      Phil    Davies  8      
20=     Tim     Mason   6      
20=     Basil   Pitt    6      
22=     Ian     Fidoe   5      
22=     Martin  Elsmore 5     

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