Organising Club:  BARC Yorkshire
Track : Harewood
Characteristics: 1583 yards Longest Hillclimb in the UK
Report by: Chris Flavell

For some photos of day - WHAT NO NEGATIVES.
For the results of the day - HAREWOOD RESULTS

This was an action packed weekend for Em and I as we had attended a skid-pan experience at Rockingham Circuit on Saturday morning..both of us now want rear wheel drive cars.

This was followed by packing Em's car full of tools, loading the race car on the trailer and then proceeding to Harewood circuit. Big thanks to Em for doing this trip 4 times this year, it's a grind and I really do appreciate the effort he goes to. When we arrived we had some last minute mods to make to the car, including fitting some throttle return springs.

We were joined later in the evening by Darren, Ben and Lizzie who had come to offer their support and to see what this hill climbing malarkey is all about. It must have left an impression because Darren is intent on entering at least one of the cars he owns.

The day broke with clear skies and the promise of a fine days racing. With all the last minute mods completed the night before the scrutineer passed the car without any problems..a good start.

So onto the first practice runs, Em started with a solid 70.00, commenting afterwards that the course was a little slippy. I posted a 71.37, this was only a few hundredths of my previous PB which indicated a good start to the day.

With Darren and Ben on hand to observe and suggest changes, they proceeded to remove one of our drop-links to see if that would give us any additional grip in the corners.

Practice run 2 put Em back on track with his normal times with a 68.84, I posted a slightly slower time of 71.91. Neither of us felt that the removal of the drop-link had given us any additional benefit, and if anything I felt the car was a little more unsettled.

With this is mind the drop-link was replaced, they kindly also swapped our tyres to even out the wear and they also changed the front to rear tyre pressures to give a more tail happy rear.

With lunch out of the way it was time for the first of the days official timed runs.

Em started with a 68.95, a slightly slower time than his best practice so far. I on the other hand finally broke the 71s barrier and posted a 70.70; the changes had clearly worked. We both agreed that the rear was more lively and was making for a much exciting driving experience.

With the Leeds festival taking place close by and with Darren and Ben expecting an early start the next day for their drive down to the south of France they headed of early.

In the meantime Em had devised a cunning plan to try and shave some more time of his next run by cutting the corner and using the some of the grass at Country.

Both of used this to our advantage with Em posting a 60.93 and I posted a new PB with a 70.49. I still need to work on my first sector to close in on Em's times but came away really pleased with my new PB.

It had been a long day and with one final run left we both went for it and had a bit of fun. Both of our laps were a little ragged to say the least, but Em mange dot go a little quicker with a 68.75. I was a little slower, but considering the way I drove through Chippy's I wasn't surprised, with lots of rear end action (oh err misses), my final run of the day being a 71.16; it wasn't quicker but is was bloody good fun trying.

Em has remained very consistent with his times over the last three visits and despite a new PB my times have also plateaued. We are now both in agreement that more work is required to sort the suspension set up to make the most of the car.

Listed below are our splits for the day.

Em	P1	P2	R1	R2	R3
64ft	2.81	2.71	2.65	2.65	2.59
Sector 1	27.32	26.86	26.59	26.26	26.30
Sector 2	42.08	41.55	41.22	40.80	40.99
Sector 3	58.44	57.73	57.73	57.68	57.49
Finish	70.00	68.84	68.95	68.93	68.75
Chris	P1	P2	R1	R2	R3
64ft	2.74	2.67	2.61	2.55	2.57
Sector 1	27.65	27.76	27.54	27.11	27.76
Sector 2	43.13	43.31	42.66	42.26	42.61
Sector 3	59.81	60.30	59.25	58.91	59.53
Finish	71.37	71.91	70.7	70.49	71.16

Event Name: Monatgue Burton Trophy
Organising Club: BARC West Yorkshire
Track : Harewood
Characteristics: 1583 yards Longest Hillclimb in the UK
Report by: Chris Flavell

Corner Weighting - Pre Poly Windows

http://www.whatnonegatives.co.uk/ for some photos of day.

http://www.harewoodhill.co.uk/HwoodEvents/2007results/07-08-05results.htm for overall results

Factor 20 was the order of the day, the sun beat down from dawn till dusk and made for a great days racing and spectating.

Scrutineering revealed a problem with our Webers as we didnt have suitable external throttle return springs, fortunately the 2 internal and the 2 cable return springs convinced the scrutineer to let us participate. When will the MSA start to operate consistent standards???

Our class was small but contained some serious hardware, an extremely well tuned Mk1 Golf (200+bhp), the driver of which had set his sights on the class record, a highly modified Renault Clio Sport, a unique BRM Lotus Elan that revs to 9.5k

Our little Peugeot was in good company.

We were also to benefit from 5 rather than the usual 4 runs and the spectacle of motorbikes and sidecars.
Thanks to some rather shrewd planning on my part, Em had to go first (cold tyres), however he managed a great time of 69.48.  This despite trying to replicate an off that I had done in July on a corner called Country.  Later he concluded that I had clipped the grass as I had originally thought and not the rumble strip and this had pushed the back end out, fortunately, Em had kept it on the track.  I started how I had left in July and posted a 72.95 which was a pleasing result and shows that I am remaining consistent.
Em had brought his camera with video capability, which allowed us to film some of our runs, this meant a more meaningful dissection of the runs and showed some interesting differences between Em and I.

Run 2 showed slight improvements for both of us with Em posting a 69.20 and myself a 71.92.  Both of us felt that the first two sectors of the course were where I was losing my time, being fractionally slower through the first corner, but massively slower (1s) through the Esses and Chippy’s.  We both were in agreement that the understeer through Chippy’s was a problem.

With both practices out of the way, it was time for official race runs to begin.

Em started well with a replication of his second practice 69.20, I decided to fluff one of my gear changes and got completely out of shape into the Esses so posted a 72.10, but it was a solid start.

With lunch firmly lodged in our bellies we reviewed the footage from the race runs to see if we could improve our next runs.

Em was clearly on a mission with this run as the car was dancing round the course, and a further improvement to 68.81, likewise I pushed a little harder and was satisfied with equalling my official PB of 71.43.

In the break before the final run, we were paid a visit by the scrutineer, who had decided that he had taken a dislike to a few other things with our car.  This being the same scrutineer who had passed the car earlier!!!  First was the petrol tank breather hose which exited the side of the bulkhead box and through the top of the car, but because it was not braided this was not allowed.  Secondly the bonnet was elevated on the offside corner to allow for the electronic cut-off switch, apparently this is a no-no and the chap in the Lotus Elan had also been warned about his elevated bonnet.  Apparently if there is a oil leak under pressure this could escape from the gap and splatter the screen.  As one other driver quite rightly pointed out the Mistubishi Evos with massive bonnet vents would have the same problem but scrutineers being what they are, don’t care what you think.

On the final lap Em posted a slightly slower time of 69.09, but I managed a further improvement and a new Harewood PB of 71.34.

Both of us had a really good day, lovely weather = scantily clad ladies…………..oh yeah, and a warm track so better handling.

Look out for our next race report from Harewood Summer Championship on 26/08/07.

Organising Club:  HSA
Track :                  MIRA handling circuit
Characteristics:    1860 yards
Report by:             Chris Flavell

Whilst most of Britain had been drowning under a torrent of unprecedented rainfall, Nuneaton managed to stay dry all day for this round of the championship.

Fairly fresh from our last run at MIRA a month previous Em and I were on a mission to improve and hopefully for one of us to take the class win.

As mentioned in my previous report MIRA is a poorly attended course due to it’s un-challenging nature, as such there was only us and one other car in our class; ironically it was 205 GTI and was also one of the rivals in our championship class……………..this could prove interesting.

With Em running first again, he set off and put in an 59.45, I managed a 59.85 this was my first practice and I had managed to equal my quickest time from the last visit, this despite it not feeling that comfortable a lap.  Even more bizarre was that Em was only a few tenths ahead of me, yet had managed to break the speed trap at 102mph whilst I had only managed 92mph.

Feeling chuffed with ourselves we were disappointed to learn that our rival had gone even quicker.

With such a small field the second practice lap soon rolled round, and Em raced off to put in a 58.37.

My second run showed a further improvement and I broke through the 59s barrier with a 58.76

Grabbing the chance for a 3rd practice Em put in a  58.12 and I managed a further small improvement to 58.50.

Despite a warm day and a very dry track, both of us had found that we had massive understeer on the last corner, at this stage we are unsure if the new Matador tyres just didn’t offer enough grip (though they were fine at Harewood the week before), but talking to a few others they were also finding grip levels difficult on this last bend.

The numbers in our class also grew during the day as a pair of lads in a Renault 5 Gordini had made their best efforts to drive like complete arses and spend more time off the track than on it.  In total they managed 5 off’s over the day.  This had led to a few visits by scrutineers and officials before finally deciding that they belonged in the Mod Prod class, though on what grounds we are unsure.

The great conditions must have been fooling people into thinking that this was an easy course and there was an unusual amount of off’s during the day as a whole.  Most spectacular was Morgan who decided that turning at the corner was not a pre-requisite and slammed into the tyre wall……………looking at the damage it was going to be an expensive bill.

With the lunch break out of the way it was time for serious business, with Em determined to beat our rival and I would be happy with any improvement.

Em’s first run was good at 56.97 but our rival was just a few tenths ahead on 56.28  I got the improvement I was looking for and posted a 58.13.

With one run left it was now or never, Em however decided he needed an further hindrance to his attempt and forgot to clip one of the front bonnet pins down.  As such the lap was conducted with corner of the bonnet in the air acting as avert effective wind brake.
Despite this his time was a respectable 57.21, sadly this meant that he had missed out on the chance of beating our rival, it was down to me.

I couldn’t improve on my time however and posted a 58.32.

We both enjoyed the day and were pleased with our continuing progress.

Event Report – 7-8 July 2007

Event Name: MSA Championship
Organising Club: BARC
Track : Harewood
Characteristics: 1583 yards – Longest Hillclimb in the UK
Report by: Chris Flavell

Check out http://www.whatnonegatives.co.uk/ for some photos of day.

As always with these reports it’s the weather that starts it off. With the previous two weeks seeing large parts of Britain drowning, it wasn’t expected to be a great event, however Mother Nature was kind and apart from some brief, albeit heavy showers, Em and I managed to come back with nice tans.

Due to this being a MSA Championship race there were a lot of big single seaters there to contend another round of the championship, as such the race was spread across the weekend, with Saturday designated for practice and Sunday for the main event. We arrived on Friday night, parked the race car in the paddock and tucked up early to get some descent sleep before the day ahead.

An early rise allowed us plenty of time to walk the course and try to pick out some features that would help us drive better than our previous visits. With signing on and scrutineering revealing nothing new to worry about it was time to watch a few of the other cars before we were called forward.

One of the nicest cars by far had to be the Audi Quattro SWB, running an anti-lag system it sounded superb and had the looks to match.

With Emerson up first, he benefited from one of the two showers of the weekend, running on brand new tyres this was likely to be interesting. Nonetheless he put in a 80.39 though by all accounts it had been an exercise in understeer control. With cars littering the field due to the wet conditions there were a number of delays, as such the track was fairly dry by the time I got my first run and put in a 76.31.

With the track fully dried out it was time to start pushing the car a little harder, second run for Em was a massive improvement to 72.32, not wanting to be outdone I posted a 56.43, I knew it had been a quicker lap but that wasn’t what I expected; of course there had been a timing error in one of the sectors, but that didn’t stop me milking it all day!!!

With lunch out of the way Em threw down the gauntlet and broke the 70s barrier by posting a 69.16. This was beginning to worry one or two of the other 205 runners in the mod prod class, both of whom were running Mi16 heads and one of the cars with a 306 Gti-6 rear beam (very wide). Not wanting to be outdone I also managed to improve to 70.63.

The final practice run of the day saw Em go even better and post a 68.66, I couldn’t quite match Em’s storming performance, and posted a 70.64.

With 4 practices under our belt and improvements from our last visit we felt really confident for race day. During the evening the club hosted a barbeque which gave us chance to reflect with other like minded people how the day had gone.

Day 2 again looked like it was going to be kind with the weather and Em started as he meant to go on with a first practice of 69.10.

I had decided overnight that I was going to try something a little different into one of the corners called Orchard, a small left hand kink followed by a 2nd gear 90 degree right hander. All was going well until I reached the left hand kink, I drifted right and clipped the grass to then cut in across the rumble strip, unfortunately I had braked early and the back end skipped out forcing my offside onto the grass………..the adrenaline pumped as thoughts of “oh no not again, what am I going to hit”, I dropped into 2nd and powered out of the problem and finished shaken but with a 74.32.

The second shower of the weekend meant Em had wet lap for his first official run, but still managed to put in a 75.24. With the expected delays caused by spin off’s in the wet the track had all but dried by the time of my first run. Unfortunately, with thoughts of my previous off still fresh in my mind I failed to take advantage of the conditions and came in with a 74.32……….the only time this season that I have managed to post a better time than Em.

The final run of the day produced a 69.08 for Em and a 71.42 for me. Sadly neither of us had been able to re-produce the times that we had posted in practice the previous day.

Final conclusions are that this was a fantastic weekend, 7 runs, generally good weather, extremely well organised and run event, lots of great cars and racing action.

Our aim now is to better these times when we go back in August.

Organising Club: Midland Automobile Club
Track : MIRA handling circuit
Characteristics: 1860 yards
Report by: Chris Flavell

There is currently no course description available, this is probably due to the banning of photography at MIRA because of the secret nature of the testing work conducted there.

Weather conditions leading up to the race had been dreadful to say the least, with floods across the Midlands and North with more heavy rain forecast.

As luck would have it, despite overnight rain, it was a dry but cloudy start to the day with a light breeze promising good conditions.

On arrival it soon became clear that it would an interesting contest in our class as we had been amalgamated with the up to 1400cc and over 2000cc cars, however, with 3 of the cars not showing, it left Emerson and I in the 205, a Mini and a Renault 5 GT Turbo. The rest of the field was relatively small and as such allowed for 3 practice and 2 race runs due to how quickly proceedings moved. MIRA is a fairly easy course to drive, with high speeds and oodles of grip due to a good quality surface, as such it is considered less of a challenge that some of the other courses and attracts fewer drivers.

Despite having raced here last year, my memory was a little rusty and I was tentative to say the least on the only two proper corners with completely the wrong gear choice, first practice time was 65.50, with Emerson recording a 61.45.

Due to a small field our second run came around very quickly, as such the engine had barely cooled. In addition a good downpour soon had the single seater boys scrabbling around changing to wet tyres as the track now looked a more tricky prospect.

Second practice resulted in a 69.26 for me and 64.17 for Emerson.

Conditions improved quickly and with the option to do a 3rd practice in the dry we jumped at the chance.

With my initial worries over, I stormed to 61.47 and went through the speed trap at 95mph, 6mph faster than I had managed last year, Emerson also managed a good improvement to 60.00 even though he went sideways into the control tower corner; it looked like it was going to be the first off since rebuilding the car however he managed to keep it under control (to the dismay of the crowds) and not loose too much speed. All he said when he came back was “That was fun, I want to do it again !!!”. Things were hotting up between ourselves and the other guys in our class, though Em looked to be in a position to take the win.

With a very nice bacon, brie and cranberry baguette for lunch we were soon called for the 1st timed run of the day, with my confidence brimming I attacked the first half of the course with gusto and was very pleased. I realised afterwards I had not powered through the corner at the control tower as well as I could and knew I could make some time up here on my next run; my time was a further improvement to 60.01 only a 200th from braking the 60s barrier. I now expected Em to break 60s and he didn’t disappoint with a 59.03. With the Mini posting a 60.24 and the Renault 5 and 60.04 it looked like it was going to be close finish.

On my second race run I remembered the control tower corner and put the power on sooner, I could immediately tell that this was a much better run. After dropping off the car for Em to take his 2nd lap, I made my way to the office to pick up my time and to watch Em, oddly it read 20.41, (I knew I had been quick but not that quick). It turned out that a batch of about 8 cars had all been miss-timed.

In the meantime Em had posted a fantastic 58.80. I rushed back down the paddock to find Em shaking his head, he had ran out of fuel on the last bend and had been forced to coast across the finish line; what was to be even more frustrating was the Renault driver had found his feet and posted a 58.38, piping Em to the podium spot.

With the tank refilled and being rushed to the front of the queue, I had one more chance to break 60s and to try and beat Em.

The first half of the course to the control tower went as before and I felt good, but carrying a bit to much speed down to the next left hander forced me to brake harder and as such lost some revs, in retrospect I should have changed to 2nd but to late now, powering through the last corner with the diff working overtime I managed to achieve one of my targets and posted a 59.86…………excellent.

Just as the last of the drivers completed their run the heavens opened and it was a scramble then to pack the cars and head off.

A superb day for both of us, and a few more lessons learnt, we are back there on 14th July and I am expecting just as much fun especially if it remains dry.

Event Report: 13th June 2007

Event Name: Graham Hill Trophy Sprint
Organising Club: Owen Motoring Club
Track : Curborough
Characteristics: 900 yard short course sprint
Report by: Chris Flavell

For a better idea of how to tackle this course have a look at the following track guide.

http://www.hillclimbandsprint.co.uk/pdf/cb.pdf

With a hot sunny day on Saturday, Sunday looked like it could be hot in more way than one. However, it wasn’t until late into the afternoon that the grey cloud burnt off, but a dry day meant good conditions on the track.

As my bogey course following last years crash, this was to prove an interesting test, especially as I was up first this time. Officious scrutineering meant an emergency sticky tape episode for a small hole in the bulkhead…………this despite being Logbooked by an MSA scrutineer and passed at Harewood.

The car started the day with a lot of spluttering from the carbs and popping from the exhaust, which had both of us concerned, but after carb tweaking and once warmed up it soon settled down.

Competition in the class was varied to say the least, with a V12 E Type which had arrived in pristine condition (until the owner scraped the wheel arch getting it off the trailer…..ouch!!), a 235bhp Vauxhall Corsa, Nissan 200SX, Renault 5 Turbo and an MGTF.

The TF didn’t even manage the first run after shattering the CV joint in a tyre spinning warmup.

Despite my initial nerves the first practice lap passed without incident for both of us, though I did manage to balls up my start by using 3rd instead of 1st. Times for me was a 45s and Emerson was a 41s. With my confidence restored, I brought my second practice time down to 43s with Emerson staying consistent with another 41s.

Lunch courtesy of on site catering and small snooze on the back of the trailer left us ready and refreshed for the final business of the day. All was going well on my first timed run until I reached the back straight and fluffed a gear change 2nd to 5th...doh!! Despite this I managed a further improvement to 41.61. With Emerson looking like he was clearly on a mission, his time of 41.48 seemed slower than expected.. It turned out that the throttle cable had snapped half way down the finishing straight, and he still managed a better time than me..git!

With furrowed brows we were about to pack up and go when our friend Steve rescued the day with a spare cable from his Elise. With moments to spare before we were called to the start the cable was replaced. My final run of the day resulted in a further improvement to 40.23, with Emerson consistently posting 41s on the last 3 runs I had my fingers crossed, but it wasn’t enough…… a storming 38.87 was enough to take him to 4th in the amalgamated class.

An excellent day overall for the both of us, Harewood here we come again.

Event Name: MSA Open National A & B Speed Hillclimb
Organising Club: BARC – West Yorkshire Harewood
Characteristics: Longest permanent hillclimb in UK, 1448.5m
Report by: Chris Flavell

For a better idea of how to tackle this course have a look at the following track guide.

http://www.hillclimbandsprint.co.uk/pdf/hw.pdf

Em and I met up at Harewood the day before our race, giving us a chance to watch some of that days action, including some very nice but gingerly driven Ferrari's.

Despite the doomsayers and their weather reports, the dark clouds didn't deposit anything until after proceedings had ended, so we were thankful we had set up our tents and our newly purchased 3x3m event shelter incredibly it is a brighter orange than the car!!

With food in our bellies we contemplated whether we would need the 15" wet weather tyres or could we risk running the semi slick 14" Yokes; as it would happen dawn broke with barely a cloud to be seen, and a rapidly drying track.

With the big guns of the British Hillclimb Championship getting first chance to run the course in the single seaters, speeds in excess of 100mph were being set on the first practice laps.

Running in modified production class meant there were some very interesting cars for us to compete against, including a classic mini running 165bhp and a highly modded Mk1 Golf.

Inevitably it was our turn, and with memories of our last outing still fresh, Em ran first to ensure he got to drive the car before I had a chance to wreck it!

His first practice lap came in at 75sec. I managed an 80 sec effort; I had completely underestimated how nervous I was and was physically shaking after I got out of the car, that crash last year was clearly still effecting me.

Practice 2 saw an improvement for us both, with Em improving his time by 4sec. to 71s, and myself also gaining 4sec. to 76.

As there were fewer cars running than the previous day it was possible to fit in the first official timed run of the day before lunch. Em despite feeling like he had a better run than before was marginally slower at 71s, I managed to creep a little closer with a 74.

The lunch time break gave time for the advancing dark clouds to unload their contents all over the course, resulting in a number of off's by the single seaters still running on big slicks.

Final timed run for Em was an 80s and a rather nervous 93s for me, still a long way to go for me to have the confidence to push the car hard.

As the first outing for our recently rebuilt car things seemed generally ok, there is still a slight niggle with the electrics as the dash temporarily cuts out and we seem to have developed a slight oil leak from the back of the sump. This is in itself not surprising as when we fitted a new sump gasket some time ago we did crimp it slightly at least a good opportunity to fit a baffled sump now.