Quite why I chose to start Hillclimbing at that moment, I don’t really know. Perhaps it was an ambition rekindled by a Formula Ford I encountered when I was browsing Ebay during March last year. It made about £3500, which seemed good value, to me at least, for a single seat-racing car.

Other than being a bit of an armchair motor racing enthusiast, my real passion was all things on two wheels. I had owned a succession of progressively larger and faster bikes since I was 17, culminating with my current Kawasaki ZX10R. I was feeling ‘the need for speed’, and clearly, with our friend Mr.Gatso having blessed this fair isle with examples of his products, I needed a new outlet for my adrenalin. A trip to Germany in 2004 on my tuned Kawasaki ZX12R was perhaps a turning point with motorbikes for me. I managed to take it to the ‘double ton’ on the autobahn. Believe me, 200 mph is very scary on a bike.  On my return, I decided that was enough of the silly stuff, and I had to find something slightly more sedate, but enough to get that ‘buzz’ from.

I had been introduced as a spectator to Hillclimbing back in the late 1970’s by Richard Thwaites, one time Harewood record holder. He owned, among others, an Elva, a Chevron and some kind of Lola, with a monstrous V8 engine. These were ‘sports’ cars. At the time, a ‘proper’ racing car, to me at least, was a single seater, with open wheels. Obviously I didn’t know any better in those days, but I was young and easily impressionable. I decided that ‘someday’ I would buy one, and Hillclimb it.

As with all good intentions, several things get in the way. Not only further education and lack of funds, but soon a closer interest in that other species inevitably led to marriage, mortgage, 2 children, house moves, holidays, etc, etc. The ‘Household Authorities’ list of financial priorities did not appear to have ‘Single Seat Race Car’ on it, let alone near the top. Time moves on, and having set up in a manufacturing business in 1997, I was eventually fortunate enough to be able to fulfil my youthful ambitions.

Some intense Ebay-ing found a 1989 Formula Renault 1700 on a Swift chassis. This thing was bright red, had wide slicks, and wings. ‘This is what a racing car should look like’, I thought, whilst handing over (far too much) cash for it. I very quickly learned some sharp lessons:- The car was in no way suitable for the task intended. The engine size was only marginally larger than the class below, yet gave away 300cc to all the other cars its own class. It had a standard Renault gearbox, whose ratios could not be changed. Spares were a nightmare to get hold of, and worst of all, I had not actually driven the car before buying…. more of which later!

I went through the process of applying for my licence, attending the superb driving school in the very capable hands of John Green, purchasing overalls and helmet. Car ‘preparation’ involved kicking the tyres and applying a load of bright blue paint. Some of the paint on the rear wing had not dried properly at the first meeting, the result of which was a perfect horizontal blue strip across the front of my overalls, as I leaned against it.

My first event was the meeting on the 14th. May. We packed the van with far too much stuff most of which we’d never need unless we planned on whiling away the lunch-break by performing a nut and bolt rebuild of the car. We arrived early, and were directed to our pitch only to discover some interesting facts. It is possible to have either racecar and trailer on the pitch, or van and racecar on the pitch…. not all three. We elected to stick with the racecar and our van….. the theory being that the other possible combination of van and trailer would not work, as there is no class for vans ( I don’t think), and we couldn’t figure a way to fix the timing strut to the trailer anyway.

Now bearing in mind that I’d never actually driven the car before, I was somewhat caught unaware by the ‘on-off switch’ clutch action and resultant ‘kangaroo’ impressions. This was not helped by the fact that I am 6ft tall, and the cockpit was built for members of the 7 car racing team that Snow-White used to run. The problem here was I could easily select first gear, but to shift the lever back into second, meant trying to lift my shoulder above the top cockpit rail, to gain enough space to move my arm. Several crunching noises and about 82 seconds later, I reached the finish line on the practice run.

Upon climbing out of the car, I spoke to John Waggit and Tim Wilson. Both of their debrief comments were along the same lines: “Don’t worry about speed at this stage, just learn the track and keep it pointing the right way on the black stuff” ! The speed, I was assured, would come later, although worryingly, neither of them wanted to add a timescale to ‘later’. Not to be put off, I went out for another couple of practice runs, followed by the timed runs. I was pleased to be able to report that on each time out, I beat my own personal record. OK, I got the time down to 73.22, but felt was an achievement for my first time.

A break of a few weeks until the Championship meeting on 2nd/3rd. July and review of the car we were using lead to the hasty purchase of another equally unsuitable 1990Formula Renault 1700, but this time in a Van Diemen chassis. The car was in much better condition, newer and more importantly had a larger cockpit and the dubious luxury of a hydraulic clutch, rather than the cable operated item in the old Swift. I managed to get my time down to 66.32, and actually beat someone in a 2 –litre Gould, much to my amazement….and his.

Our next and last outing to Harewood for the season was on Saturday 17th. September. We had carefully prepared the car, (more blue paint), and had invited a large group of friends and neighbours along to watch in the warm late summer sunshine. We should have known better. The hydraulic clutch started playing up. The seal on the master cylinder was leaking, and I had to abort my first practice run before the start line, and suffered the indignity of a tow up to the paddock.

We refilled the reservoir, and all seemed to be functioning correctly. I got the green light, and got a really good launch. Carried good speed through the Esses, round Country, still on the pace, through Willow and Orchard. I remembered everything John Green had told me about braking points for Farmhouse, and double apexes on the bend, and powered off up to quarry. It was going too well. As I came in sight of the finish line, whilst still on the bend, I could see the timing board reading under 60 seconds. The temptation to get under 60 was too much. I just gave it a tiny bit more throttle, then wondered why I was looking back down the bend, from where I had just come. I was still on the track, but in such a position that without a reverse-gear, I couldn’t get going again. The next run was curtailed very quickly by the clutch playing up again. We just couldn’t get it to work, so we packed up and headed for home, curry house and pub.

Although we had assumed that this would be our last outing of the season, the opportunity to buy Ian Pearsons’ BARC Championship winning Tatuus Formula Renault FR2000/97 presented itself. The two earlier Renaults were sold, and we took delivery of the new car, and simply had to do something with it before the season closed. The car was everything the previous two were not. We had a full 2-litre engine, lightweight carbon bodywork, Hewland LD200 gearbox with proper hillclimbing ratios fitted, and a car into which I fit comfortably. No air-con, cupholders or sat-nav, but we could live with that. We entered the end of season sprint at Curborough, and ended up winning our class. That only served to whet out appetite for a last-gasp effort from the dying throes of the season. As luck would have it several competitors had pulled out of the Cadwell Park Sprint, and I got a late entry. I had seen many bike races at Cadwell, but had never ridden or driven around. We were allowed a familiarization lap, at no more than about 40 mph of the full circuit and I tried to remember which way the track went. We were rewarded with a class win, OK it was a class of one, but nonetheless, I was pleased with the car, and the times.

Whilst I enjoyed the sprints, the camaraderie and atmosphere at Harewood can not be beaten. Not only that, you can see all the action from one vantage-point. Whilst we will travel further afield this year notably to Anglesey and Jersey, most Harewood dates are firmly scribed on our calendars. I would like to thank everyone who has helped me compete in one way or another, including my long suffering wife, Cath, my kids Robert and Rebecca, my mate Andy ‘The Spanners’ Pedley, John Green, Tim Wilson, and everyone that comes to watch.