Hill Climb – Wiscombe Park – 5th Sept 10 - Keith Attwood

Words by Keith Attwood

Published: 03/01/2012

Full results: http://www.bristolmc.org.uk/2010_Results/Wis_Results_Sunday_5th.pdf

A week after Colerne it was off to just south of Honiton to the infamous Wiscombe Park hill climb track. Now this was going to be my first attempt on an enclosed hill climb / sprint course and I have to admit I was nervous. On track days I’m insured, but competitively I’m not. The weekend was being run as a double header, but under the regulations of my sprint series I would need to officiate at one event for my points to count, so I thought the Saturday event would be ideal to get a feel for the place, allowing me to walk the course and chat to other competitors.

By the end of the day my nerves weren’t great though. The course had caught a few out already and there had been a few cars on their roofs. Now this was a dry day. I’d been reliably informed that if it rained overnight there would be no chance for the course to dry as it’s covered by trees and the day was never going to get warm enough; if this was the case it would be treacherous they said. I checked the weather forecast that night and there was a slim chance of rain, but all in all it was looking ok.

Waking up the next morning the weather round Frome was sunny! Excellent! As my ‘support vehicle’ would be grudgingly following me down I had stuck the R1Rs back on after the last sprint as they are more road orientated, certain in the knowledge that I’d be switching to 888s when I got there. Stupid boy! 10 miles into the 60 miles journey clouds started to gather and the first specks of rain fell. Turning off the A303 towards Honiton it was heavy rain. I contemplated turning round at this point, but as I was over half way there I felt I should at least see what the venue was like.

It was wet, but the intensity of the rain had subsided. What to do? I signed on and decided I’d do the practise runs at a very steady pace to just work out the grip levels, if I wasn’t happy I’d be off home. Keeping with my initial tyre choice I lined up on the start for first practise. Bone dry times for my category are in the region of 42-43 seconds for the class winner, so no chance of that. Gingerly setting off I reached the top of the hill in 59.95 seconds… slow, but safe and actually not a million miles away from the others in class. With the rain now stopped I thought it best I stick around and do my second practise run. This went even better and I posted a time of 53.34, which topped my time group! Right I’m staying an going to give this a bash. And then the sun came out.

I thought I’d rather not gamble everything with a damp track under the trees further up the course, seeing as, which I forgot to mention, the back end stepped out on the second practise run whilst accelerating at 60mph in 3rd… only a smidge but it got me twitching, so I stuck with the R1Rs. Everyone else changed to semi slicks.

First timed run and I floored it off the line…. no traction it was still slippy as hell. Calm yourself! But that was my only error, well from my opinion anyhow! Planting my foot out of the final corner the back end twitched but held and I reached the top. A time of 48.61 saw me less than a second of the leader (a veteran of the hill so he told me).

For my final run I switched to the 888s, it was still damp, but from chatting to others and from the feel of the course it was worth a go. Still very little grip on the start, but I was finding more than the rest of my field, and then into the first corner before putting all the power down and launching up towards Bunny’s Leap. Seemed as though everyone else is flat through this, but no thank you on my first event. This reigning in of the temptation to let the red mist descend no doubt stopped my going in too hot for The Gate, a common crash site for the speed hungry. Steadily through the Esses and into Sawbench. Castle straight is where I make all my time up and the car rockets up the hill. Slowing for Martini Hairpin, the final corner, and I’m over the line. It felt quick, not amazing, but respectable with bags of room for improvement in the future. I’d improved to record a 46.38, just over half a second of the winner and enough to secure me 2nd…. ok only out of 4, but still, great for a first try!

Video: http://www.vimeo.com/14726206

The day was exhilarating. Completely different from open sprints, it felt more rewarding and a bigger test. This is something I’ll be doing again!

Class B3 ‐ Roadgoing Specialist Production Cars. Car Engines over 1800cc & M/C Engines over 1125cc

Final Year Standings

With the sprint season now complete for me all I had to do was find out how I faired in the Bristol Speed Championship. In my first full year at it I finished 6th out of 55 qualifying entrants, however due to one of the competitors failing to marshal at an event this year (a stipulation of the championship rules) I was promoted to 5th! I’m chuffed to bits and it gives me a base line to try and build on next year.