1999 First National Autocar Caterham Sport Scholarship

Event 1

Harewood Hillclimb - 13th June 1999

Well, what a good start, no rain to be seen all day, this must be an omen of things to come!  It was wonderful to see ll the support from family and friends for this first meeting, the paddock was buzzing with excited enthusiastic supporters and they were not disappointed. 

Harewood is a lovely venue, and it was great to be able to see the beautiful scenery this year.  The day started early with scrutineering and the walk with Tim, thanks Tim, once again, (I must find out how Tim did that day).  I was impressed with the turnout of the cars, they looked wonderful, and all the decals in the right places, that has to be a first!  We had a few absentees, Mark Lloyd, Richard Howes and Duncan Manning, we missed you guys and you missed a great day, see you at Combe.

I am sure you all benefited greatly from Tim's walk, even Derek managed to sum up the energy to join in.  Unfortunately I had lots of paperwork to do so I had t miss out!   Practice runs started a little late, but no matter, all seemed to go well apart from Gary Stamp overshooting at the end of the run and ending up in the gravel.   Luckily no damage done to the car apart from being full of stones!  You must ahve listened intently to Tim's wise words. 

The course itself is situated in a farm, being narrow and twisty, and actually passing through the farmyard itself at one point.  It's quite a challenging course and you coped with it extremely well. 

Normal format for hillclimbs is to hold two practice runs during the morning followed by three timed runs after lunch, the fastest counting towards the final results. 

Run 1

Weather sunny, course dry, off you went in number order.  Everything ran very smoothly from where I was standing, the only one to come a cropper was poor Adam Moreve, who spun at Country Corner and ended up on the grass, luckily managing to continue to the finish.   Results of this run showing Dean Chiddention in the lead with a 71.30, Irishman Colin Hayes close behind with a 71.38 and our own Jason Sutherland bringing up third with a 71.45. 

Run 2

Well, almost a copy of run 1, Adam Moreve doing a copy of his spin at Country Corner!   No problems elsewhere that I could see.  Adam's girlfriend, aptly named Eve, couldn't bear to look!!  Congratulations to Adam and Eve, they are getting married later this year, Mr & Mrs Adam and Eve Moreve, runs so smoothly doesn't it!!!  A slight turnaround in the results at the end of the run, Timothy Gibson coming out the winner with a 70.28, Graeme Smith with a 71.15 and Jason with a 71.26.  Speaking to a jubilant Timothy who was quite rightly immensely please with himself, he was certain that he achieved this time by keeping the power on at the last corner and not lifting at all.  

Run 3

Well, last chance guys, Graeme must have been so excited with his previous time, he spun heavily at Farmhouse Bend and just managed to save himself going into the barrier, well driven Graeme!  Iain Bowler went into the gravel at Orchard Corner, managed to continue, Arthur Gilmour had a moment at Farmhouse but got it together again.  Final results being Timothy with a 70.67, Jason with a 70.79 and Dean with a 70.81.  So Timothy Gibson came top in the final results, with Jason second and Dean a very good third.  Timothy owned up to having attended the Harewood Driving School course, but neither Dean nor Jason had driven the hill before.

Alistair Weaver in the sponsored Autocar yellow Caterham thoroughly enjoyed the day and was very happy with his best time of 72.04, Adam Moreve managed to negotiate Country Corner on the third run with a time of 75.53, well done Adam! 

Thanks to all of you for a wonderful first event, you did very well indeed.   Thankyou Alan and Kim Wiliamson for the bucks fizz, look forward to some more at Combe.  Colin Hayes has promised me some smoked salmon and champagne, I should be very upset if he forgets.

Kim Denning
Championship Co-ordinator, Entreprix.