Last weekend was the fourth round of the Scholarship, a hillclimb at
Pestalozzi (just outside Hastings). This was the event where last year one
competitor broke both arms, so there was a certain amount of trepidation in
the paddock!

The day started badly. My distributor had failed the previous week, so I
turned up at the circuit with a non-running car. I had organised for a new
one to be brought to the circuit by Andy McMillan (standing in for Derek
Moore of Classic Carriage who couldn't make this round). There was a certain
amount of running around trying to sign on, walk the course, attend the
driver's briefing, get the car running again and scrutineered all before
9am. This did not put me in the best frame of mind (or so my wife tells me,
anyway)!

The course is in the grounds of Pestalozzi Children's Village, a charity
which provides education to underpriviledged children from all around the
world. The track is very narrow and bumpy, with steep banks, trees,
electricity substations etc. right on the edge! Eek!

After the start, there is a straight (with a slight kink which can easily be
taken flat out), leading to "Barn". Barn would be an easy right hander if it
wasn't for the oak tree just afterwards, right where you'll end up if you
take the corner too fast (we'll hear more about this oak tree later...). A
short straight leads to "Fork" a fast left hander complicated by bumps and
very steep banks on both sides.Next up is the Oaklands Hairpin, a *really*
tight hairpin with a nasty "step" on the apex.This caused all sorts of
problems during the day - most competitors had to do a three pointer at some
stage. After the hairpin comes Sainsbury (a left hander) and Corti (a right
hander) just before the finish. Both of these are extremely narrow and have
tyres on both sides of the road - no room for error at all. To cap it all,
Sainsbury has a spring bubbling up through the tarmac right on the racing
line!

To say that I was nervous before my first run was something of an
understatement.

Practice went reasonably well. I took my first run very easy - there was far
too much furniture to hit - and got a time of 43 point something. I went
much faster for my second run, which went well except for locking up on the
way into the hairpin. No damage done, but I overshot slightly and had to
reverse to make the corner. The time was just over 45 seconds, placing me
way down the field, but I was reasonably happy because there was obviously
lots of time to be gained! The run was marred, however, by a nasty accident
involving Alistair Weaver (the Autocar journalist competing in the
Scholarship this year). He went into Barn too fast, understeered, lifted
off, oversteered and broadsided the oak tree on the exit. The tree was
"protected" by a few straw bales. Gratifyingly, Alistair got out of the car
and was declared fit by the medics. The car didn't look too healthy though!
Amazingly, Alistair and Andy McMillan managed to get the car into a drivable
state (albeit with some "interesting" front suspension geometry),
re-scrutineered and running again in time for the first run. Look forwards
to some interesting pictures in a forthcoming edition of Autocar!

The first timed run went very well indeed - I was flat all the way around
Fork, got around the hairpin in one and had a reasonable run up to the
finish from there. Final time of 39.80 and fourth place. Second run went
better still, with the exception of braking too early for Barn (got my
reference points mixed up). Final time of 39.56 and third place behind Jason
Sutherland and Colin Hayes (who are currently leading and second in the
championship). I was particularly pleased with this because at all the
previous events I was well up the field after practice and (for one reason
or another) managed to make a mess of things later on and drop down the
field. I guess that I *might* have been able to get second if I hadn't
messed up my braking for Barn, but I'm not too worried about that. First
place was out of the question, however. Jason was awesome all day. His first
practice run was below 40 seconds and his winning time below 39! I had taken
a concious decision not to take the racing line through the last two corners
on the track (the ones with tyres all the way around) in order to give
myself some leeway in case things went wrong. This cost me at least half a
second, I guess. The number of missing wings on display during the day
(including Colin's) convinced me that I'd taken the right decision!

Prizes were presented by Patrick Watts (ex works Peugot touring car driver)
who had been invited to make an attempt on the hill record. Patrick's day
did not go too well - he managed to take both front wheels off his trailer
by forgetting how wide it was on the way to the circuit! Glad that it's not
just me that makes this sort of silly error. His partner then managed to
take one of the rear wings off his car on the tyres, and to cap it all, the
previous course record holder managed to knock a further second off his
time, denying Patrick the fastest time of the day.

Paul Butcher