Beverley & District Motor Club

Having missed the Production Car Trial back in May owing to Heepy’s rebuild, the Club was languishing at 10th in the Larkspeed League Championship. Time to attack some grassy hills!

As usual, a Peugeot 106 was ‘obtained’ at reasonable cost for the weekend. The offending front wheel-arch liners were duly removed to stop them falling out halfway up a hill and the wheel trims stacked in the garage.

The weather forecast was hot and sunny so the Eric Morecambe wired shorts were dusted off. Jon Meacock didn’t see the forecast and arrived at 07.55 in jeans, had a laugh at me and off we headed for Bolton Abbey. Fortunately we didn’t use the multimap.com route Matthew Atkinson E-Mailed me or we would’ve ended up in Bolton! Is he still leading the navigator’s championship?

Most of the 41 entries had arrived by the time we got there. Scrutineering’s always a laugh. "How many miles has it got on?" is the most asked question. Not many! They still make us do the roller test to check for illegal LSD’s though. There was a bit of confusion over the engine size. This decides the lowest tyre pressure that can be used for the driving wheels and is rigorously enforced. Up to 1000cc can go down to 10psi whilst for 1100cc’s it’s 12psi. I’d neglected to ask what size engine it was (if I do ask it causes furrowed brows anyway), so we decided to play safe and opted to run as an 1100. The rear tyres were pumped up to 40psi to reduce the rolling resistance and off we went.

First disaster of the day - the chuck wagon didn’t arrive! That left Jon with only a meat and onion pie his grandma had baked him to last the whole day. Despite this setback we had a walk up the ten hills that had been set for us. It always amazes me how cars can drive up them. You can hardly bloody stand up on some! Like autotesting, there has to be a strategy for how best to tackle them. There are rabbit holes and hidden rocks to avoid and sometimes a drier line to take. We were fortunate to have middle seedings, Jon at 13 (!) and me at 15. This would ensure some of the sap in the grass would be removed before our run and be less slippery. NHMC’s Nick Stephenson and Robert Newlove at 6 and 8 respectively would be doing some of that for us!

Jon and I decided before the first hill that the passenger would ‘navigate’ for the driver. The 4 foot high wooden stakes used can become very confusing when the driver’s concentrating on getting traction. Pointing and calling the way avoids driving out of the test resulting in a poor score. For those who’ve not seen a PCT the posts are numbered 12 to 1 with 12 being at the bottom of the hill. The lower the number when you can’t get any further up the hill, the better your score. A ‘clean’ hill is where you get both front wheels past the number one and you score 0. Simple really.

It certainly looked that way for the first two hills. Jon, seeded at 13 had to go first, they’re very particular about running in order on PCT’s. He cleaned them which seemed to bode well for the day. I just cleaned them, but it was enough to set the competition between us. Jon cleaned 6 of them before succumbing to a 1 on hill 7. A slight lack of commitment on hill 3 was my first downfall, giving me a 1. At the end of the first 10 tests Jon had only dropped 6 whilst I was trailing on 9.

Once they’ve been run and some of the grass has been knocked off, the hills become much easier to negotiate. To counter this the organisers move some of the stakes before the second run to make us drive on new grass again. Nobody told Jon and me though! We cleaned all but test 6 and then we both got a score of 5 which was more or less par for that one. We began to think there was something wrong. It didn’t seem right for us to be cleaning so many. On past events we’ve been happy to finish in the mid teens at the end of the day and come away with some points for the club. Other competitors kept commenting on how the 106 was getting us out of trouble. I think it was more than that.

During lunch Jon finished off his pie which had disintegrated on the journey out. Smelled good though. If I ask nicely maybe his granny will make me one next time. That done he wandered off to the control caravan to check out the halfway results and pick up his sandwich order from the organisers. He came back somewhat disgruntled. He was lying 10th in class and I was 13th. We’d cleaned lots of hills, what the hell do you have to do to win?

Lunch was pleasant in the noonday sun, spoilt only by Robert Newlove who came over to tell me Michael Schumacher was out of the German GP. I had a video tape running at home and was looking forward to watching the race unfold that evening when I got home. Thanks Robert! I spent the rest of the afternoon avoiding all the people with car radio’s blaring out the race commentary.

Due to so many hills being cleaned, the organisers were having a job making the tests difficult. A decision was made that all cars would run in the afternoon with an extra 10psi above the normal minimum tyre pressures allowed. We weren’t sure how much less grip this would give us, but it would be the same for everyone.

On the way to the venue we’d discussed who would run first or second all day. Whoever runs second has the advantage of seeing the hill being driven from inside the car and can pick up tips to do it better. Jon seemed to think I’d run first last year, allowing him to finish ahead of me. My suggestion was that whoever fell behind should go first to maximise club points. As it was, Jon had to go first in the morning due to his lower seeding. In the afternoon the organisers reversed the running order as per usual practice. We were very fortunate in our seeding as it put us almost bang in the middle of our class of 33 so we had the advantage of a fairly well scrubbed hill when it was our turn. I drove first for the afternoon.

The first 5 hills proved no test for Jon. A clean score on every one. I should’ve matched this, but for another lack of commitment on test 4, giving me a 2. A slight indiscretion on test 8 saw me clean it, but Jon unfortunately scored a 4. That would have a profound effect on his final score. Later discussion revealed we may have become a bit blasé in the afternoon or maybe disenchanted with the scoring system. Thankfully, Jon picked up his momentum again, cleaning the last two. I could only manage 1’s on them. My two autotest pal’s Dave Mosey and Graham Hepworth were marshalling the 10th hill. It had some very tight turns and Dave suggested a dab on the handbrake might help me along. To a certain extent it did, but my brain suddenly switched into autotest mode and I went batting round at a hell of a pace, whacking on the handbrake at a very tight turn. The car ground to a halt just before the last stake. I then discovered I hadn’t released it after the last turn! Bugger! Graham said I did get fastest time of day for that test, but sadly times don’t count in this sport.

There had been some competition between Jon and myself during the day, so as the last run loomed I decided to go for it. I managed to clean all but number 7 where I dropped 3. Jon dropped scores on three tests, but beat my score on test 7 with a 2. There was a bit of controversy on the last hill. Jon got perfectly all the way round with some deft use of a technique which entails spinning the wheels to make the front of the car slide down the hill for a better position. As he was approaching the last stake it needed to be slid round a bit more. The car had come to stop and nothing was happening. I went for the handbrake so Jon could power the front round, but we discovered it was in neutral! Did it jump out of gear or did I accidentally knock it out? In the heat of the moment it was difficult to tell. Sorry Jon.

As we didn’t appear to have done very well and with an evenings F1 viewing beckoning, the car was loaded up and off we set for home rather than wait for the results. The Peugeot was jet washed in Ilkley and on our arrival home the wheel-arch liners and wheel trims were replaced. For the first time I really felt I’d enjoyed the days sport. I only started doing them as a means of earning more points for the club and originally found it a bit boring compared to autotesting.

Cleaning so many hills made it much more enjoyable. Jon seemed to feel the same way. This feeling was raised somewhat when the results came through the following Saturday. Jon was 4th in class and I was 6th! He also got the First Novice award, so we should’ve stayed for the presentation. On closer inspection, if he’d cleaned the 7th hill on the first afternoon run, same as me, he would’ve won the class! There’s obviously some potential there.

The most important thing was the 187.7 points we scored between us to launch the club into 7th place in the championship.

A number of people were very interested in the car we were using and Nick Stephenson from NHMC was asking a lot of questions. However, I think it’s more than just the car. Some of the marshals were commenting on our technique of ‘navigating’ the driver round. That, I think, was the secret - teamwork. Can’t wait for the next one!

****************************************************************

"Why are you wearing that silly hat Daddy." (why indeed - Ed.)

****************************************************************

For a fascinating insight into this man’s life and an explanation of the above comment, speak to the current Mrs Atkinson (or have a quiet word with the Editor).

****************************************************************