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A tale of two breakfasts at Harewood Hillclimb – Sunday 5 June

Kevin Bryant

Now don’t get me wrong, I love my TR. I love looking at it, I love driving it. But there is something special about the Harewood Hillclimb VSCC day that meant I just had to do the Saturday and the Sunday.

On the Saturday I found myself lined up against Geoff Mansfield’s (yes he of Northern TR fame) immaculate New Zealand built Jaguar C Type, William Hidyard’s Trimuph Spitfire (his mum and dad are TR owners) and Geoff Maskrill’s race prepared Triumph Vitesse. Honestly I did not notice the 50 or so Fraser Nash cars; the 24 litre Napier Bentley; the gorgeous little racing Austin 7s; the exotic Peugeot 148 GP; the beefy ERAs or the sleek and sexy Rileys.

The car porn did not stop there either. The public car park was a delight as well. For example a 1930s Royce was parked next to a big Healey which was next to a TVR Tuscan. This really was a petrol heads dream come true.

The days started in glorious sunshine and it was a real delight driving the 90 minutes or so to Harewood. By 10am it started to cloud over and then I am sure the temperature dropped as each hour passed. By 5.00pm we were facing a stiff and very cold wind.

Now if you are coming to Harewood Hill on the Friday of the International to enjoy a drive up the hill, just remember the glorious sunshine bit. Don’t let anyone tell you the weather can be a bit inclement on this Yorkshire hillside.

On my first practice run I was slow, getting the feel for the car and track. The second run saw my time drop by one and half seconds. On my first timed run the adrenaline was running a little high and despite being slower at the start I finished a tad faster.

Determined not to make the same mistake at the start on my final run, I of course, made the same mistake again and was even slower – something I managed to keep up all the way round. So I ended the day with a best time of 85.08. I was hoping to get into the 83 seconds mark. Still there was always tomorrow.

Sunday appeared to arrive earlier than I did. I was the last TR to arrive and Simon had all but given up on me turning up, assuming that the worst had happened on Saturday. Truth was I stayed in a local hotel and the breakfast was a bit slow appearing, making me late.

TR Register member, camera enthusiast and now media accredited David Copley was already there taking images of the competitors readying themselves. Neil Sawyer had his very original Car and Car Conversions TR7 V8 up for sale at £14,000 and his tow car, an old Landie for £2,800. Not much interest in the Land Rover throughout the day, but two serious potential buyers spent an awful long time talking to him.

Simon Allaby and David Hardcastle were clearly very proud of the new Gulf colours on their TR7.

Now I should have had an advantage in that I had driven up the hill four times the previous day. However, I only had half the number of cylinders as the other guys. It seems the only advantage that played my way was the start. If I mess up the start badly I can spin my wheels for all of a few yards before friction takes over and starts to push me forward. The V8 boys, however, appear to have no problems spending the first few seconds virtually stationary, burning rubber. That actually meant by the end of practice I actually had the fastest time – to the first timing point which is 64 feet from the start.

Lunchtime discussion included the merits of starting in second gear for the V8. Neil clearly took this to heart and promptly beat me to the 64’ timing beam.

I couldn’t match my times from Saturday, another case of peaking too soon. Neil and David posted very similar best times. Neil was faster to the 64’ timing post but then David was generally faster than Neil all the way through to Willow (about half way). After Willow, Neil nudged ahead of David and finished with a best time of 74.96 with David scoring 75.16, just two tenths of a second in it.

Simon, who was the only one to pack the protein with a hearty bacon sarnie, enjoyed two timed runs in the 72 second bracket, with his best being 72.14.

So logic has it, double the number of cylinders and eat a hearty breakfast – or change the muppet behind the steering wheel.