The Mamhead Hillclimb Report
Discussion
As the hillclimb was a new event I felt that it might be good to collect my thoughts about it so that others might learn more about it.
The Mamhead Hillclimb ran last weekend (31st of May and 1st of June) at Mamhead House just south of Exeter. It was run and organised by the Torbay motor club as a potential new site for a few hillcimbs a year and I think its fair to say that a lot of effort went into planning and running the event.
Following the heaviest rain in living memory the night before the event, plans had to be re-arranged so that people wouldnt be left stranded on the paddock which was still underwater until just a few hours before people arrived. impressively an alternate location for the paddock was made to work and I think it worked well as it meant that all the entrants were either competing or very close to the start line for the whole day with a very sociable atmosphere.
There were 40 entrants for the Saturday event and 34 entrants for the Sunday, meaning that things werent too crowded with the alternate paddock location and that everyone was able to have plenty of runs up the hill (most people got 9 or 10 runs over the 2 days). As it was my first ever motorsport event (i have only done a handful of track days before) I was very impressed with both how well informed everyone was kept and how sociable the event was. To be honest, before the event I partly expected it to be a rather anti-social event with peole just in a closed world competing against the clock, but I found it to be just the opposite. I believe that the very nature of the sport with short adrenaline-packed runs and breaks to collect the cars lead to a very open atmosphere with regulars happily accepting new-comers.
On the Saturday I entered in my everyday MX5 but i had doubts about the clutch after I got stranded in France at Easter and unfortunately it did play up again so I decided to call it a day after the first timed run. I spent the rest of the afternoon taking photos and trying to investigate the cause of the clutch problem so that I could enter again for the Sunday to no avail (it turned out to be a dodgy clutch master cylinder but I couldnt do anything about that at the time). As I was entered for the Sunday already I felt it would be a shame to not run so I decided to see what state our classic racing mini was in (it hasnt been run for a number of years) and was delighted to find it start easily with some fresh petrol and very little else.
Towards the end of the runs on saturday there was a fairly major incident when the Nissan GTiR of Den Conibear lost control near the end of the run and ploughed into a tree by the finish line. luckily Den walked away with no major injuries but the car wasnt in the best of states. Happily the MSA safety inspector agreed that there was nothing that could have been done to avoid the incident and that it would just have to be put down to driver error.
So Sunday morning came and I was entered in a car that I have only done 3 track days in and has not moved more than 500m in 2 and a half years! I started very gingerly but after my 2 practice runs I felt like I was getting back into the very different experience that is driving a highly strung classic mini. As the day had been running very smoothly it was announced that the first official run of the day would be done before lunch, so I got set up, strapped in and ready to go. To my surprise I managed to knock a full 5 seconds off my first practice of the day (a time that was a full second quicker than my run in the MX5 on Saturday), I guess the adrenaline must have been pumping hard! Over the next 2 runs I managed to take another second off my time and by the end of the day I was only 10% slower than the average time for the day, which I was very pleased with.
The results for the event can be found on the Torbay motor club's website with also further information about the hill and the entry form for the next event:
http://www.torbay-mc.co.uk/index.php?Torbay_Motor_...
I think that is more than enough writing so I guess I just have to say a quick thank you to everyone who helped organise and run the event, and to the marshalls without whom it would be impossible to continue. I am very much looking forward to the next event (which is happening on the 2nd and 3rd of August) and I think its fair to say that the motorsport bug has definitely bitten as even a full week later I am still telling anyone who happens to come near me about the event and find myself researching parts for minis aswell as books on racing technique!!!
Here are a selection of my photos from the 2 days:
all the others (aswell as larger versions) can be found here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/speedychrissie/sets/7...
Edit to add:
if you are on facebook you might be able to see these photos that my housemate took:
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=193109197&a...
another edit to add a video i found on the south devon news website:
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid12...
The Mamhead Hillclimb ran last weekend (31st of May and 1st of June) at Mamhead House just south of Exeter. It was run and organised by the Torbay motor club as a potential new site for a few hillcimbs a year and I think its fair to say that a lot of effort went into planning and running the event.
Following the heaviest rain in living memory the night before the event, plans had to be re-arranged so that people wouldnt be left stranded on the paddock which was still underwater until just a few hours before people arrived. impressively an alternate location for the paddock was made to work and I think it worked well as it meant that all the entrants were either competing or very close to the start line for the whole day with a very sociable atmosphere.
There were 40 entrants for the Saturday event and 34 entrants for the Sunday, meaning that things werent too crowded with the alternate paddock location and that everyone was able to have plenty of runs up the hill (most people got 9 or 10 runs over the 2 days). As it was my first ever motorsport event (i have only done a handful of track days before) I was very impressed with both how well informed everyone was kept and how sociable the event was. To be honest, before the event I partly expected it to be a rather anti-social event with peole just in a closed world competing against the clock, but I found it to be just the opposite. I believe that the very nature of the sport with short adrenaline-packed runs and breaks to collect the cars lead to a very open atmosphere with regulars happily accepting new-comers.
On the Saturday I entered in my everyday MX5 but i had doubts about the clutch after I got stranded in France at Easter and unfortunately it did play up again so I decided to call it a day after the first timed run. I spent the rest of the afternoon taking photos and trying to investigate the cause of the clutch problem so that I could enter again for the Sunday to no avail (it turned out to be a dodgy clutch master cylinder but I couldnt do anything about that at the time). As I was entered for the Sunday already I felt it would be a shame to not run so I decided to see what state our classic racing mini was in (it hasnt been run for a number of years) and was delighted to find it start easily with some fresh petrol and very little else.
Towards the end of the runs on saturday there was a fairly major incident when the Nissan GTiR of Den Conibear lost control near the end of the run and ploughed into a tree by the finish line. luckily Den walked away with no major injuries but the car wasnt in the best of states. Happily the MSA safety inspector agreed that there was nothing that could have been done to avoid the incident and that it would just have to be put down to driver error.
So Sunday morning came and I was entered in a car that I have only done 3 track days in and has not moved more than 500m in 2 and a half years! I started very gingerly but after my 2 practice runs I felt like I was getting back into the very different experience that is driving a highly strung classic mini. As the day had been running very smoothly it was announced that the first official run of the day would be done before lunch, so I got set up, strapped in and ready to go. To my surprise I managed to knock a full 5 seconds off my first practice of the day (a time that was a full second quicker than my run in the MX5 on Saturday), I guess the adrenaline must have been pumping hard! Over the next 2 runs I managed to take another second off my time and by the end of the day I was only 10% slower than the average time for the day, which I was very pleased with.
The results for the event can be found on the Torbay motor club's website with also further information about the hill and the entry form for the next event:
http://www.torbay-mc.co.uk/index.php?Torbay_Motor_...
I think that is more than enough writing so I guess I just have to say a quick thank you to everyone who helped organise and run the event, and to the marshalls without whom it would be impossible to continue. I am very much looking forward to the next event (which is happening on the 2nd and 3rd of August) and I think its fair to say that the motorsport bug has definitely bitten as even a full week later I am still telling anyone who happens to come near me about the event and find myself researching parts for minis aswell as books on racing technique!!!
Here are a selection of my photos from the 2 days:
all the others (aswell as larger versions) can be found here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/speedychrissie/sets/7...
Edit to add:
if you are on facebook you might be able to see these photos that my housemate took:
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=193109197&a...
another edit to add a video i found on the south devon news website:
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid12...
Edited by speedychrissie on Saturday 7th June 18:02
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