Apologies in advance - no Triumph content here whatsoever...other than I'd like to be racing a Triumph.

Well, a dream finally realised - I took part in my first motorsport event last Sunday - a Hillclimb run by the local club - SDMA. For a while now I've been going out to watch the hillclimbs and provide the odd bit of spanner work for a friend (who also happens to be my wife's boss) and he's been trying to convince me to enter for quite a while. Through his very generous offer to double enter his 12A BP tarmac rally RX7 I finally agreed. I'd gotten my CAMS licence and joined SDMA late last year so I had no excuses.

With some trepidation and excitement I headed out to the track in my "White Bomb" (87 Corolla Twin Cam) on Sunday morning and met Steve (the RX7's owner and certified car nut - wonder why we get along...) there. After getting the car scrutineered Steve suggested I take the RX7 for a quick spin - last time I drove it it had only just been built and I had to be gentle - discovered very quickly that it has a savage clutch. It takes a bit of getting used to driving (especially with a 4 point harness), but it sure did go.

There were a lot of new starters on Sunday, so they called for anyone who wanted to do a familiaristion lap to come up to the start line, so I jumped into the RX7 and went for a very slow lap around the circuit - this was great as it is one thing to see the circuit from the spectator area, but it is very different being on it.

Because of the numbers there, scrutineering took a longer time and the start was late. Not helped by the first competitor out having to contend with a mob of kangaroos using the track as pedestrian crossing. And this happened to 3 racers - one of which was Steve. They all got to go out again, but had to rejoin the queue about 5 cars back to allow the tyres to cool (no unfair advantage). Problem was when it happened to Steve it put him back in the queue very close to where I would be. After he finished his race I had to jump in the car and quickly get it up to the line. So in a bit of a rush I'd got there, harnessed up - and realised I still had Steve's number on the side and had to jump out and change it. Jumped back in, harnessed up, got the helmet on, and put the sunnies on. They fogged a little (very cold morning) but I figured they'd warm up by the time I got to the start line. Wrong, second I put the visor down they went totally foggy, so I had to take them off. Not adding to the nerves or anything...

For this track you can do a burn out in the staging area or just stage. I just staged. When the light turns green you can start when you like, and the timing starts when you cross the beam. So built up the revs and not quite dumped the clutch but we're off and spinning and I'm pinned back in the seat. First corner is here already! The track has a short entry road onto the track and the entry is pretty much a right angle and you're into second gear - wrench it around (no power steering) and over the start/finish line for the first split time (16.27 secs) and then through the esses and then into the sharp turn to head up the hill (great corner to just feed in the power) and off up the hill - and flub the change into third... Finally get it into third and then take the sharp turn at the top in third, no power steering, only just get it around and I should be back in second so limp off down the hill and back up the other side, then start the big descent to the final corner - probably braking far too early and then feed in the power to cross the line and back off to get through the esses again before turning off the track into the exit road.

I'd been that focussed that I hadn't noticed the adrenaline coursing through my body - my hands were shaking. And what was I thinking?

YOU BLOODY BEAUTY - HOW COOL WAS THAT!!!!

Hooked, straight off. I knew I could do better, so was interested to find out my final time. Parked the RX7 and Steve came over to tell me - 61.41 secs. Now, to give that some context, Steve's best time of the day was 49.74, fastest time of the day was 47.45 set by a Turbo'd Clubman, and the fastest ever on this track is 38.98 set by a car competing in the Formula Libre class. So I definitely had some room for improvement - but I wasn't the slowest on the day (probably more due to lightning fast car as opposed to driver skill). Now I'm not a competitive person by nature - but this really got it going.

I won't go into the rest of the laps - I'll put the times of the 5 runs I got at the end of this article. But I improved every lap by a second or more. First three runs I still fluffed a couple of gear changes, but got better at getting on to the track proper from the entry road. The fourth run I got it mostly right as far as gear changes and the fifth run I was really happy with. Just an awesome feeling when you get the line pretty right and the feed in of the power nicely - it just feels right. The 4th and 5th runs just felt right. I'm still braking too early and some of my lines are a little off, and I could probably carry a lot more power into and out of corners, but I was really happy with my times and how I did. But more importantly, I had huge amounts of fun. Will I do it again? I can't wait until the 1st of July for the next one! Even if it just so I can launch of that start line again - that feeling of being thrown back in the seat and barely having traction is just too much fun. Oh, then there's that corner coming on to the main track. And then the corner before the run up the hill. And... You get the idea, I'm hooked. The drive home in the Corolla was a very slow one - well, so it seemed. 8-)

My times:

Run	Split Time (secs)	Final Time (secs)
1	16.27	61.41
2	15.63	59.38
3	15.27	58.20
4	14.48	56.46
5	14.31	55.41