So, it was up the M1 to Harewood.  I had never been before and I arrived mid-afternoon to see the end of the Saturday non-championship round and to put my tent up.  Trouble is, the weather was dreadful and I hadn’t bothered to practice putting my brand new tent up before leaving home.  It didn’t go well.  I got very wet, the people in the motorhome opposite had a good laugh at me and in the end we gave up and I joined Mum and Dad in their B&B.

Sunday was a much nicer day altogether.  I wasn’t expecting to do very well as many of my fellow Class 1 competitors had been to the Hillclimb School.  So, with the pressure off, I was determined to enjoy my last event with ASBO. And I did.  The weather was lovely, the atmosphere was delightful, I really enjoyed driving the hill and I got quicker with every run.  I even met my target of beating Dad’s time from 2008, when he was a Harewood virgin (in fact I went over a second quicker than he had). 

/Portals/14/Blog/Files/11/108/Harewood3_thumb.jpg 

I finished the day in 4th out of 10, just 1.5 seconds behind Dad who had picked up another win. I left Harewood very satisfied and pleased that I had enjoyed such a fabulous final day with my old car.

/Portals/14/Blog/Files/11/108/Harewood1_thumb.jpg

The following weekend I was more excited than I had been for a long time – the day had arrived to pick up my new car.  I know it looks tatty in the photos but the price was irresistible and mechanically, it seemed fine.  So for a couple of weeks I was the proud owner of 2 Sevens.

/Portals/14/Blog/Files/11/108/IMG_8755_thumb.jpg

/Portals/14/Blog/Files/11/108/IMG_8758_thumb.jpg

/Portals/14/Blog/Files/11/108/IMG_8753_thumb.jpg /Portals/14/Blog/Files/11/108/IMG_8752_thumb.jpg

2 weeks later ASBO had been sold and I had to get the Roadsport A (RSA) ready for Loton.  I got a set of Kumho V70a’s, the list 1b tyre of choice, and took the car for a quick once over at McMillan Motorsport.  The car got a clean bill of health apart from a nasty crack in the driver’s side, top, front wishbone mount.  This was the day before Loton so a couple of stressful hours were spent trying to find a decent welding company to fix the mount.  Fortunately the partner of one of my work colleagues came to the rescue and the car was sorted in time.

I turned up at Loton having done about 10 miles in the car and absolutely none on the new tyres.  I decided that I would use the event to get used to the car.  No heroics.  I ended up having a really enjoyable day.  I got quicker with every run and, by the end of the day, I was really enjoying, and making the most of, the extra power and grip.  I even had a little 2 wheels on the grass moment in front of the crowds on the last run to show that the “get used to the car” plan had gone out of the window.  I finished the day with a time 5 seconds quicker than I had done in my old car in 2008.  I was quite pleased with 8th out of 13 for my Class 3 debut too.

/Portals/14/Blog/Files/11/108/DSC_00421_thumb.jpg  /Portals/14/Blog/Files/11/108/MW1_thumb.jpg

Back to Curborough next.  I hoped that I would enjoy it more than I had in May.