Shelsley Walsh Results 040611

Was it sunshine Shelsley or was it slippery Shelsley? Well, it was both! Saturday was practice in the sunshine and Sunday was competition, with some rain to make it interesting! This Midland Automobile Club Hill Climb was a two day event with a full programme of race cars to delight everyone.

Class H2 - Historic 500cc Cars drew a good entry of 19 drivers in 16 cars that were of 11 different makes. And what good competition and fun we had. The 500's were allocated paddock spaces on the grass rising from the garages and this works well by allowing us to prepare the cars and have them in programme order ready to start down the slip road to the start line when the called by the officials - makes for a smooth operation.

Never having driven at Shelsley Walsh I arrived Friday afternoon to unload "Tally Ho!" and equipment in the paddock and to walk the hill. Having reached the bottom "S" I was in great need of a rest and was then joined by Jan N who helpfully mentioned that this is a 'power' hill, and he was certainly right. The hill is very steep and I found it fast and great fun.

The usual preliminaries and practice on Saturday went well for the 500's in warm sunshine. I have previously noted that hill climbing in the 500 Owners Association is often a family event with fathers and sons competing but team Jones surpassed this with 3 generations driving; there was grandfather Bryn, father JB and sons Vince and Tim sharing JB's Cousy and Cooper Mk IX.

Dennis Williams gets away in his immaculate Arnott.

 Pre-1954

Team Jones getting ready to start.

Rain during the night and early morning called for some caution for competition runs on Sunday, but all the drivers showed that 500's can be driven with verve even in damp conditions. All ran except poor Tim Ross who discovered a cracked engine mounting on his ex Peter Colins Cooper Mark IV. My "Tally Ho!" went rather 'squirrelly' in the top "S" bend and I thought it was just me, but everyone found it difficult and it was nicely explained by JB when he got out of his Cousy at the top paddock and declared that he "had just done a foxtrot in top S"!

 Post-1954

Classic Bottom "S". Alan in his Cooper Mk V