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HILLCLIMB IN FRANCE
The article submitted by John Page stated the invitation was to the "old car class" of the hill climb at "Arques la Bataille, a small town 5 miles south from Dieppe. The course is 1.5Km long on a good closed public road. This seemed very convenient as the Seacat runs from Newhaven to Dieppe, so as I always drive my car to & from events it's not too far back to the port if you encounter a problem (see later!) I was on the 'phone straight away. It turns out John holds a French competition license & competes in a single seater (he doesn't own a TR, he just put a feature in their mag) & he competes over there about 12 times a year. He explained that the French regularly close public roads like this, & are very keen to encourage participation from England. After a few 'phone calls & faxes I was on my way to France. At this point no money had changed hands & I had faxed my attempt at filling in the entry form along with any other documents they may be interested in. The afternoon crossing the day before the event was fairly straightforward except I had some spare fuel in the boot as the French fuel blockades were happening at the time. Hoverspeed confiscated it along with many other people's on the basis it was unsafe. They exchanged it for a £5 voucher to be spent in their shop! I bet the staff are still running around on free fuel! After a pleasant evening in the Ibis Hotel it was along to the venue first thing the next day. Well the French certainly know how to put on a good days motorsport. The hill climb was a proper smooth tarmac 2-lane road wide enough for 2 trucks to pass, as good as the best A roads in Britain, even though this village was now bypassed. I can best describe it as similar to a road we will all have driven in our time & have said, "if we could close this it would make an ace hill climb". The paddock was very informal with most cars & trailers parked on the return road loop from the finish back to the start. The Village was completely taken over by the event, it appears most of the residents were either into it or simply went out for the day! No whining by the old git society or rabid ramblers here! All the French competition cars were out & out racers, non-road legal & in most cases not a silencer in site. To sign on you drive your non-road legal car down a lane, through the main village street & park outside the town hall. You then drive around the village square for scrutineering before returning to the paddock making as much noise as possible. At signing on it was revealed that as I did not hold a French competition license, myself & the other members of the "old car class" from England could not officially compete in the event. But all was not lost; our drives (at competition speed of course) would be described as a demonstration. Whilst they would not officially be timed, they would be, they just wouldn't be announced over the tannoy, & there would be a prize as in any other class at the end of the day! Oh, & for good measure & because they wanted us Brits there they didn't charge us an entry fee. What were the other cars in my class? A vintage 1930's Bentley, a 1940's Lagonda, oh, & a birdcage Maserati. What nice people they all were too, making me feel very welcome in my poverty model TR8. My 80 year old mum has wanted to come racing for years & I took her along for the ride. Their other halves made her very welcome whilst I played with the boys. The event was well supported with spectators, with crowd control barriers & a huge start line hoarding. Free practise comprises just that. As the event has a return loop you queue up go for a run, go around to the back of the line & wait for another go. Have as many goes as you like, the final one is timed, followed by 3 timed runs in the afternoon. The start is uphill, & on my first go the commentator clocked my motor 4 back from the start line. Totally ignoring the exotic French racing machinery in front he launched into his best French Murray Walker raving about my old car. By the time they'd draped the Tricolore flag across my windscreen rally style I was well psyched up, especially as the run wasn't to be timed. It was select second gear & a huge portion of right Wellington to ensure full use of the slipper & wheel spin all the way 70 yards to the first 135 right. This was followed by 50yards straight & a tight left then right with banks one side and Armco the other. Flat third, & into forth round a flat blind kink then hard on the brakes for a huge wide 180 hairpin left, with crowds of spectators on the banking. Third, Forth, another kink then brake hard for another hairpin left up a side road, another couple of corners & over the finish at about 80 mph. I was having a great time when half way up the hill on my third practice I lost all oil pressure. Shit. I pulled over after the finish, there was no obvious leaks & the engine sounded fine other than a rattle that had developed the day before on the way to Newhaven that I'd decided was a noisy lifter & must be ignored. A tow back to the paddock at speed behind a Vintage Bentley was an experience, & a brief examination with my limited mechanical knowledge confirmed it was time for an early bath!! (Subsequent examination when back in blighty found the oil pressure relief valve jammed open, probably with the lump of metal missing off one of the lobes from the cam.) John Page kindly unhooked his tow car from his trailer, & lent his friend & spanner man also a John to tow me back to the Hotel to collect my clobber, then on to the port. Hover speed willingly changed my ticket, & allowed us to be towed to the top of the ramp to await the Seacat. A push down the ramp, a pull out the other end by the baggage cart followed by a recovery by a very very nice man & we were home. Did I enjoy it? It was brilliant. Would I do it again? Most definitely. John says most weekends in the summer there are events on closed public roads in Northern France. The French are very keen to encourage entrants from the UK, & he is sure it wouldn't be a problem to get an invitation class for the SDMC. I have put John & Steve in touch, so watch these pages, who knows. I shall certainly be returning no matter what. Jim Giddings. |
