By the time I got to Shelsley the rain had stopped. However,  the track in the morning practice runs was damp and even after lunch it was slightly slippery, especially through the esses.      

My performance was nothing to write home about – a best time of 44.21, which was not as good as my 3rd May  time of 43.56 – but it was good fun hanging about the paddock and chatting with some of the other competitors. In the MX5 class of the HSA championship there was only myself and Paul Webster, but with a damp track Paul was unable to beat the class record (Tony Thomas’s 41.65) and had to settle for eight points for his 41.70.  Five hundredths of a second too slow!     

There was a third MX5 at Shelsley and this was the distinctive black and pink car known as Raceworx in MX5 circles (see Raceworx ).  This was driven by a friend of mine, Greg Dickens, from Phoenix Fives, the West Midlands MX5 group.  Greg had entered a single seater but had blown the engine and so swapped his entry at the last minute for Raceworx which he co-owns with some other Phoenix Fives members to do track days.  It was Greg’s first hill climb and he probably surprised himself by posted the fastest MX5 time – 40.20. It will be interesting if next year Greg joins the HSA championship.     

Tony Thomas wasn’t at Shelsley, having opted to do Thoresby Park on the Saturday, but must have been nervously waiting to hear how Simon Andrews, his main challenger in the HSA championship, got on.  In fact it was a bad weekend for Simon as he had gearbox (or gear selection?) problems on his second practice run in his MG TF and had to borrow his son Michael’s car for the competition runs. So no HSA points for him.  A good result for Michael though as he beat his dad by 0.48 sec. I guess Bernard, whom Simon shares the MG with, had to settle for spectating.     

Someone else who had a good weekend was Martin Garner who we met at Harewood when he competed for the first time. Shelsley was his second event (I think) and he turned in a very respectable time of 41.98 in his stripped out Peugeot 106.     

Jonathan Plowe and Peter Hubbard were parked next to each other in the paddock – Gilbern and Marcos both with 3.1 litre V6s.  Their class was a target time handicap for pre-1976 cars and both walked away with class awards; Jonathan, who was faster with a 39.92 time, picking up 2nd in class and Peter with the 3rd place.  I love that Marcos and have a disproportionate number of pictures of it.  Jonathan also picked up a useful 9 HSA points putting him one point ahead of me.     

So after that round, I continue to slide down the championship – now to 18th with 51 points, Tony stays on top with 82 and Simon is just three points behind. Paul increases his tally to 64 and the top ten are within 20 points of each other. HSA results here – http://www.hillclimbandsprint.co.uk/results.asp?Year=2010.     

Anyway, that was my Shelsley. Once again apologies if you came to this blog looking for a rounded report of happenings – as usual it is a very biased view from my little corner of the paddock. Of course elsewhere there were great dramas, great drives, wonderful rare and historic race cars, single seaters and Ferraris, but I have a little blue Mazda and don’t compete with them 😉      

Next week it’s Loton Park and I see the Mugglestones will be there. Will be fun! 

More photos here –