No other motorsport gets you as close to the action, trackside or in the paddock
I guess it helps that the very first motorsport event I attended in this country upon emigrating was a hillclimb – a short-course speed event for more than 100 disparate cars, all of which were given several chances to set their fastest time of the day.
It struck me immediately as the perfect form of amateur motorsport, since it took entries from new cars and old, road cars and racers, brilliantly skilled drivers and beginners. Everyone had the same chance.
At the time, over 40 years ago, I couldn’t afford a suitable car, but I still quickly discovered an advantage of this sport that endures: as a spectator, you can get close enough to the cars to peer into their engines and cockpits and chat with their drivers – usually their owners.
I acquired my first hillclimbable car, a yellow Caterham Seven Supersprint, in the late 1990s, when my rising competitive urge aligned neatly with another desire: to keep a 17-year-old son, just learning to drive, out of the ditch.
We did our first event together at Prescott, near Cheltenham, enjoying another of hillclimbing’s advantages by double-driving the same car. Since then we’ve had five or six different cars, and most years we’ve done something together.
That first event also taught me that although you may feel exposed to the pitiless scrutiny of experts, nobody judges you.
You will invariably find the person you’ve parked next to is friendly, even if he or she is miles out of your league.
I once parked my £12,000 Lotus Elise S1 next to a bloke with an Indianapolis Lotus single-seater, and he was the most down-to-earth person going.
The venues are nearly always beautiful. I like the short, sharp competition, not being much good at long bouts of concentration.
I also like the pressure to make a perfect run: one slow gearchange off the start and you’ve had it.
What else? Well, hillclimbing is pretty easy on your car: you drive it absolutely flat but not for long, so you don’t get home with ruined tyres and brakes.
Any accident is your own, not the result of some Herbert appearing out of nowhere to knock a corner off your car. And there are loads of road car classes, so trailers aren’t essential.
Just lately, I’ve developed an interest in electric motorsport. Short-course competition is ideal for battery cars, so EV racing is coming – and as much fun as my other kind. Time to embrace it.
