Tel’s tales – Harewood weekend 15^thand 16^thSept 2018

This weekend saw the speed series visiting god’;s own county of Yorkshire and sample the local weather which once again was windy and at times wet as well as a little chilly. It’s the only hillclimb Steve  and I do as its only 30 mins away and on  the doorstep. For those that have not driven it Harewood is the longest hillclimb in the country and notoriously difficult to get a good time as there are several places to get the corner wrong as well as the challenging fast right hand finish at Quarry bend.

On Saturday the 8 Westfiled competitors got ready to rumble only to feel spots of rain start at 0830hrs.  and that meant P1 and P2 were wet but luckily the track started to dry as the day went on.

In P1 Andy Hargreaves stalled on the start line but in fairness he has not been out much this year! I think he also forgot to fix his timing strut on. I think I was fastest but Adam Phelps was to rule the weekend putting in some great times on both days in the Busa which he was double driving with Charlotte with dad John as pit monkey.

John Hoyle and Stephen Herbert turned up to watch and on Sunday we had Dave Cleaver, Paul Aspden and several Yorkshire members arrived in their Westfields after a breakfast meeting at the Rede Kite cafe.

T1 looked like the track was drying out but several cars were going off and with a new black tarmac finish it was hard to detect damp/wet patches. Charlotte had spun in P1 and went off roading in T1. I was not going to be outdone and I was a bit too aggressive coming out of Farmhouse and I could not stay on the black stuff so I ended up in the kitty litter.  Back in the paddock I had lots of help to remove the massive quantity of gravel from the rear diffuser tray. Steve bagged it up ( and took it home)and we reckoned that it would have cost £3 at B&Q. His wife Margaret suggest that to get over it I should “get stoned” when I got home……

T2 runs were dry and we were all getting quicker.

Interestinmgly all our best runs were in T3which finished at 1730 hrs so well before the 1800 curfew.

Top 3 were Adam Phelps 57.65, Mick Dent 59.53 and me on 60.64 secs.   

Sunday was a wet start again but with a promise of better cloudy weather later in the day and that’s exactly what we got despite a few light showers which did not affect the track much as the strong wind dried it quickly. The main fun of the morning was watching and helping ( hindering ) Mick Dent and his daughter to erect a large tent which was big enough to fit his car inside. 

I think Adam was pushing hard in P2 and had an off  but we all put in some good times in the 4 timed runs we had. Charlotte was very keen to see more of the Yorkshire countryside and went of the track at Quarry bend in her last run  and took out the timing gear. Chris Winstanley (timing team) presented her with the smashed tripod as a “trophy”. Mark bishop improved a lot on his Sat time and Ian Davenport also improved. Andy Hargreaves was well pleased with his times on his  year old slicks.

Times were as follows:

Adam Phelps            57.51 Class H

Mick Dent                 59.39 Class H

Terry Everall            59.85 Class G

Andy Hargreaves    60.28 Class G

Charlotte Phelps     60.98 Class H

Ian Davenport         64.09 Class C

Stephen Everall       67.90 Class D

Mark Bishop             67.52 Class A

A good turnout and a competitive weekend

Terry Everall