February 2001
Editorial
Well, we all waited so long for the Year 2000 to come around. Now it’s over and we’re into 2001 already. Unfortunately the rather miserable winter continues. I enjoyed a very sunny fortnight in the Canaries in January (which is why I missed the AGM … did I get voted in again?), but returning to the West Country, it seems to me that the landscape needs to be pressure washed to get rid of the accumulated muck and grime.
Enough of that …
Thank you, correspondents, for rallying around to produce an interesting ‘closed season’ issue of The Hillclimber. In particular, we should thank Jamie Mitchell for his excellent article on the development of the Cornish scene. Kim Catlin responded within 24 hours of my phone call to produce a full resume of the AGM and David Childs has compiled a chart of all the Vintage/PV and Classic hill records.
So what of the forthcoming year? We’ve had to raise subs to £20 a year to help redress the balance between income and expenditure. It’s going to be important to recruit new members, whether as riders, helpers or supporters of the club. So please don’t miss the opportunity to give the club a plug and, if you’re approached by anyone with even the vaguest interest in the sport, please take time out to talk to them. On that note, the idea of having a ‘try out’ day at Curborough next July is truly excellent – see the note from Doug Parnell in this issue.
Tony
Dates for ‘The Hillclimber’
Get your diaries out, please. You’re all used to the dates in the events list for sending in entry forms and so on. So this year we’re going to try the same system for The Hillclimber. With your assistance we aim to produce four issues a year. The last date for copy and publication dates for the rest of 2001 are as follows:
Copy to me by 31 May for publication by 15 June
Copy to me by 15 August for publication by 1 September
Copy to me by 31 October for publication by 15 November – to include reports of the late summer events including the All-Bike Wiscombe and the AGM & Dinner notification.
As usual, I will accept ‘copy’ including adverts etc. by post, email or even dictated over the phone.
Tony
Subscriptions
Subs have risen to the dizzy sum of £20, but the NHCA remains one of the best value organisations in the country. A subscription renewal form should be included with this issue of the Hillclimber. Please pay up pronto and try to recruit a new member or two.
Where there’s a Wills there’s a way….
Members who attended the AGM will already be aware that Dave Wills and family have kindly taken on the role of Events General Secretary (if that’s the correct term).
As usual each event will have its nominated Secretary of the Meeting as shown on the listing enclosed with this Hillclimber. Requests for regs for meetings should go to the nominated person but Dave is in overall charge of things, including distribution of the Hillclimber.
This will involve quite a lot of work, so please give Dave maximum support, get in contact (01392 436880) if you need information or have something useful to impart, but don’t pester him unnecessarily … after all, I expect he’d like to retain some sort of home life.
Helmets
A reminder that certain helmets are not acceptable post-31.12.2000. Those with a double thick and thin line band around the edge of the ACU stamp are OK. Only some of those with the single, thicker line band are acceptable and only until 31.12.2002. It depends on the material from which they have been made. Please see the information sent out with an earlier Hillclimber and the section at the bottom of page 50 of the 2001 ACU handbook, which should have dropped through your letterbox over the past few days.
A Welcome Offer
Brian Coles (01805 601606) is a member of the NHCA who lives near Hartland Quay and who runs an autojumble at Winford Market near Bristol Airport on the 3rd Thursday of each month. Brian rang to say that there is an open invitation to any NHCA member who would like to try out his/her (reasonably silenced) bike on the perimeter road. The autojumble starts at 9am, but Brian suggests that the ‘peri’ road could be used, with care, from about 12 noon onwards. No cowboy stuff, but useful to check out whether the motor is on song, good publicity for the club and an added attraction for visitors to the autojumble.
From the Chair
Following our AGM everyone should be aware that there are going to be increases in fees to ensure that our events break even wherever possible. Insurance, track fees and so on never seem to decrease. Course certification costs are also a necessary burden. Speaking of which, I had a meeting at Wiscombe a weekend or so ago and negotiated what I felt was the best deal for the club. One aspect of our all bike September meeting that the management like is the effort we make to clear up the course before departing. This saves them a lot of work. Let’s ensure that we maintain this high standard.
The Bugatti Owners’ Club is having a marshals training day on Sunday 11 March. The BOC would very much like two or three bikes to attend with their riders so that the marshals are shown how to deal with two wheel incidents. I don’t think that they want to see any stunt whoopsies, but just for a couple of riders to lay the bikes down to be shut off and picked up by the marshals, I imagine. This is all very encouraging. If you would like to assist, please ring either myself (01278 786377) or Doug Parnell (01454 260679), both are home numbers.
The ACU is holding a Scrutineers Training Day at Rugby on Saturday 24 February. So if you receive your Hillclimber in time and you would like to attend, please ring Dave Wills (01392 436880).
By the time you read this, the club should have had its first representation at a bike show, the Bristol Classic, held at Shepton Mallet. We’re also going to have stands at Stafford and the Classic Motorcycle Mechanics show. Many thanks to those of you who are giving up spare time to run these. But we really need to do something to encourage riders of current machinery as well. The proposed event for potential newcomers at Curborough is a great idea. Other suggestions are welcome, either directly to myself or to Tony to air in the Hillclimber.
Peter Isaac
Jamie’s Jibberings
or
A brief history of hillclimbing in the Duchy
Over the winter I’ve been going through Dad’s old hill climb files and trying to put them in some order. Looking through all the old results from the 70s and 80s and seeing the old names I remember has helped get over the winter blues and reminded me of what a little brat I was.
Back then, the BSSA (British Sporting Sidecar Association Cornwall) was one of three Cornish clubs organising hill climbs in the 70s. West Cornwall ran Trengwainton and Camel Vale ran Tregrehan, Wadebridge and St Eval. Dad helped in many ways within the BSSA which organised Predannack on the Lizard, Gars Farm near Truro, RAF Portreath, Saturday Wadebridges Camel Vale ran the Sunday events) and, in its early days, Hartland Quay. The files contained the original track layouts and Certificates for Wadebridge, Predannack and Garras, which I have copied for you all to see. I myself never got to race at these three venues; however I did ride at all of them in the paddock on my Technomoto 50cc, my first ride on a motorbike was at Garras in about ’78.
I think it was Dad who found Garras Farm when on a sidecar trial with Phil Williams. The first meeting was held on 21 April 1973. I can’t recall that meeting being so young of course, but I can remember that the timing was on occasions recorded with a stopwatch and telephones. The starter, usually Eddie Seymour, would start the clock and then wait for the finish marshal to shout down the phone “finish NOW!”, and we are not talking digital stopwatches here. I also remember somebody’s bike caught fire just before the hairpin. Can anyone recall who?
Dad set the 350cc record at the first meeting at 19.60 and lowered it five times to 18.20. He would have been the only rider to hold the 350 record except that, at the last ever meet on 20 June 1981, a certain Paul Jeffery – probably with hair back then – broke the record with his RD, recording a time of 17.99. The hill record finished up in the hands of Paul Spargo (whoever he was!) with 16.90 set in 1974.
Ask anyone who fell off at Predannack and they would say “Ouch”, but not for the usual reasons. Predannack was lined with gorse bushes and it could take a season or two to finally rid your leathers of the spiny thorns. Riders had been known to disappear without a trace until a faint murmur could be heard by the baffled marshals. Eddie Seymour also helped with the timing at Predannack and the same applied with a manual stopwatch. The difference here was that the start line was also the finish line, so the timekeeper could actually see the finish and didn’t have to rely on the phone.
I don’t know if ambulances had to be present at the events in the 70s, but Joe Coad was always there with his estate car, stretcher and First aid kit. I remember marshalling on the first bend when Nigel Smallbone fell off and broke his arm. I’ve even found the insurance claim in Dad’s file twenty-two years on. Dad also held the Predannack 350cc record at 33.10 after Gerald Merchant had first set it at 37.60 in 1970 on a slightly different track. The start and finish line was near the main gate for the first meeting and changed to the illustrated version a year later. The hill record stood at 30.50 when the track closed for good in 1979. Les Burgan from Hayle held it; sadly Les died a few years ago after a road racing accident at Snetterton.
The Camel Vale started running events at Wadebridge in 1978. I think it was Alan Wakeford who began talks with Mr Riddle, the show ground’s chief. That first meeting on 10 September 1978 was a bit special as it was Dad’s last outing on the 500cc Kessell JAP. He started off winning the 350 class and rounded it off with the 500 and FTD in a time of 38.33. That course started way over the other end of the show ground from where we race today. They called it the East to West course and, in 1980, the BSSA began to use the course in the opposite direction for Saturdays. This course is shown on the diagram.
Since 1978 I have kept a record of the tracks used and so far there have been thirteen different variations, a bit of a nightmare for the record keeping.
How many of you remember the blizzard we had sometime in the early 1980s and who was a member of the Alan Wakeford Fan Club?
I had my first fall at Wadebridge whilst having a lift on the tank of John Halstead’s Greeves. He was taking me back to the pits via the wet grass when the wheels just lost all grip. There I was, about 12 years old with no helmet, sliding along my ass. Luckily no visible damage was done and there were no witnesses, so John told me not to tell any one ….so he got away with that one.
When the BSSA course was last used in 1985 that Northern Gladiator Barry Gartside (or was it Barrington Carbide?) on his 500cc CCM held the course record at 37.67, which must have been one hell of a run as the nearest to it was Steve Sherbird’s 1000cc Norton with 39.33. The Camel Vale course finished the very next day with Phil Gregory’s 500cc Jawa holding the course record at 34.58 set in 1982.
The Camel Vale also organised events at St Eval airfield and Tregrehan. St Eval only ran twice back in 1980 with riders doing two laps of a fast, twisty circuit. Pete Browne was the fastest man round the aerodrome, doing a marathon time of 115.07 on his Weslake.
This year (2001) will bee the 21st for motorcycles at Tregrehan. Camel Vale first held a meeting with the cars there on 27th May 1979. Kevin Halstead took FTD on that day with 23.54 on the 380 Greeves, with Dad second on the new 500cc Kessell BSA. It took a couple more meetings before he earned himself an FTD at his local event, having to travel all of 1½ miles to get there.
Trengwainton, near Penzance, was probably Cornwall’s biggest motor sport event, attracting thousands of people to watch the cars and bikes. West Cornwall Club started hillclimbs there before World War 2 and ran until 1976 when the land was sold to the National Trust. Roy Opie held the hill record at 21.71, although I don’t know when it was set. Apparently the records got a lot harder to break as the rubber on the start line made it more slippery than usual.
Trengwainton was an inspiration for not only new hills to be found, but also to a lot of Cornish riders who started to travel and conquer other venues throughout the country. In 1972 every National title was won by a Cornishman – 250cc Neville Tregembo, 350cc Ian Mitchell, 500cc Les Burgan, 750cc and Overall by Paul Spargo, and finally Sidecars by Phil Williams & Alan Martin. All theese riders received an Order of Merit from the Cornwall ACU.
I was only seven when the hill closed, but I do recall running up the hill all day, just to get a ride back down again on the front of Dad’s Velo. West Cornwall organised other hillclimbs in the area, but they were all before the war.
One other venue the BSSA organised was Hartland Quay, which held its first meeting on 9 October 1977. Pete Jeffery Snr found the hill and phoned Dad. That was that. Next Sunday we were off for a family day out in North Devon.. Dad and Pete met in the pub and negotiations were under way. I remember what a windy day it was! It broke my kite. Neil Browne set FTD at the first event with 27.83, and Dad set the 350cc hill record with 28.93 on his Greeves Oulton.
In 1981 the BSSA gave up organising hillclimbs to concentrate on grass track events, and so the NHCA took on Hartland and the BMOC carried on with the Saturday Wadebridges. Then, in 1985, the Camel Vale club withdrew from Tregrehan and Wadebridge to concentrate on trials and enduros and so the BMOC took them on.
In 1985 a new venue appeared on the calendar – Porthkerris – which the Pendennis club promoted. Jeremy Hoskins found the hill on the Lizard peninsular, and once again a phone call to Dad and off we go again, a family day out on the beach. Once we eventually found the place, negotiations were done and dusted. The first meeting on 15 June was dominated by Jeremy, setting a hill record of 30.63 on his 250cc Yamaha – after all it was his practice track. Now, this bit gives me pleasure … with the future looking bleak for Porthkerris, the hill record stands at 27.82 set by me in 1999 on the 500cc Kawasaki.
The day after the first Porthkerris, the BMOC held a twisty sprint at RAF Portreath. This venue was getting a little like Wadebridge with four different courses being used between 1981 and 1984. Sadly, airfield tracks never appealed to many hillclimbers, so this venue will probably never be revisited.
The NHCA ventured into the country for the first time in 1989, to Holamoor Farm, near Kilkhampton. The Burrows family found this hill, which only ran twice. Chris Chapman’s 350cc KTM set the hill record at 21.91 in ’89. My favourite memory of the place was Barry Gartside’s 40th birthday party held in the local pub. Everyone paid for a stripagram, little knowing it was going to be Jerry Burton, absolutely stark b*ll*ck naked straddling Barry over the pool table, little doubt where the female eyes were looking.
My last instalment in the final chapter of Dad’s quest to find new venues takes us to just outside Liskeard. The two farm lanes were literally just next door to each other and, in 1990, Higher Coombe held the first meeting with Nigel Kimpton setting FTD at 27.74. When the hill closed in 1992, Grenville Northam had lowered the record to 26.47.
Lodge Farm started in 1991 with John Airey getting a rare FTD at 21.40 and, by its end in 1994 due to environmental problems, Nigel had lowered it to 20.72. The Liskeard weekends may have only lasted for five years, but we sure enjoyed not only the racing, but especially the odd night out on the town, the odd police visit and stripping thrown in for good measure.
If anyone has got any information or results of Cornish hillclimbs from the 70s and 80s, or meetings where Dad competed from 1969, I would be very grateful if I could take copies to complete Dad’s files. I already have about 60 various results from that era, but they are mainly south-western ones.
Jamie Mitchell
Curborough Track Day
As you will see from this year’s events list there is an event at Curborough on the Saturday before our regular Championship round. The aim of the event is to attract people in to the sport of hill climbing and, while it could be argued that Curborough is not a typical hill climb, it has the advantage of relative safety and easy marshalling.
It will not be Curborough as we know it, as we have restrictions placed on us, the main one being that we cannot use the regular start line as we also do not want it to be considered as extra practice for the following day. The way the meeting will run is as follows –
Bikes will join the track at the point where the ambulance normally parks, each “competitor” will do a warm up lap of the circuit part of the track as he crosses the start/finish line by the timing hut he will start a flying lap which will be timed. On completion of the flying lap he will pull off through the paddock gate and return to the back of the queue for his next go.
We will have as many runs as time permits. The event will start at 2pm and finish at 5.30 pm.
We will be promoting the track day by advertising etc. and hope to fill our quota which is 35 bikes. The cost will be about £30. The problem with all this is that it is speculative, we may have too many bikes or we could have too few. What we need is help from YOU. Please put the word around. If you are the member of a bike club that has members with suitable machinery put a note in the newsletter. If your mates always told you how good he is tell him to come along and show you. NHCA members can enter but what we are asking is that you come along prepared to give up your ride and help run the event if the meeting fills up with non-members as they will have priority. This may seem a lot to ask but a lot of riders turn up at Curborough on the Saturday before the championship meeting anyway and also bear in mind that the whole idea is to benefit hill climbing which, if successful, will benefit everybody.
At the time of writing this there are still quite a lot of details to thrash out, as we agreed at the AGM we need to ensure the club does not take unnecessary risks by putting on such an event. However the track is booked and the event is 90% certain, you will be kept up to date when everything is finalised.
Doug Parnell
Classic Prescott 2001
There is an unfortunate clash of dates with a Championship round at Gurston so we may be short on entries, as this meeting normally accepts a few modern bikes which will probably go to Gurston this time. So, please put the word around to other clubs that have an interest in sporting classic and vintage machines such as Velo or Norton owners clubs and get some new “old” blood in the vintage and classic classes.
Doug Parnell
Vintage/Post Vintage and Classic Records
I have listed the records set during the Vintage/PV and Classic championship rounds from the start of these championships in 1986 up to the present day. I have included the open run times from these meetings except for those at Baitings Dam between 1988 and 1994 inclusive, as I do not currently have the open run times for these particular meetings.
David Childs
For sale – The ex-Arnold Gimblett Cheney/BSA. B44 engine in Cheney M/X frame.
Very tidy and goes well. £700 or £750 with single bike trailer.
Phone Dave Jupe on 01454 633213 (near Bristol)
For sale – Black one-piece La Trek leathers for 6-foot rider with 42 inch plus chest.
Unmarked, as new condition. £100.
Phone Dave Jupe on 01454 633213 (near Bristol)
For sale – KTM 250, overbored to 256cc so runs in 350 class. 1985. WP upside down forks, disc brakes. Third in 350 class 1997, little use since due to discovery of CR500s (ouch!!).
Properly set up for hillclimbing. Ready to race, with tons of spares. £450.
Phone Ian Fry 0121 243 7779 (Birmingham)
Don’t forget – the copy date for the next Hillclimber is 31 May.