Hethel, the test track for Lotus Cars, is tucked away in deepest Norfolk, not a natural place for most hillclimbers, so it was no wonder that several of our intrepid entrants struggled to find it. Following the signs for Lotus from the A11 was probably a little too easy for this lot. Eventually all arrived safely in a slight drizzle for this rather early start.

Morning moans included the continuing saga of a GT4's intermittent misfire, particularly galling after all Sean Doyle's work to change it to electronic ignition; a 328 with a nice new driveshaft gaiter but with a clunk that returns after a drive, and various 355s with flashing slow down lights, all of which set a good marker for the day's excuses.

Jack Hargreaves set off first in the 308m, shared with father Mark, both resplendent in new white helmets due to the uprated regulations. His was to be a steady sighting lap, clearly with more to come, as was that of Wendy Marshall, her 328 on 1B tyres, whose run an unnamed relative described as “Mum was conservative in her approach”, and Jeff Cooper’s 360; Jeff too was newly helmed and his needed a new £1.60 scrutineering sticker of course.

Only two of our piloti had been to Hethel before, Holman and Richard Prior, where Richard reports he came 4th behind Charlie White in 2005, whilst MD had a little better luck on his last visit in 2007. [He won overall and on PEPs - Ed.]. They were up next and both set down a solid marker in the mid 70s with MD just ½ a second ahead, but both were somewhat eclipsed by the Marshall 430 Scud, 2 seconds ahead on a 73. This had them digging out the PEP sheets to see just how far the gap needed to be for John to get the max. points (roughly 3.5 seconds as it happens). 

Now those with memories may have noted these times are exceptionally quick for Hethel, previous visits had only seen runs in the low 80 somethings. This is because it is run by Borough 19, who are not adverse to changing a course if they so wish (ref. North Weald) and change it they had. They dropped the complete circumnavigation and more of the roundabout stating that cars were getting too close together. This, as it happens, was no great loss as the time spent whizzing round and round it meant petrol surging up one end of the tank and causing fuel starvation in anything with less than ½ a tank.

And so, hardly had our ace hillclimb organiser and scoreboard supervisor RP written up the times whilst others visited the bacon buttie van, than we were being called for our second runs. B19 were aiming for 3 timed runs today and weren’t letting anything get in their way.

P2 saw huge improvements as most could now find their way around. Wendy, Jeff and RA knocked off some 5 seconds each, whilst Young Jack managed nearly 8! Unfortunately his Old Man was slower with an 88, lifting off midway through the complex with some gear change problems. Doyle got the power down a little early exiting the roundabout with the inevitable result, but he stayed on track and the spin only slowed him to 87.

Meanwhile, Prior was also testing the limits of adhesion into the fast left hander in front of the tower, with the gravel trap uncomfortably close and only knocked a little off his time. Indeed we were all finding the track a little challenging at speed with cars getting a lot of understeer and raising doubts about the mantra “it's all flat through the back corners you know”.

MD stayed on track to get a 74 but all eyes turned to Marshall’s time, a blistering 72.48 run described as “clearly quicker approaching the complex, a very smooth drive, beautiful through the chicane”.

Back in the paddock we heard in amazement plans to run the first timed run before lunch! How would this leisurely bunch cope with such frenetic activity? Well at this point Sean dug out his holiday hat, bought we believe to embarrass his daughters, fortunately being a non-camera event you, dear reader, are spared this sight. 

And so we were off again with steady improvements by most. The exception was Mark Hargreaves who had been talking to his son and managed a similar 8 second improvement breaking into the 70s to get ahead of Cooper, Doyle, Wendy and Jack. Wendy’s son Jamie continued his commentary noting she had come close to a cone, just escaping the 5 second penalty a hit would have incurred. Sean was described as “almost sliding out of control through the complex, giving it everything!” This left RA midfield with “tight lines” but claiming he lost at least 2 seconds by leaving his gear blocker in for the back straight.

Finally, the last runners Prior, MD and Marshall went to see what they could do. Prior got the "5P" award “Prior’s pin point precision” and was "very pleased" (but not in a smug way of course) with his run of 73.79, a sterling effort indeed. Meanwhile Holman thought he must have gone slower due to the struggle he had in getting anywhere near his apexes with the understeer he was inducing. So he was smugly pleased with his 72.97, which putting him ahead of Marshall’s slower-than-practice time of 74.35, due we are told to a moment through the Senna curves (the fast corners up from the roundabout). However there was plenty of time and space left for improvement with a further 2 runs to go and the sun coming out to warm the track a little.

As it happens, T2 wasn’t anything very special for most, leaving us time to look at starts. Unfortunately we don't have 0-64 foot times here, or tyre warming, so we can't see if that makes any difference at all, but in front of me, I did see the new start technique Prior has developed, this involves very little throttle but quickly on it to avoid the car bogging down. It worked quite well until this run where the rear just slid sideways before gripping. Further up the line I could see Jeff Cooper getting away, unfortunately he hasn’t talked to Peter Rogerson of Loton start time fame and had far too much wheel spin, whilst old hand RA just got it right time after time.

We have some more useful comments here courtesy of our Club Secretariat Peter and Suzanne Everingham, who had tipped up with Club President Jack Sears. T2 saw a small improvement in the majority of times except for Holman “good lines until touched a kerb unsettling the car” and Prior “beautiful lines, great turn in, slight oversteer, should be committed” – sorry, trouble with their hand writing, I think it "was very committed” but who also slipped back into the 74s.

The only real improvement was John Marshall “very fast entry speed, neat and noisy!” who got near his practice time with a 72.83. After run comments were made, Doyle “very quick but late apex in complex” swore he would get a 79, Allen described his as a “crap run”, this was backed up by our commentary team who thought he was “running wide mid-way through the complex and copped a lot of oversteer at the end corner as a result”, but he said he was still looking for a 75.

So our third and final run with all to play for. Jack ably led the pack through the crowded paddock and was away, he locked up just before the chicane, reminding us these 308s don't have the electronic aids of our more modern cars, but he didn't let that put him off and set the challenge for his father with a 78 dead. Wendy took some nice lines but tiptoed through the chicanes to end up slightly slower than her best.

Doyle was very keen to join Hargreaves Jnr. in the sub 80s but his much vaunted claims came to nought with another slower run, unlike Dad who joined Jack, but only just with a 79.98.  Allen looked fast again and indeed he was, improving to 76.52 which was good enough for 4th overall and 3rd place on the points.

Jeff Cooper had another clean run and should be pleased with his consistent progress during the day, finishing with a 77 second run. Prior looked clean and quick and indeed managed to improve to 73.27, good enough for 3rd quickest and 2nd on the points, whilst Holman went into MD mode and recorded a 4 wheels off the track exiting the complex.

So all down to Marshall, he would have to get a low 69 to get the points from Holman, and was described as “ferociously attacking the corners and bouncing off the rev limiter out of the last chicane” but all to no avail ending up a second slower.

And so all that was left was an unnaturally early pack up at 3.15 (!) and East Anglian President Sears presenting the trophies to the top three of Marshall (middle) Holman (left) and Prior (right). [pic taken outside].

Click here for (unofficial) results and points.

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