It was a bit of a damp start to the day, but the sun soon came out and started drying the track. There were seven drivers in all, one being Mark Dent, Alistair’s brother who came with his Mark V1 Cooper which he hadn’t competed in for some 10-12 years! During in the practice runs he had engine problems and in the lunch break during a heavy down pour of rain John and Alistair quickly changed the engine to a spare engine of John’s (good old dad!). The sun soon came out and started drying the track for the timed runs, but not before John and Alistair had a good soaking!

Steve Lawrence put in an impressive 71.16 secs on the first timed run. Alistair got to the line eventually after a number of ‘offs’ and red flagged re-runs coming back and jumping the queue in front of him and when he tried to pull away he realised he was in neutral! So as not to mess up his run he killed the engine and went back to be re-started and got second place with 70.00 secs. Darrell Woods’ Staride was behaving itself today after he’d fixed the problems encountered at Aintree and his times improved considerably throughout the day, but he was still chasing John’s tail and couldn’t quite catch him. Mike Lawrence admitted that he didn’t enjoy driving in the rain, so he took the cautious approach. Tim Ross, who knew he wasn’t going to catch the rest of the pack, was thoroughly enjoying himself and when he was parked at the top of the hill and looking over the deer park he said what a glorious venue and he couldn’t think of anywhere nicer to be! Steve maintained his lead by knocking 3 secs off his first run and Alistair obviously made too good a job of fitting Mark’s replacement engine as Mark beat him on the second timed run.

Everyone agreed that the track was quite slippery even though it dried up and there were a lot of ‘offs’ from other cars and motorbikes throughout the day. It was interesting to see Carol Foster passengering for nephew Mark Foster on Harry Foster’s BMW motorcycle/sidecar outfit. What a brave lady, as she hadn’t been on it since the last time her and Harry rode it together.

Results Saturday                                                                                      

Alistair Dent in the Hornet

John Dent's Cooper Mk VI

Sunday was a truly family day as only the Dent family had entered. Although it had rained very heavily overnight it quickly dried up and stayed warm and dry all day. With sibling rivalry, Alistair may well have been somewhat miffed that Mark beat him on both days!  Paul Harris, the Hill Climb and Sprint secretary came along to watch the 500 drivers competing.

Results Sunday