If you're a motorport fan & like me fancied the idea of having a go for years & years but never did anything about it, then my advice to you is do it.....& DO IT NOW!!!!
Having got the car on the road, everyone asked me if I was going to race it. "No way, have someone else plough into my pride & joy" I think not. Then it was suggested sprinting & hill climbing which are speed trials against the clock so if I prang it then it was my fault alone.
The picture above was taken at my first event at Doune in sunny Scotland & I haven't looked back since.
Many people are put off thinking because they are new, they will be slow & be beaten all the time and are worried about being last. The reality is exactly the opposite. The people are friendly & always willing to help you and the first bit of advise is actually to drive slowly....you will not win a championship in your first year so don't even try...you'll just prang the car. Instead drive at your own speed, learning the track & through time you will become quicker & quicker....how true.
Well 2000 proved to pretty good fun. With a year of experience behind me, my times were coming down thick & fast ending the year with class honours in the hillclimbs & 5th overall in the hillclimb roadcar championship. As you've guessed the bug had well & truly bitten so I took the the plunge into single seaters for the 2001 season with a new toy....A Suzuki GSXR powered OMS!!! This was a whole new ballgame and took me a good few seasons to get the hang of it but the effort was worth it and in 2004 I took the Scottish Top Ten Sprint Championship , Scottish Speed Championship, Highland Speed championship and was runner up in the Scottish Hillclimb Championship. It was a truly monster season resulting in 15 Fastest time of Day, 10 class wins, 6 Class records, 4 outright track records and the icing on the cake was a special recogniton award from the British Hill Climb & Sprint Association for outstanding achievement.....as I said, a MONSTER season. 2005 was equally rewarding however it took me seven years of trying before I finally secured that final and most prestigious of titles ......... 2006 Scottish Hillclimb Champion!!!
2007 Proved to be a challenging year. The OMS was sold in the hope of a brand new car being designed & built for me however these things always take longer than planned. When it looked like I was being forced into a year out, my good friend, and former Scottish Hillclimb Champion himself, Mark Hutcheson, gave me a loan of his old car. Only problem was it was in completely dismantled and was literally hanging from the rafters of his garage with a week to go until the start of the season. After a monster effort we rebuilt the car and after a nip and tuck season and to everyones surprise I retained my title as Scottish Hilllclimb Champion for 2007 in a twenty year old Jedi race car!!!!
As for 2008 ....... lets wait and see but if it's anything like previous form it promises to be another nail-biter :)
Click here for in car shots of the King of Hills.....Doune Hillclimb .... and here for an article I wrote on how to drive it. There's also video clips from the 2006 season at the following links.
Golspie Sprint 1
Golspie Sprint 2
Forrestburn Hillclimb 1
Forrestburn Hillclimb 2
Forrestburn Hillclimb 3
Fintray Hillclimb 1
Fintray Hillclimb 2
Doune Hillclimb 1
Doune Hillclimb 2
