Caterham Academy 2004, Round 4 - Harewood Hill Climb
Aug 4th, 2004 by Tim Skipper
Sunday’s hill climb event at Harewood means we’re now at the halfway point in this years evo Caterham Academy championship. Having got the four fairly tedious ’speed’ events out of the way the rest of the season are 10 lap circuit races at Snetterton, Oulton Park, Mallory Park and Brands Hatch.
My preparation for Harewood consisted of attending the Harewood Hill Climb School the week before the event. I came out of that feeling pretty confident for a good result, to go with the two 2nd places I’ve picked up recently at Goodwood and Lydden Hill.
As with the sprints, we had two practice runs and then three timed runs. My first practice run felt great but then I messed up the penultimate corner and went into the last hairpin completely sideways and spun. I created a huge cloud of tyre smoke as I kept my foot in it and spun it back round the right way before nonchalantly crossing the line as if I had meant to do it! At least it entertained the crowd with a round of applause from the marshals and a very amusing Bill & Ted style ‘not worthy’ impression from my friend and fellow competitor Peter Earnshaw as I skulked back into the paddock.
The second practice was quicker but still way off the pace. I was obsessing over that last corner and although I got it right this time, messed up most of the others in the process! There seemed to be a lot of people going off, particularly at the 90 degree left hander that’s over a blind brow.
First timed run was before lunch. I was starving, which didn’t help, but again I was off the pace and managed a distinctly average time. Meanwhile Guy was showing the rest of us how to do it by setting a scorching time, and Jeremy (championship leader, has won every event so far) went off.
Second timed run, this felt much better. I braked later, took a better line through some of the corners and it genuinely felt like a good one. As it turned out, it was only good enough for 4th place. I really don’t know where I was going wrong today. Guy had just broken the academy hill record and looked certain for a win, and surprisingly Jeremy had gone off again! At this rate he wasn’t going to place anywhere and all of a sudden the championship lead looked very inviting.
Third and final timed run, started off very well but I broke just a fraction too late for the quickest right hander on the hill and got a handful of over-steer all the way through it. I could feel the 10ths ebbing away as I caught the slide and wheel-spun the time away. A few tenths slower than my second run ultimately. Jeremy had put in what I suspect was a conservative ‘banker’ lap just to get a time, and ended up 5th. My 4th place stood with Peter initially taking second, but later being demoted to third after his last run was void due to a yellow line infringement.
Well done and a deserved win for Guy who was in a different class today. I’ve not yet worked out what the championship standings look like now, but I suspect I may have dropped to 3rd in swapping places with Guy, while still advancing on 1st place due to Jeremy’s unusually poor result.
Next round: Snetterton (10 laps!) August 22nd.
Video clips (require Real Player to view)
My first practice run with the spin at the end and my third timed run.