Article by Dave Jenkins

“Ah Prescott hill. Whenever this little jewel in Gloustershire’s motoring crown comes into the conversation my thoughts turn to a chilled bottle or two of Bollinger, a Fortnum and Mason hamper stuffed full to bursting with fresh oysters and lobster and chaps in blazers escorting well scrubbed-up totty.” “Oh, and the whiff of Castrol-R wafting around in the sun warmed air”

That’s how it was described in the programme anyway, the reality of our recent trip to the Cotswold countryside was, however, somewhat different.

A round trip of 300 miles meant a very early start for some of us, those who travelled the previous day probably had the right idea, despite the time and miles spent exploring the lanes and villages around Cheltenham, which remain uncharted by the sat-nav systems, desperately seeking out their guest houses and b&b’s. Glad you got there eventually Hugh.

Arrival at the home of the Bugatti owners club promised plenty of warm sunshine and a great days motorsport, what we actually got was plenty of very wet rain and a great days motorsport, there is no such thing as a bad days motorsport after all.

Amongst the Bugattis, Ginettas, Porsches, Ferraris, Morgans, MGs and Austin Seven specials taking their place on the start line, were 14 brave and fearless tvr drivers, all beautifully presented, cars and drivers alike, serious title contenders and the also rans, out for a good day in the sunshine, or otherwise.

First practise was conducted under clear blue skies and brilliant sunshine, at a pace that saw the absent Mr Firth’s record time from last year beaten quite convincingly by the majority. In his defence, however, there was a huge difference in weather conditions to last year’s monsoon. Andrew Blacklee led the charge in brother Richard’s Chimaera, followed by the Vixens of Messrs Bankhurst, Sims and Stallard. The ultra lightweight pairing of Alan Bankhurst and his two tone blue car setting the pace in class A, although the 3000S of John Pollard was challenging hard just 0.7 algorithmic seconds behind. The big boys were next to go with Paul Edward’s T350 and Simon Cole’s 4.8 litre engined wedge looking set for a battle royal. 3 Chimaera’s followed with Hugh Davies, yours truly and Alan Davies at the controls. The fearsome race Tuscan complete with MX5 look-a-like hardtop fitted and Dave Morris on board followed with John Wilson in his Cerbera 4x4 and Richard bringing up the rear after getting his Chim back from brother Andrew.

It was shortly after this point that things took a turn for the worse weather wise, clouds gathered on the horizon and rain was in the air. Hugh and Geoff had turned up well prepared with their gazebo’s, strangely enough as the rain worsened so the number of friends they had increased.

Second practice bought a new challenge to our intrepid heroes, blindfold hillclimbing.  The rain had reduced visibility to zero and misted windscreens made matters even worse. Times went up by around 20 seconds for most. Paul Edwards and Dave Morris being the exceptions, Paul had a `moment` at Orchard when his T350 performed a perfect pirouette across the grass, up the bank and back down to the river that was pretending to be a road. The Tuscan racer was forced to stop half way to clear the screen; wipers had been overlooked when the car was built.

As we adjourned for luncheon it appeared that all the Bollinger and Fortnum’s hampers were reserved for the Bugatti members and their guests, as were the only dry seats for miles around. The rain continued to fall and we all remained huddled under the gazebos of our newest bestest ever friends, how about a TVRCC speed champ marquee Steve? We’ll even let you in if it gets really wet.

Timed runs began under the same heaving skies and the leader board had a remarkably familiar look to it, Simon Cole sat proudly at the top with Dave Morris muscling his way up to second. The 3000S of John Pollard was looking promising, given the handicap correction it was very close with Alan Davies’ 60 sec flat.

And then the sun shone. The rain disappeared into the distance, heavy black cloud became wispy white balls of cotton wool, the stench of wet wool carpets was replaced with the wonderfully familiar odour of Castrol-R as the Bugatti owners whipped off their covers and gently coaxed their engines into life to begin the final runs. We were grateful to be running lower down the order as the track dried gradually as each and every car before us made the 1127 yard dash up this piece of motorsport history, the hill’s outright record of just 36.5 seconds was safe today.

The order remained fairly steady as times fell in conjunction with the conditions although Hugh had clearly got his sat-nav working and smashed 10 seconds from his first timed run. Other notable performances on the last run came from Peter “SYD” Sims, scoring his first ever 20 plus point day. He claims that he could have gone even faster had a “Steve Cox look-a-like stood at the side of the hill not distracted him into thinking that the headmaster had come to watch!”

I think that was all that happened on the day then, congratulations to Simon Cole, John Pollard and Alan Davies for their efforts and thoroughly deserved awards.

A special mention must be made to Iain Richardson, honorary lord photographer of this happy band, to come along and support us through such foul weather yet continue to produce some excellent pictures for us all to enjoy, somebody buy that man a beer!

Oh, by the way, did you hear the one about a silver Cerb going into orbit over the top at semi-circle?
It goes something along the lines of…

John Wilson, Silver Cerb, going well up the hill, fastest time of the day (allegedly), last bend, tightening line, one wheel off, two wheels off, disappear down the hill sideways, backwards, spin, spin again, spin again, cut all the grass, narrowly miss the trees and bushes, come to rest on mound of dirt. Happily escape with no injuries to car or driver, not even dented pride. Return to relieved paddock and drive home.

Next time we visit Prescott can we please have it dry all day,