Did I mention it was hot?….

Loton has to be my favourite hill climb. I go on every time I write the report about how scenic and challenging it is, so I won’t bore you all again, but sadly no deer in evidence this time; they were all sensibly well hidden in the undergrowth keeping cool. Even their ‘calling cards’ were like little bullets so no scraping of shoes was needed.

Whilst there were six original entries, sadly Alan Foster had to scratch due to continuing problems with excessive brake pedal travel, but he and Pam (and Iain Levison) joined us remaining fools who’d decided underwear, race suits, and a helmet were a good idea in searing heat. George Poundafruit and Howard Burton had travelled up from the depths of Southern England, whilst Paul and Simon Clarke and I had more gentle tootles over from the Midlands and Merseyside respectively.

A big shout out and respect for the marshals!!! They’d been out all weekend, one of the start-line marshal’s succumbing to heat stroke on the Saturday, and they worked like Trojans to make sure the day ran as smoothly as it eventually did. Their work wasn’t made any easier by the repeated ‘offs’ that began from the first practice run. So many ‘offs’ in fact, that we only managed to get one practice run, and half the entrants completed timed run one, before lunch was called. We’d all managed to get through practice unscathed. Simon Clarke did a 360^o going through the kink on the Cedar straight, but ended up pointing the right way so he continued up to the top, and we all commented on how slippery the track felt.

Lunch was leisurely and we found some shade under the trees below the start line. First timed runs saw George and Howard separated by only 3 tenths, Simon posted a 65.21, and Paul and I were in the 63’s separated by just 0.01 on handicap!!!

As we were the last of the last batch, our second and final timed run only took place at 16.30. We all saved the best until last, and all drivers improved their times. George won the sub-2 litre Morgan class with a 74.46, and Howard was second with a 72.15. In the Over 2 litre class, we all ended up in the 63’s; Simon on 63.88, Paul with a 63.40, and me with a 63.37 – victory to me by .03 seconds!!!

We eventually worked out why it was so slippery. With the grass scorched there was little to hold the soil in place, so the track was dusty. Early batch runners had the offs, but cleared the track for those later in the batch… George, Howard, Paul and I ran at the end of batch 6. As the dual driver Simon went out first in batch 5…

Oops!!!

Thanks to Howard for the incriminating photographs. Somehow he manged to ‘lose’ the one of him holding his lovely leopard print brolly, channelling his inner Bett Lynch. Or , given the conditions, should that be his Dusty Spring Field….

OK, so it’s July, but Sunmerfield didn’t scan…