Following an intense period of work, of both the academic and bill-paying kind, I was pleased to have the opportunity to attend a motor racing event so local to Leeds. Harewood Hill lacks the stunning speed of Loton Park (my other regular event) but its valley location is pure North Yorkshire decadence, and with the Red Kites flying overhead, it offer motor sport in a different context to my more regular haunts.
I arrived to light rain, which is bad news if you drive a leaky sportscar, but it proved more of a shower burst than anything else. A greasy track meant a few spinners, and it’s hard to envy tackling the tricky course in a 600bhp single seater with no tyre warmers. It’s probably miraculous that there were so few incidents. Harewood is one of the UK’s longest climbs and by the end of the day the track was dry and the times were quick, with current main-man Scott Moran setting a time of 49.75secs which left him just two hundredths of a second off the existing hill recond – a tantalising gap. Certainly watching from the tight Farmhouse Bend, his confidence in the awesome traction of his Gould was significantly greater than his competitors. Trevor Wills in his OMS was mighty too, with the lightweight machine changing direction with alarming obedience. With such awesome grip and low mass, these are twitchy machines at speed.
Having arrived late as a result of chores, the whole event was over by 3.30pm, which is probably small mercy as the temperature was low and the windchill high. The roads were dry and it seemed rude not to take the long way home to make sure the car was properly warmed up. Despite traffic, there is no such thing as a dull journey in an Exige. I could get used to motor sport so close to home…
