The Vintage Sports-Car Club has been organising the Vintage Hill Climb at Prescott since 1938 and it has grown to become one of the largest hill climb events in Europe. Without doubt, the event is one of the highlights of the VSCC year with over 250 Pre-war cars competing in thrilling uphill racing over the weekend of 3-4 August, and approximately 8,000 visitors were expected over the weekend.
Saturday was dry but Sunday turned out rather wet, affecting many of the times for the competitive runs.
Two Club Members took part in their three wheelers. Mike Sythes entered his Super Aero in Class 2: Standard and Modified Sports Cars 751-1100cc Unsupercharged and up to 750cc Supercharged. Sue Darbyshire was entered in Class 14: Pre 1941 Racing Cars 1101-1500cc in her Super Aero Racer.
Sue only managed one climb, failing on the start line on her second competitive run.
Provisional results show that Sue achieved 5th place out of 20 runners while Mike came 4th out of 22 starters. No mean feats given the conditions.
The Hill:
click on the image for a closer look
The photos:
Many thanks to Dennis Rushton and Paul Down for the photos. To view the photo galleries, click on any of the photos to bring up a larger version. You can scroll forwards and backwards using the [,] and [.] keys. Press [ESC] or click on the image to Exit.
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- Saturday first practice. Sue Darbyshire heads up to The Esses
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- Saturday first practice. Mike Sythes exits Pardon
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- Saturday second practice. Mike Sythes in Rolt Corner (just after The Esses)
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- Saturday second practice. Sue Darbyshire in Rolt Corner heading for the Semi-circle
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- Saturday second practice. Sue straight-lines the Esses
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- Sunday first competitive run. Mike heads towards Semi-Circle
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- Sunday second competitive run. Mike heads off from Pardon hairpin
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- Sunday firstcompetitive run. Sue exits Rolt and heads for Semi-Circle. Hardly the best conditions for a fast time!
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- Sunday first competitive run. Sue enters the Esses in the wet. Take a look at the first marker post. Bill Tuer clipped it during La Vie En Bleu back in June 2013 and it hasn’t been fixed properly yet (there’s a report and photo on our website)
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- Sunday first competitive run. Sue exits Pardon. Photo from Paul Down
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- Sunday competitive run. Mike exits Pardon. Photo from Paul Down
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- Sunday competitive run. Charlie Martin in his Morgan Special makes a spectacular exit from Pardon. Charlie finished second in class and claimed first vintage prize. Photo from Paul Down.
The Results:
click on the results for a closer look
