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The 6th June 2004 saw my second competitive visit to Harewood hill climb. I was expecting an improvement over my first visit here as I had attended the drivers school just over a week ago. The drivers school teaches you the lines up the hill and lets you have practice runs to put the teaching into practice. Most of the lines around the corners are pretty easy to work out but I learnt the way to tackle Farmhouse Bend and Quarry Corner.

The course is 1448.25 metres long. The map is from www.harewoodhill.co.uk

Another warm and dry day at Harewood.

The following three photographs were taken by Steve Wilkinson of Steve Wilkinson Photographic.

This is entering Clark`s, the first bend of the hill climb. Steve's photographs are useful as I
can see how the car is reacting in the corners.

Accelerating out of Chippy`s.

Willow Bend. This corner is quite fast (3rd gear) but has very little run off.
You can just see a crash padding in the lower right of the picture.

Car Set Up

Springs: As before (Front 170 lb/inch, Rear 200 LB/inch)
ARB: Drop link on the rocker in the middle hole and in the neutral position on the bar.
Dampers: Front Bump 4, Rebound 3. Rear Bump 2, Rebound 3.

1st Practice:
64ft...........2.53 secs
Split 2........25.16 secs
Split 3........15.12 secs
Split 4 .......16.51 secs
Split 5 .......11.52 secs
Speed ........75 mph
Time ..........70.78 secs

Notes: Turn in very good but the car was a bit oversteery.

2nd Practice
64ft...........2.52 secs
Split 2........25.13 secs
Split 3........15.13 secs
Split 4 .......16.33 secs
Split 5 .......11.47 secs
Speed ........73 mph
Time ..........70.58 secs

Notes: Split 4 is quicker (around Farmhouse) but my trap speed which is on the straight after Farmhouse is slower.

1st Timed Run
64ft...........2.68 secs
Split 2........25.52 secs
Split 3........15.07 secs
Split 4 .......16.40 secs
Split 5 .......11.12 secs
Speed ........75 mph
Time ..........70.79 secs

Notes: The front anti roll bar moved 30mm from the neutral position to make it stiffer. This gives a good balance of front grip and power down.
I am a little disappointed with the times. I am running slower than before the drivers school.


2nd Timed Run
64ft...........2.54 secs
Split 2........24.39 secs
Split 3........14.81 secs
Split 4 .......16.43 secs
Split 5 .......11.20 secs
Speed ........75 mph
Time ..........69.37 secs

Notes: At last I have broken the 70 second barrier! On this run I carried more speed into the bends. Before I must have been driving at my comfort level. On this run I thought I was going into bends too fast but the car obviously has more grip than I think. I leave the line at 2,200 rpm, letting the clutch out slowly and feeding the power in. If I floor the throttle hard the tyres spin.

Summary: The day started off disappointing as my times were slower than before the drivers school. But I learnt that I must push myself into the corners to get the times. If I combine all my quickest sectors then I would run 69.17 secs. So I think I should run in the 68`s next time.
The class was won by Les Proctor in his twin motor bike engined race car in a time of 59.94 secs.