Round 20 - Harewood, Sunday 26th August

What a scorching summer we have had, the best since 1976, weeks and weeks of uninterrupted sunshine. Since having to cancel the Spring National meeting on 15th April, Harewood has held 9 events so far this year, all enjoying warm, dry days. In fact Saturday’s event set a record for the total number of cars up the hill in a day.

​But typically the forecast for Sunday had, consistently over the last week, been for 

rain. So when we arrived to a dry track everyone was keen to get on with it and enjoy as many dry runs as possible before the inevitable rain arrived.

​First practice was dry, Steve Dennis led in his 1600M from David Barrowclough’s Chimaera, followed by Geoff Stallard in the Blue Vixen, then ‘Hank’ Hankins on his first trip to Harewood in the 2500, with Iain Stallard in an uncharacteristic last place. 

​Before we got another chance the rain came. All cars were on 1B tyres, but Geoff and Iain had a set of 1As which they fitted after first practice. Everyone went slower, mostly by about 10 seconds, but tellingly Iain’s time was only 4 seconds slower, which gave a clue to what the afternoon held.

Not only was this Hank’s first trip to Harewood, but it was also his first event in the rain, so his continually improving times throughout the day were impressive.
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After the lunch break the rain continued to fall, the first timed run saw Iain take the  ​lead on scratch as well as handicap, with everyone going quicker than second practice. As the meeting also included a ​large contingent of motorcycles, which given the conditions, were always going to hold things up there would be no chance of a third run. This meant that a final effort in  

​​the second timed run was our only chance. Again everyone improved, despite tales of ​struggling to get off the start line, the odd off track excursion, spinning rear wheels on the straights and general whinging about 

​being hard done to by the weather. The biggest improver was Iain, who went 3 seconds quicker, so securing his lead and reducing everyone else’s points! 

So is rain a great leveller? Between practice and the timed runs Steve went from 1st to last, Iain shot from last to first, Hank improved 2 places and both Geoff and Dave slipped 1 place. I suppose you could say it’s better to have led and slipped, than never to have led at all. Ho hum.

Steve Dennis (photography: Peter Caygill & "Hank")