Last updated 19:44, Thursday, 24 July 2008

ROUND SIX of the TJ Services Northern Speed championship took place at a new venue - Scammonden Dam.

Scammonden was added this year as the venue is in danger of falling out of use due to falling numbers on recent events.

The hill has a reputation for being a bit rough and ready and the paddock certainly gave that impression being very overgrown with long grass and oddly laid out with the single seaters parked on a hill slightly away from the other cars.

The long grass should have been strimmed but didn’t prove too much of a barrier and I would say slightly preferable to what they had at last year’s event where sheep had been on the hill, eaten the grass but left a lot of little presents behind.

The competitors also had to round the sheep up and put them in a paddock before the event could start. The track itself is in good order and not at all rough . . . it’s short, twisty and a great drive.

Apparently up until the 1980s it was a British hillclimb championship venue and attracted 90 plus entries. For those of us who have been that’s very hard to imagine.

Due to some classes being small the road cars were amalgamated, opening the way for a two-litre 306 Rallye to win and come second. Ant Lomas put in a good performance in his 106 to go under the 30 second barrier but couldn’t overcome the power deficit.

Kevin Hamilton brought his MX5 in fourth with Robert McGillivray fifth in his 205. Martin and Sally Peacock were sixth and seventh and seemed to have a good day out taking advantage of the eight -yes, eight - runs up the hill.

Martin could be heard bemoaning his large wheels, claiming they robbed him of some much needed acceleration. Nind Martin, they looked well wicked.

Paul Rigg and Dennis Hope were out in the MGF battling with each other for honours, putting in some good times to finish second and third in class.

Ben Clark found himself amalgamated with some very fast kit cars but still managed a creditable third despite his fuel pump deciding to have an hour off in the afternoon leaving him to get towed back up the hill.

Thankfully once it had had a rest it mustered up enough energy to carry on for the last run.

The modified production cars saw a strange collection of vehicles with Peter Sewell in the MGB up against Colin Birkbeck in the Caterham R500. Not really a level playing field.

Predictably, Colin put in a fantastic run winning the class and finishing third overall despite a spin on the last run of the day - spin of the day - award due to lack of other entrants.

Martin Stott was also in the class in his Elise but didn’t have a good day, heading home early with a broken car but managing a couple of competitive runs to take fourth in class. Peter Sewell came in fifth in the MGB.

Terry and Darren Coleman were in a class of their own and therefore came first and second. The big power turbo Sylva must have been a handful on the twisty hill, but Terry in particular put in a fast time.

The battle of the bike-engined kit cars continued with Paul Bowness coming out victor after some decidedly sideways action.

Malcolm McKay grabbed second from Chris Boyd who had yet more car trouble Who’d have thought you had to put petrol in it to make it work?

Angus Buchan had a good day in his Radical while Harry Moody and Ken Sugden both ended up in the larger capacity sports libre class for some reason.

Harry took the honours in his Caterham with Ken a couple of seconds back in the Ginetta.

Peter Garforth had his best event for a while, missing out on FTD by three hundreds of a second and the last run of the day.

MG Cumbria ran a very successful Classic Tour of Cumbria on Sunday which was a trip around the coast of the county and taking most people to places that had not been to before.

Starting from Crooklands, the cars headed around the peninsulas and past Millom to lunch at St Bees. The second part of the tour went inland to bypass Workington and then hit the coast again to go via Allonby to tea at Bank Mill and then around past Silloth and Anthorn to finish at the Border Gate in Carlisle.