Facing the Next Challenge

I suppose every time you win something, it’s quite a boost, like when I first broke the outright ladies record at Shelsley Walsh. I used to do that on a fairly regular basis, but overall I think I hold that record; I lost it once, but I had it for 23 years. It was quite thrilling, really. I’ve driven most of the hillclimbs. I mean, Prescott one of my favorites, went up to Doune in Scotland, and then down to Devon to Wiscombe. I did all the hillclimbs during that period, I suppose, of about ten years.

They’re all quite different. For example, Shelsley’s a very high-speed one and you have to be very brave, whereas Prescott’s got more corners, left- and right-hand ones and sharp ones. That’s quite challenging as well. I think they’ve all got a certain challenge really. You have to be totally concentrating when you leave the startline because if you pause anywhere, then you’ve lost it, you can’t make it up. If you’re circuit racing, you know, you lose a little bit of time during a 10-lap race or something, you can, if you’re lucky, make up the time, whereas in a hillclimb you can’t. There is 100-percent commitment from the word go. That is one of the disadvantages of hillclimbing; you get two practice runs and then it’s the competition. I used to go testing a bit, I had a runway when I lived in Surrey, you know, that’s not the same as being on a hill and you can’t really practice on a hill so there are a lot of disadvantages. I think that’s probably why after hillclimbing for probably 20 years or so, I suddenly didn’t find it as exciting as I used to and I wanted a bigger challenge. I don’t know, it is challenging, I’ve probably put that the wrong way. Perhaps it had lost the magic for me. I probably got to a point in life where I wanted to do something else in, obviously, the motoring world, but a bit different when you need a total commitment with hillclimbing, when you’ve got a fast racing car like I had. I used to drive a vintage Alfa, as well. That’s different because you can drive the car on the road, you go to the meeting, you compete and then drive home again; whereas with the racing car you tow it on the trailer and so you have all your motorsport that covers about, probably, three minutes for the weekend, really.