They built a reservoir at Scammonden for one very simple reason.
Because it rains a lot there.
And Sunday wasn’t a disappointment in that respect. Still, it’s one of those venues that needs supporting – Pendle & District always put on a good event with plenty of runs and although it’s a short hill it’s always a good day out. Part of the appeal is that it is a small event – about thirty cars, so you can chat with everyone and it’s more of a clubby atmosphere.
For me there was some confusion – I’d entered very late after hearing numbers were low and they needed more. As a consequence I’d entered first into mod-prods, a class for racing cars rather than road cars, then they moved me to standard production cars. I explained carefully that my car’s anything but standard and eventually I went into road going modified cars. Funnily enough the result would have been the same for me whichever of those classes I’d have been in, but you have to think of the fairness for others as well.
Once that was sorted everything was straightforward – I was second quickest in the very wet conditions, lagging behind a quick and well driven Citroen Saxo VTS belonging to Steve Mitchell. The extremely slippery conditions favouring the balance of the front drive cars.
However, once the timed runs came on I found my groove and set down a marker nearly a second ahead, pulling out more time as the day went on. Five timed runs later and I had a very strong lead, winning my class with an ok 29.4s run and coming 8th overall.
Scammonden Dam Hillclimb is an interesting one – it’s a short course up the service road for the dam. Incredibly steep, you can do most of it in just first and second gear – especially in the wet, and you find yourself doing a lot of wheelspinning as you fight for traction.
There are just a few corners – first is sharp left hander just a couple of seconds from the steep start line. You then blat quickly along a straight to a slightly intimidating corner with nothing but armco if you outbrake yourself. From there you start the real climb with a left hander that’s always a little later than you expect heading up to a couple of right handers. It’s not an especially tricky hill to learn, but it does demand commitment if you want to be quick.
Next Event: Aintree, 2nd of September 2006 – time to get that record back
