Hill-climb fatalities. - Page 2

JimW · 3 Jul 2007, 11:04 (Ref:1953305)

Quote:

Originally Posted by rescue dude

I marshalled Ragley a few times and but thankfully wasn't there for the fatality but i know a man who was.

I really can't remember if it was described as a sprint or not. JCC used to hold events there.

It was a sprint. I was there.

Jim

bentimingstrut · 3 Jul 2007, 13:41 (Ref:1953418)

This book sounds fab.Where can I get hold of a copy?.Iam going to drop some hints to her indoors as its me birthday soon.

Steve Wilkinson · 3 Jul 2007, 14:01 (Ref:1953431)

Quote:

Originally Posted by JimW

Probably because technically it was used as a sprint course, not a hillclimb.

But having had a quick look at the Blue Book, I cannot find a definition/distinction between the two. Any experts able to throw light on this?

Ragley certainly had a rise in elevation between the start and finish sufficient to make it look like a "hill". It was a nice course and the introduction of a fence/cattle grid, which were the physical reasons for it loosing a track licence was a pity. It was my nearest motorsports venue.

Jim

The way that the two Speed Event disciplines are spit is usually down to the percentage of uphill plus the steepness. I believe there is a Formula that can be used but mostly the decision is made by the organising club.

There have been two exceptions to this however!

Knockhill and Cadwell Park have been used for both Sprints and Hillclimbs! However in both cases the elements of the track that were used for the hillclimb were very short and in both cases the hillclimb use has fallen by the wayside mainly due to better and longer alternatives being available.

Fireblade · 3 Jul 2007, 15:30 (Ref:1953484)

Quote:

Originally Posted by bentimingstrut

This book sounds fab.Where can I get hold of a copy?.Iam going to drop some hints to her indoors as its me birthday soon.

Getting quite hard to find for a reasonable price nowadays.
Was originally £40 but some of the traders with some left are hiking it.
I always keep an eye out and buy reasonably priced copies to pass on to people involved in the Speed scene and give them an opportunity to get hold of one as chea as possible.

Needless to say my list is always quite full.

terrydlm · 3 Jul 2007, 16:52 (Ref:1953544)

Quote:

Originally Posted by mcurtis26

The fatality at Ragley was Neil Davison in a Caterham in 1993.

Stuart MacQuarri was killed at Prescott in 1970.

Other Championship fatalities were:

Bill Sleeman (Bouley 1955).
Mike Gray (Barbon 1964).
Mark Colton (Craigantlet 1995).

I think i am right in saying that is how Sleemans corner got it's name.

webbo · 3 Jul 2007, 17:55 (Ref:1953587)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fireblade

Getting quite hard to find for a reasonable price nowadays.
Was originally £40 but some of the traders with some left are hiking it.
I always keep an eye out and buy reasonably priced copies to pass on to people involved in the Speed scene and give them an opportunity to get hold of one as chea as possible.

Needless to say my list is always quite full.

Bloody hell............there are 2 on Amazon, 1 at £99.95 and the other at £223

And they aint new either !!

Steve Wilkinson · 3 Jul 2007, 18:10 (Ref:1953598)

Quote:

Originally Posted by webbo

Bloody hell............there are 2 on Amazon, 1 at £99.95 and the other at £223

And they aint new either !!

Like my old buddy 'Blade I always check out second-hand book shops for anything Hillclimb & Sprint related. I have managed to pick up a few copies of Robin Boucher's Drive It! book which have been passed on. However I have NEVER seen a copy of Uphill Racers for sale in these establishments.

Mind you at those prices Webbo there will be a few more people on the hunt!

AlistairN · 3 Jul 2007, 21:22 (Ref:1953729)

WH Smith have it on their site for 49.95. I think Tim Thomson still has a few new copies salted away somewhere.

Alistair

Fireblade · 3 Jul 2007, 23:11 (Ref:1953806)

Quote:

Originally Posted by webbo

Bloody hell............there are 2 on Amazon, 1 at £99.95 and the other at £223

And they aint new either !!

You now see why I and Wilko snap up copies for our friends.

rescue dude · 4 Jul 2007, 06:45 (Ref:1953906)

Quote:

Originally Posted by webbo

Bloody hell............there are 2 on Amazon, 1 at £99.95 and the other at £223

And they aint new either !!

Rescue Dude gives out an evil laugh and holds his copy tightly to his chest.

"My Precious"

jonners · 5 Jul 2007, 12:41 (Ref:1955128)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve Wilkinson

I assume that the venue you mention is also known as Ragley Park?

It was definitely known as Ragley Hall in '95 but it seems to be one and the same place. Just shows how the memory plays tricks - I thought the fatality came after our visit, not before. And I now remember that it was, indeed, a cattle grid that stopped the hillclimbing - or sprinting. It was only a gentle climb but was certainly called a hillclimb in '95.

It was a Jaguar club event and they'd invited members of the Bugatti Owners' Club. I think they were a bit miffed that the only takers were me and my Dad in our tatty old Cortina (Lotus).

They got their revenge by moving us to the modified class even tho our car is genuinely roadgoing and we don't use a trailer. The reason was that a Lotus Cortina is modified over standard....

So lots and lots of Gti's and the like fought it out in our class whilst we got in the way of the hairy slicks and perspex types!!

Never mind.

blackx · 5 Jul 2007, 21:20 (Ref:1955608)

Didnt the MAC used to run events there and call them sprints

**Woolley** · 5 Jul 2007, 21:48 (Ref:1955631)

Don't think the MAC ever organised anything there. I did attend a couple that were run by JCC.

blackx · 5 Jul 2007, 22:34 (Ref:1955656)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Woolley

Don't think the MAC ever organised anything there. I did attend a couple that were run by JCC.

Could have been the JCC then...

My memory is not what it was

Paul Ranson · 5 Jul 2007, 23:14 (Ref:1955673)

Quote:

Didnt the MAC used to run events there and call them sprints

The MAC ran sprints at Cornbury Park in Oxfordshire, there was a fatality during an AMOC event at the venue in 2001. I think there is still sprinting at the venue. A no slicks type place. It goes up and down a bit too.

I think I took part in the last MAC event there. A very pleasant day, IIRC.

Paul

blackx · 5 Jul 2007, 23:17 (Ref:1955676)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul Ranson

The MAC ran sprints at Cornbury Park in Oxfordshire, there was a fatality during an AMOC event at the venue in 2001. I think there is still sprinting at the venue. A no slicks type place. It goes up and down a bit too.

I think I took part in the last MAC event there. A very pleasant day, IIRC.

Paul

I think thats where I am getting confuddled....

Thanks paul....

Paul Ranson · 5 Jul 2007, 23:34 (Ref:1955684)

I'm a relative beginner and I have historical memories...

What a drag it is getting old.

Paul

blackx · 5 Jul 2007, 23:37 (Ref:1955688)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul Ranson

I'm a relative beginner and I have historical memories...

What a drag it is getting old.

Paul

But you've made a hell of an impact

*p.s. dont mention the old word in front of the my missus....She gets touchy about it

*

Steve Wilkinson · 13 Jul 2007, 10:50 (Ref:1962294)

The following recollections were emailed to me by Sandra Tomlin:

I remember seeing Forbes Clarke killed at Pardon in either a Bugatti or an ERA. I can't remember the year but wonder if it was on the long course because he went charging in to Pardon hit the sleepers on the outside and the vertical projection of wood of one sleeper pierced his helmet as his body was thrown sideways...his car then did a complete circuit of the corner through the trees and stopped when hitting the sleepers for a second time.
I also saw Lord Ebery killed in the Esses..........and I can only have been 4 or 5 at the time!

Certainly the fatality rates have dropped dramatically in recent years - thank heavens!

FastDB2s · 16 Jul 2007, 00:36 (Ref:1964011)

Cornbury Park is now run by the Benjafield motor club? now, AMOC stopped running it in after that fatality in 2000, i think not 2001, but it was a heart attack if i remember rightly, Ragley Hall was run by the Scimitar owners club in 1988 at least & by the Jdc the year after (or was it before) good venue but for a quick time you had to be virtually sideways over the finishing line & then straighten it up & stop, there were several accidents at the top of hill, one another Aston if i remember rightly
Chris

Fireblade · 16 Jul 2007, 20:42 (Ref:1965111)

Further to above memories from Sandra I bumped into some whilst working who knew Forbes Clarke and who was also at Prescott on that fateful day and he supplied some further detail

John Forbes Clarke was killed at Pardon Bend, Prescott on 11th Sept 1960 whilst driving his Cooper-Climax F2 car.

ROGER JORDAN · 21 Jul 2007, 21:20 (Ref:1969436)

Sadly another one for the list, hopefully the last, was John Morgan, a likeable chap from the Bristol area who crashed a Vixen VB4 at Oddicombe Torbay in I think 79 or 80 , I was co-driving with Dr Chris McCavana who was at the top of the hill when John left the track on the notorious bumps on the top straight, with his medical background Chris was one of the first at the scene but sadly nothing could be done, I had a grandstand view of John in practise , it scared me to watch and I said as much at the time, he was a man on a mission and the result was going to be FTD by a country mile or an off, sadly the latter was the result.

hillsprint77 · 21 Jul 2007, 22:27 (Ref:1969502)

On the Ulster side of the UK scene, there have luckily only been two fatalities concerning local events. One was local Toyota dealer Neville Johnston, who crashed his Ford based Toyota modified saloon at Spelga's daunting final corner in the early 1970s.

The other death was an official, who was killed in an accident when setting out Eagle's Rock hill on the evening before the event, during the later 1980s.

Ofcourse, as previously mention Mark Colton died during practice for the BHC event at Craigantlet

socram · 10 Jan 2008, 07:15 (Ref:2103162)

I seem to remember one of our regular sprinter's who died at the Brighton Speed Trials - if that counts. Harry Sword, TVR Turbo, around 1981 I think.

blackx · 10 Jan 2008, 09:13 (Ref:2103243)

Quote:

Originally Posted by socram

I seem to remember one of our regular sprinter's who died at the Brighton Speed Trials - if that counts. Harry Sword, TVR Turbo, around 1981 I think.

Theres a clue there somewhere

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