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The pages linked from this page have some information on the earlier BTCC with the 850 and the S40 and are kept for historic reference, and details of previous and current club motorsport events.

Current club motorsport reports and information are now incorporated in our club magazine, Volvo Driver, and are available in PDF format and will be made available here soon.

Wiscombe Park Hill Meet. May 10th 1997

AS SOME OF you will no doubt know, some members of the VOC have been wanting to compete in their cars at a motor sporting event. Well, we made it! On Saturday May 1oth, ten of us turned up to compete at Wiscombe Park. Our cars numbered 10. There were 7 Amazons, 1 PV, and one 360GLT. I was the "black sheep" as my PV was still having surgery after an off on a rally. I competed in a borrowed Lotus Cortina and a lot of comments I got as a result. None of them very complementary! May 1oth dawned, as had the previous few weeks, very wet, cold and windy. Not an auspicious start! We all arrived at around 8am to be scrutinised by the RAC official and to commence practice.

Wiscombe is quite a tricky place - it has two hairpins, a pretty steep climb, a gate and several bends through the rhododendron bushes to negotiate in its tarmac climb. In the wet it is even more tricky! We had two practice runs to find our way up the course followed by two timed runs in the afternoon to decide the results. For those of you who are not aware of how a Hill Climb works, each car is equipped with a strut attached to the front of the car that cuts an electronic beam of light at the start and finish thereby giving each driver his time. One is called up in turn to the timing light - a set of two lights - one red, one green, and when the green light shines, one goes as fast as possible to the end the climb.

Practice went without incident, although there were stories of a few moments from those who had not inspected or knew the course before. Several of us had competed in the past. John Skipper in his Amazon had competed at Wiscombe before in a Ginetta and a 500 Kiefl and had a picture taken at the time to prove it. Very evocative it was too. John, I might add had come out of motor sport retirement to compete, and it was also his 60th birthday on this very day. Tony Miles in his PV was also competing again after a long break and by the look of his face at the top of the Hill after practice was really enjoying himself.

The weather instead of improving got worse. There was the most tremendous rainstorm. At the height of this, John Pascoe did his two practice runs, and as he had not been to Wiscombe for a very long time, he said he found it difficult to see which way to go! The weather could only get better. After a lunch break of about an hour, the sun came out for the timed runs. The track dried considerably and everyone improved their times. At most Hill Climbs the cars are sent off in batches, and are assembled at the top of the Hill before driving back to the paddock at the start. At Wiscombe, when assembling at the top there is a splendid view of the top hairpin, where one can check on how one's fellow competitors are doing. I could see that Phillip Bacon in his Volvo 360GLT in his first event was trying hard. Raj Karkera in his Amazon was getting a lot of axle tramp out of the top hairpin. Bob Hart, again in an Amazon, was getting very sideways and was also going very quickly. Stuart Collins was a model of consistency, it must be all that practice at the tests on rallies. John Pascoe improved on each run and John Dando in his Amazon had a big, nearly straight on moment at the top hairpin that did not help his time. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. Regrettably there was a little difficulty with timing gear that delayed things a little and precluded us getting a third run in the afternoon.

At the end of the timed runs, after we had worked out the results, a photo shoot was taken of all the Volvo competitors present. John Skipper very generously gave some of his birthday cake to each competitor at the prize giving. Best performance on improvement went to John Pascoe (Amazon), second place to Phillip Bacon (360GLT) in his first event and third place to Bob Hart (Amazon) who also received a trophy for the fastest Volvo time. It was a great day and it has whetted our appetite for more. I know some of you could not make it this time but we are planning some more events. hopefully this year. So watch this space, as they say.