Race report 2006: Silkeborg Hillclimb

Finally the Spitfire was in battle again, and this time with a decent result. Saturday 26th August saw Gjern as the venue for the 4th race in the hillclimb championship. just wednesday the Spitfire emerged from a quite thorough technical upgrade, and the hillclimb was primarily meant as a test to see if everything would work. And I changed wheels Thursday and afterwards drove the car home, I found out that engagement of overdrive burned out the fuse - the same fuse that would power the fuel pump. Normally I don't use the overdrive during racing, but it was nonetheless not ideal.

Perfect collection area at the Jysk Automobilmuseum - the turn out of cars was large and varied, as it has been all year in the hillclimb championship

Towards Gjern that early morning the car went fine, but in the first timed training the engine had a problem: Halfways in the 1700 meter course the engine started missing again, just as at Padborg Park. First time was a 1.12, and I cursed myself that I had not looked the electrics over more thoroughly. But worse would come, as the engine simply died on me on the return route to the starting point. And there I was, in the middle of the silent forest! Luckily a fellow club Triumph-member stopped his TR5 to give me a ride back, as well as advice towards the possible reasons. Back at the car I scratched my head - and deciced to try the old Bosch coil instead of the nearly new Lucas Sport. And hey presto! The engine started as if nothing was ever wrong. Quite strange, but although it didn't show when driving on the street the Lucas coil apparantly couldn't deliver enough power for continous revving to 7000 rpm. Now I was quite suspicious of the stability of the car, but made a belated run for the second training session, and although cautious posted a 1:08. Hm, mayby I really show go for it?

We might be talking of Lucas versus Bosch-coils...

As I was lined up for start I decided that I was here for a real test, and that if the Spitfire couldn't stand this, it wouldn't stand a circuit race either - so I went for it. I had a poor start, as the engine still couldn't hold the wheelspin. I now used all 7000 rpm again, but I couldn't remember the route properly, so took the cautious approach - but was happy with the 1:03,1. The engine ran well, and I only detected a slight amount of pinking and retarded the ignition slightly at the next stop.

I don't think I've ever lost contact with the tarmac in the Spitfire before - but just that happened at a hilltop after the first corner

In the second run I used more revs in the start, but still couldn't hold it spinning. I slowed too much for the jump, but was faster towards the chikane, and more importantly faster out of it. The timing showed 1:01,7, and I felt that there was more to come. Third run was the best, as a brutal clutch treatment held the start, and I was so much quicker out of the woods, that I went for fourth gear towards the chikane. I braked too late, but still passed it OK, and then used 7500 in second gear going uphill in order to cover the wider gap beween second and third. The time was 0:59,9, which really pleased me.

So: Although the car was fast enough there are still electrical gremlins - so back to the garage!