Shelsley Walsh Sat Practice [pics]

OK so Sat of the RRG Keefy had arranged for discounted tickets to Shelsley Walsh for their practice day and I took the opportunity to experience this hill climb venue

The best 400 (ish) of my shots are in the album link below (I took 1500 pictures but slimmed the shots down to the best - the joys of digital)

s108.photobucket.com/albums/n19/Bstardchild/ShelsleyWalshAug2012/
Shelsley Walsh hill is a lot different to Prescott - way way faster with less tight corners (although it has a couple) and more fast kinks

Borrowed from the Shelsley Walsh web site



I'm not sure if the course statistics will be readable so here they are

Course length 1000 yrds
Min track width 12 feet
Rise in height 328 feet
Avg Gradient 1:9.14
Steepest gradient 1:6.24

Shelsley Walsh is the oldest motor sport venue in continuous use in the world. First used in 1905, it is older than Indianapolis, Le Mans or Monza. Brooklands has been and gone, but Shelsley Walsh is still here, as old as the sport but as modern as today.

The cars run up the hill in batches and the only route back down is back down the track so you get to see the cars going nice and slowly back down the hill

Web Site for anyone interested www.shelsley-walsh.co.uk/default.asp

Course record IIRC is 22.58

Track was damp and greasy in the morning but as the day progressed and the rain stopped spotting times and speeds tumbled

Across the day I walked the entire course and took snaps from pretty much every location so first lets look at the course

Pits, pre start and start

Heavy duty cling film to keep front tyres clean of stones



Rears don't need it (as they get warmed/spun up in the pre start box - and you can get this close the noise, the smell in fact everything



So the start line



Then the cars are pretty much flat out thro the gears until the speed trap before the esses



And talking of speeds.........

This was one of the fastest cars up the hill on the day (pictured coming back down the hill cos I didn’t get a good picture on the way up)



Running the speed trap at



And setting a total time for the hill of



So approaching the esses



Bit modern for here maybe but something very interesting about a puma that gets it's bottom out on the approach to corners



TR7/8 on the first half of the esses



And mid way thro - I think



Managed to get a couple of shots of it in the pits

mmmm for when a V8 isn't enough just add turbos



Spartan interior



View from just half way up the hill (great view)



Exiting the esses



Hard job to get the cars full frame I have loads of car ends but very few full frame shots - they really hammer out of here on full chat and onto the final (main straight) and the finish



I did go to the main straight to see if there was some panning practice opportunities (and I really do need the practice)









What I really liked was there was so many areas that you could both watch and take photos with very little to obstruct your view

It's not as smooth as it looks (that or this car needed some height dialed in)







This mini (coming back down the hill)



Mitsi Evo 4 x 4 underpinnings anyone?





And just a small dump to cover the variety










































So a huge variety of cars and I'll finish with a shot I loved



Results from practice day and the sunday proper racing

www.resultsman.co.uk/LiveTiming/EventViewer.php?DB=Resultsman&Download=557