Fancy tackling a hillclimb?
Who fancies taking the Sisyphus Challenge? The Guild’s 2026 driving tour is going uphill all the way (writes John Griffiths).
The dates are Friday 8th May to the morning of Monday 11th May. Yes, that is unusually early for the Guild’s traditional touring event but there is a reason for it. We’re going hillclimbing – at Shelsley Walsh, said to be the oldest unchanged motorsport venue in the world (Don’t press the panic button yet, for the weekend has much more in store…)
If you don’t have a competition licence, a valid driving licence will do just fine – Motorsport UK will not demand that you don a race suit and all the other fireproof clobber as if you’ve got a starring role in the Backdraft movie remake. Yes, you’ll need a helmet and your arms must be covered and no shorts worn, but there the regulatory stuff ends.
You can enter any car you like. You can take a helmeted passenger. You can go as fast as you like or, if you really must, take it easy all the way to the top. You will not be officially timed, nor are there prizes for FTD (fastest time of the day) or similar.
For this is a fun hillclimb weekend – to be precise, it is the hugely popular Hagerty Hillclimb and this year the Guild will be partnering with the multinational insurance group in sharing the enjoyment alongside some truly spectacular GTs, single-seaters and other exotica.
On the three-day event and prior to Guild members’ Sunday on-track action, there will be a start option on the Friday for some of Jeremy Clarkson’s former colleagues at his pub, The Farmer’s Dog, followed by a full Saturday for hopefully up to 30 crews on scenic and challenging drives through the Malvern Hills around Shelsley Walsh and the approaches towards Snowdonia, with stop-off visits to be announced.
For the first time, the event is seeking to cater to two categories of entrants: Remember that the once-traditional annual ‘Euro Classic’ driving tour, the Guild’s main motoring event of the year, came to an end because of its relentlessly rising costs – on the later events the climbed well over £1,000. It had become unaffordable to far too many Guild members, not least our younger members – who are, let’s face it, both the Guild’s and Hagerty’s futures.
The first, important, lower-cost category is aimed at the younger or otherwise more financially-challenged. It is based on a two or three-night stay at a Premier Inn nearby to Shelsley Walsh, at a cost of £215-£250 for a crew of two over three nights, or around £150 for a two-night option.
It is up to individual crews whether they wish to apply for a driving entry to the hillclimb at a standard cost of £125 (although entry fees are under discussion with Hagerty), or to spectate or passenger with other Guild members at £15 per head.
If you opt for this category, your Friday will comprise a scenic drive to your Shelsley Walsh hotel, meeting up with friends and colleagues for an informal evening. On Saturday morning, you will have a short drive to a second hotel to meet up with the second-category contingent for a joint departure on the full day’s scenic driving. At end-of-play, each contingent returns to their respective hotels for an informal evening’s dining/socialising.
Those taking the two-night option can either forego Friday evening and drive straight to Saturday’s driving day departure or drive home after the hillclimb ends on Sunday afternoon.
Please note that apart from Premier Inn stay and hillclimb entry, in this category all spending, including all meals, will be discretionary.
The second category is aimed at widening members’ shared experience by appealing to traditional ‘Classic’ loyalists and those who wish to enjoy a more formal (not to say more expensive) three-days of Sisyphus, hopefully without too much pushing (classics or otherwise) on the hill or elsewhere.
This category will be limited to a maximum of 15 crews, 10 of which have already signed up, with a start in early afternoon at The Farmer’s Dog. Providing he’s not dragged away to film more sheep, Jeremy hopes to be around to catch up with old lags, er, former colleagues. Then it will be on to the Brockencote Hall country hotel, 11 miles from Shelsley Walsh, for an informal evening.
On Saturday morning there will be an all-crews departure for the driving day from Brockencote Hall. On Sunday, all convene at Shelsley Walsh, requiring those driving the hill in time for mandatory drivers’ briefing (details to follow later). We are currently exploring whether a joint farewell evening might be held at Brockencote Hall.
For this category, the hotel fee for three nights including breakfasts will be around £500 per crew. It’s an elegant country hotel in 70 acres and worth a Google. An alternative option to include dinner on all three nights at around £40 a head per night is in the offing.
During Sunday expect at least three, and up to five, hillclimb starts, leaving plenty of time to explore Shelsley’s lovely old buildings, a great bar (0.0% Peroni on ice cold draught plus huge choice of all the sinful) and a great cafe/restaurant.
During the day – time and location to be confirmed – a couple of informal briefings will be held. One will be from Hagerty, to give a teach-in on the motivations behind its multi-faceted foray into the world of motoring enthusiasts via its drivers club – the Bicester centre, the events programme and not least the magazine – which should be of interest to Guild journalists.
The other will be a welcome from a principal of Shelsley Walsh, which has been around, as Autosport’s Marcus Pye once put it, “since Big Ben was a wristwatch” – it’s spent a century blending into the woodwork. What an opportunity to shed light on the challenges being faced by motor sport, Shelsley itself and the nature of, and drivers behind, its relationships with the wider world.
So that’s the Sisyphus Challenge in a biggish nutshell. This has been a difficult event to organise and taken rather than longer than planned, but should be hugely enjoyable for all. Please email your request for an entry now to John Griffiths. If you have further questions I can be reached on 07767 301223. Don’t hang about – there will be a combined entry of 30 crews, 15 in each category.
- For those Guild members who don’t know their Greek mythology, Sisyphus was a god condemned to forever push a boulder up a hill, only to see it roll down again…
