Fresh push for Sisyphus
There is still room for Guild members thinking of taking part in this year’s successor to the traditional Guild Classic, the ‘Sisyphus Challenge’, to sign up for a day of fun, non-competitive hillclimbing at the famous old Shelsley Walsh venue in Worcestershire (writes John Griffiths).
The dates are Friday 8th to the morning of Monday 11th May and the event includes a day’s spectacular driving tour of the Malvern Hills and North Wales.
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 – 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 and you can go as fast or slow as you like. You will not be officially timed, nor are there prizes for fastest Time of the Day or similar.
It is an event in which the Guild is partnering with insurance group Hagerty, whose ‘fun hillclimb weekend’ has already become highly popular over the past several years – Guild members will be sharing their enjoyment alongside some truly spectacular GTs, single-seaters and other exotica.
For the first time, the event is seeking to cater for two categories of entrant; traditional, long-standing participants in the Guild’s Euro Classics of old, and a less expensive alternative for younger or otherwise perhaps more financially-challenged members.
The Classic, previously the Guild’s main motoring event of the year, came to an end because of its relentlessly rising costs – on later events they reached well over £1,000. So the first, important, low-cost category is based on a three-night or two-night stay at a Premier Inn nearby to Shelsley Walsh, at a cost of £215 to £250 for a crew of two for 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 cost of £125, or to spectate at £15 per head.
If you opt for the low-cost category, 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 will return to their respective hotels for an informal evening’s dining/socialising. Then on Sunday morning, all will drive to Shelsley Walsh to enjoy the day’s activities, followed by a joint farewell function on Sunday evening. Please note that apart from the Premier Inn and hillclimb entry, all spending, including all meals, will be discretionary in this category.
The second category will be limited to a maximum of 15 crews, with a start in the early afternoon of Friday at The Farmer’s Dog, the pub opened by Jeremy Clarkson and featured in his Clarkson’s Farm TV series. Providing he’s not dragged away for filming more “sheeps”, 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. As with the low-cost category on Saturday morning there will be an all-crews departure for the driving day from Brockencote Hall before all convene at Shelsley Walsh on Sunday. For this category, the hotel fee for three nights, including breakfasts, will be around £500 per crew.
Please email your application for an entry form to John Griffiths.
