OUR April meeting was on the fascinating topic of the Prescott Speed Hill Climb.

The guest speaker was Ian Patton, of the Bugatti Owners Club, who own the Prescott course near Cheltenham.

Ian showed the well-attended meeting at the Woodgreen Evangelical Church, Warndon, an exciting promotional video about Prescott, telling how important hill-climbing, and Prescott in particular, has been to motorsport over the last century.

When motorsport on public roads was banned in the 1920s, the Bugatti Owners Club established its own course after purchasing the Prescott estate.

Some famous names in motor racing began there, including Sir Stirling Moss and John Cooper.

Ian Patton showed many slides of the course and of typical cars which feature there, including comparisons between a modern cockpit and a vintage Bugatti cockpit.

A stunning part of his presentation was a film, taken from the cockpit, of a modern single-seater tackling the ascent.

An item of great importance was also shown, the priceless silver cup, now in the ownership of the Bugatti Owners Club, won by the British driver Charles Grover- Williams, driving a Type 35 Bugatti, in the first-ever Monte Carlo Grand Prix in 1929.

Grover-Williams was the most successful Grand Prix driver before World War Two. Ian was joined by colleague Tricia Davis, who with her husband regularly competes at Prescott with their single-seat Reynard.

She spoke of how friendly, exciting, yet safe hill-climbing is.

Prescott holds six weekend events per year, and can provide drivers’ schools.

The next meeting is on Monday, October 15, at 8pm at the same venue, with a talk from a local company developing a hydrogen powered car, now in its prototype stage.

All with an interest in better driving are welcome.