The Belchford Downhill Challenge 2011
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Gravity racing, soapbox derby, cart racing – many names, but only one Belchford Downhill Challenge. The annual Challenge was held for the tenth time on 11 September 2011, and I really enjoyed it.
Getting on for 40 teams of enthusiasts / nutters from all over the country descended on Belchford – quite literally – to fight for the various honours up for grabs. A typically British approach to competition – “inspired by last year’s failure to kill ourselves, we have tried to make the cart a bit quicker this year” was the comment from the ‘In Last Place’ team – masks the huge amount of invention and effort involved in creating the carts.
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They look great, with a wide range of approaches to falling fast. Some are sleek and polished, some wear their structure on their sleeve and some are not carts at all – there were several recumbent bikes and one wheeled luge, too.
But wait – how can a downhill challenge be held in Lincolnshire at all? The only thing that most people know about Lincolnshire is that it’s notoriously flat. Of course, they’re wrong. I blame Noel Coward – ‘very flat, Norfolk’ seems to have ended up attached to anywhere above London and to the right, including Lincolnshire. Not so.
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Lincolnshire actually possesses some of the finest countryside in the UK. While the Fens are indeed flat and low, with their own magnificent big skies, it’s the Wolds that we’re concerned with here – lovely hills on a manageable scale, with pretty villages, fields and stunning views.
Belchford is toward the south of the Wolds, about halfway between Louth and Horncastle. The Lincolnshire speed action usually happens at Cadwell Park race track, just a few miles from Belchford, but once a year the focus switches to this little village. Furlongs Lane drops you from Castcliffe Hill into Belchford, with a maximum gradient of around 1 in 7 or just over 14%. Starting from a nice flat plateau on top of the world, the road twists around a bend and down onto the straight and narrow.
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It’s a public road, closed for the event, and is one of four OS-arrowed hills around here – the others are Nab Hill, Tetford Hill and Belchford Hill, all having gradients of between 14% and 20%. (Belchford Hill is the ‘other’ hill, climbing from the village onto the Bluestone Heath Road.) So don’t tell me it’s flat – and don’t tell the cart drivers, either!
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The racing is well organised. A couple of vans from the sponsors (Piper’s Crisps) haul convoys of carts to the top of the hill, where the impromptu village of team crews and cars sits on the hilltop. The support teams cosset the carts with spanners and screwdrivers, until finally they’re ready and are pushed one at a time to the start line. As soon as lights and a siren signal the start, the pushers shove for all they’re worth and the cart trundles downhill, rapidly gathering speed.
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And don’t imagine there’s no skill involved in the driving. The carts have to weave through straw-bale chicanes, demanding a balance between handling and speed. This is where the designs really get tested – clip a marker and time penalties are added on. Most carts take around a minute to do the 650m course, dropping over 50m as they do so.
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The fastest stretch is just before the long home straight starts. At least one cart came to grief here, when wheel-wobble set in and grew and grew until the cart was thrown to the side. Serious stuff. They reach 40mph and more at this point – and there are no airbags to cushion a crash.
Aside from the racing, there are vans selling good food, and some stalls selling jewellery, pot plants and the Lincolnshire Wolds. I had a great time – even if I don’t know who won. Truth is, I had to leave before the end, so I could get to Bob Sleigh’s eccentric collection of machines, engines and tools on Coningsby Moorside, part of the Heritage Open Days.
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But then I don’t think winning is the main thing, here. It’s just great that it happens. So hats off to the organisers – Dick Black, Jill Newby and Peter Thompson. Meetings, forms, and a load of work, all culminating in one brilliant day.
And I bet the après cart was pretty good, too.
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