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Despite the above there was one major concern. The original figure for the lease included the grade one listed Court House, and the cost of repaying the liability on that would have been “horrendous”. However, an individual MAC member has since expressed an interest in buying it.
Having acquired the new lease, the club is now under an obligation to make the buildings weatherproof. New toilets, probably in the farmhouse, are needed to replace the paddock's ageing ablutions. The paddock restaurant, which is also not long for this life, may also be relocated to the farmhouse. Wood points to the work that the Pendragon Group has already carried out to restore the cottage that it owns next to the start line. This can now be used for corporate entertainment yet it takes nothing away from the period charm of the area at the bottom of the hill. “We must not destroy the essential character,” he warns.
Harnessing the historic car movement is not confined to the hillclimb; the MAC also regards classic car runs as an important part of its activities. It is certainly finding that there is an increasing demand for this. As Wood says, the club has asked the perhaps obvious, but not always posed question, “what do our customers want?” It needs to keep attracting members but realises that only a fraction of these will be able to compete on the hills or in the sprints that it organises not only at Shelsley but at other venues such as Curborough, Llandow and MIRA where Wood is managing director. “Why do people join?” is one of the questions that the club has posed to itself.
The 100th anniversary event combined a celebratory Sunday featuring cars from the hill's history with a Nicholson McLaren MSA British Hill Climb Championship event on the Saturday. The 100th anniversary actually fell on the Friday a week before the event. To mark this, members were invited to climb the hill, untimed, in whatever car they would care to bring. Some attacked the hill with gusto; others simply enjoyed driving up the famous track. It proved “tremendously popular” and featured a wide variety of cars from Volvo Estates to an original Lotus Elite. There were, Wood recalls, some “very nice classic cars” that are not normally seen. The MAC, he believes, “unlocked a little gem” with this event. “For sure we will do it again.”
The club also now runs a successful sprint school at Curborough and is looking to launch a new hillclimb on the Welsh border.
The MAC is very conscious of the impact that the hillclimb can have on the Teme Valley. The “unflappable” Roger Thomas is, says Wood a very successful club secretary, one who follows an illustrious line of MAC servants. Wood describes him as a “master of continuous improvement.” He also spends much time liasing with the local inhabitants. “It is important to maintain that,” observes Wood. It is his belief that the hillclimb can bring value to the area, an example being the network of bed and breakfasts that benefit every time there is an event.
It is not so much in saving Shelsley Walsh but more in understanding the nature and potential of its opportunities and the needs of its members that the MAC has shown how a regional motoring club can operate and thrive in the increasingly legislated world of 21st century motorsport. “We believe that we understand the key driving factors for our future,” says Wood, “but we have got to keep our arms around this USP, Shelsley Walsh.”
It seems perhaps perverse to say, but a club that delights in inviting a Panhard et Levassor Grand Prix car or whole classes of mid-1930s ERAs to its meetings is not living in the past - anything but. If motorsport is to exist as anything but an afternoon's television entertainment from an increasingly remote venue such as Turkey or China, then other clubs must follow the MAC's lead.
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