COLIN LE MAITRE’s debut outing in the Gould GR37 Judd produced almost instant dividends. Le Maitre, who bought the massively-powerful 4,000cc car from twice British Hillclimb championship runner-up Tim Mason at the tail-end of 2003, clocked up a terminal speed of 144mph as he clocked the fastest time of the day at the opening meeting of the season.

And it will go more quickly, he promises.

‘I was cruising,’ said Le Maitre, who has repainted the car pearl-red ahead of a season in which he plans to compete at least three times on the national circuit.

‘It can go quicker. It’s capable of 150 plus.

‘There’s probably another half-second there and that would give me the outright [sprint] record.’

Conditions were hardly conducive to fast times, but Le Maitre was happy to concentrate on simply getting accustomed to racing the new machine.

‘It’s quite an art just to get it off the line,’ added a man who after clocking 10.80 on his first timed run, added a 10.40 before his FTD 9.85.

He then produced a 9.92 before calling it a day with two rounds remaining.

A steadily stiffening headwind combined with drizzle eventually convinced the clerk of the course to end the meeting after five runs.

But not before new records had been set by John Dunne, Louis Norman and Neil Robert.

Dunne was delighted and somewhat surprised with his 12.16 and new record for saloons 1801cc and over, given the conditions.

‘The day was complete rubbish.

‘Headwinds always seem to hamper the saloons most, so to do it on Saturday I am really pleased.’

Dunne had gone within two-hundredths of Rick Blatchford’s class record on his third run.

He was fractionally slower in the next round before smashing the mark by 15 hundredths in the fifth round.

‘I’ve done a fair amount of work on the car, particularly suspension-wise,’ said the new record-holder.

He revealed he would be again racing the red Anglia as opposed to his Ford Escort at next week’s opening hillclimb.

But it will then be back in the Escort for the rest of the hillclimb season during which he has one specific target: ‘I’d love to be the first middle-sized saloon to get into the 33s.’

Norman’s class record came in the 601-750cc bikes class in which he took six-hundredths off his own previous mark with 10.62 on his fourth official run.

In contrast, Neil Robert hardly had to give it everything to claim his record.

It was the first time a motor scooters class had been contested and he was the only competitor.

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