Vicki Burdon

I attended my first speed event at the tender age of 3 weeks, after my first sniffs of Castrol R and exhaust fumes I was hooked!!

As the daughter and niece of former winners of BWRDC Speed Trophy (twice), Hillclimb Trophy, Sprint Trophy, not to mention multiple ladies records, championships and awards it came as no suprise to anyone that I developed a love of speed and an urge to compete.

When I was 18 a 'Lady Drivers' fund raising event was organised in aid of Marie Curie and I was in a team with Cathy Warner, Margaret Blankstone, Helen Fletcher and Vanessa Lee. It was a brilliant event in which we got to drive such vehicles as a fire engine, a bin lorry, 40ton army drops vehicle, sugar tanker, and more! There was also a skid pan set up and the day was concluded by competing in an autotest. To add to our delight at winning the autotest we also raised over £2000 in sponsorship which was equal to 20% of the total amount raised by the event!

I met my husband in 2003 and although he already had an interest in Motorsport he had never heard of hillclimbing and sprinting, when I took him to his first hillclimb meeting he was instantly smitten with the fact that you can get so close to the cars in the paddock, the variety of machines that enter and the friendly atmosphere. We bought our 1975 rubber bumper MGB GT from a friend of my step-dad and began work restoring and modifying her to compete in the modified production car class. We took our inspiration from MABEL the famous Sebring MGC competition car - even down to the decals!

We were aiming to complete her in time for the Shelsley Walsh centenary meeting in August 2005 but sadly we were unable to so we drove Nicks' MR2 Turbo at that event. The first outing in the B was an MAC classic road rally towards the end of 2005. We did some testing at Ty Croes circuit on Anglesey in April 2006 (as the odd one out at a Lotus track day). The first hillclimb was Loton in May 2006, we both brought our times down throughout the day and although I spun off on my final run I pipped Nick by just under a second - he put this down to my racing lineage!!

Nick proposed to me in August that year so the car was retired to the garage while we planned (and saved for!) the wedding. He bought me an Evo Rally experience as a wedding gift and this reminded me how much I enjoyed speed and how much I want an Evo! We are planning on completing our first full season in 2008, starting at the end of March.