Simon Arron

The time of day is immaterial — Brixton never sleeps. Early starts acclimatise you to weaving around its nightclub strays and this morning’s foremost exhibit is a young woman teetering on high heels between two lanes of slow-moving traffic. In one hand she has a cigarette, in the other a full pint. It is not yet 6am.

Little more than two hours away, via London’s West End and thence the A40/ M40/A40, the scene is a touch more pastoral — although here, too, folk are cradling drinks (typically either Thermos coffee or polystyrene tea, both of which provide partial defence against the chill). Cockerels and lowing cattle can be heard in the distance, pheasants and nuthatches closer by: the most conspicuous sounds, though, are those of dewy tarpaulins being peeled from cars and a gentle priming of engines.

Prescott has an old-school paddock, an engaging blend of uneven, grassy mounds, slightly haphazard parking, polite neighbourly chat (often between earnest rivals) and a bloke walking his golden retriever. Nobody appears to have alerted the Bugatti Owners’ Club to the 21st century’s dawn, and it’s probably best that such secrets remain undisclosed.

This is practice day for the opening round of the British 8c Midland Speed Hillclimb Championships, although there are competitive runs in some classes (on two, three and four wheels). The entry ranges from hard-edged, purposeful and lightweight single-seaters by such as OMS, Force and Gould, whose clients will pursue the weekend’s fiercest ascent of the 1127-yard hill, to a turbocharged, four-wheel-drive Mini, various antiques and a 43-year-old Hillman Avenger that looks remarkably pristine, given its Rootes roots. Pleasingly, there is also a competing Lotus Cortina Mk2 — fairly scarce compared with so many racing Mk1s, of which there seem to be more now than ever there were in period.

Proceedings are interrupted early on, with a lengthy delay to allow a Lotus Elise to be retrieved after its driver slithers beyond the lip of Semi-Circle, the long, final right-hander that overlooks much of Gloucestershire. But for the most part the event proceeds at a cracking pace, despite occasional showers. An intermittently damp surface is clearly a potential setback when you’re running singly against the clock, but you don’t hear many complaints. It’s the luck of the draw and the elements brook no argument.

Possession of a media tabard provides privileged access at a few points on the course, but generally Prescott permits parallel proximity for all. There are fabulous views almost anywhere you stand and every so often there’s a passing flurry of steam from the valley below, a suitably period complement courtesy of the nearby Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway.

The course is barely any wider than some competing cars and there is little margin for error (save at the aforementioned Semi-Circle, where you might not hit anything until you reach the foot of the steep, adjacent meadow), but kerbs are clipped, barriers skimmed and commitment is frequently absolute. It’s sometimes said you need only two cars to create a racetrack spectacle, but in this context one is plenty.

Decent crowds bear testimony to hillclimbing’s raw appeal — and I hope to attend events at several other venues this season, including Loton Park and Harewood — but it’s a branch of the sport that continues to be overlooked by many. This was the first of Prescott’s six 2013 meetings and others follow on June 1-2, June 29-30, August 3-4, August 31-September 1 and October 5-6. Even allowing for wobbly pedestrians, it’s within easy reach of both Birmingham and London, a detail that removes any excuse for a significant chunk of the population.

Worth noting, too, that the paddock clubhouse serves cracking cheese and onion pasties.

Custom cannot stale such infinite variety
Brands Hatch, April 28 (750MC) & May 5 (MGCC): a twin showcase for club racing’s essence