Your Licence
Will Hillyard rips around Donington in his dad’ s Caterham Seven
“ I competed in Sprints and Hill Climbs back in the late 1980s to early 1990s, then I got into single venue tarmac Rallying,” recalls Derek.“ I had a National A Speed and National A Rally licence, but I stopped Rallying when I had to sell the car to buy William a new kart chassis!
“ That was around 2003 and 2004, and I’ ve done no motorsport for myself since then. I definitely missed being in that motorsport environment – although I didn’ t miss the money I was having to spend!”
Derek bought a Caterham five years ago, but instead of returning to racing, he has been touring with friends and the Caterham and Lotus Seven Owners car club. It was through this membership that he found his route back to racing, recently attending the Club’ s‘ Introduction to Sprinting’ day.
“ I never took the Caterham on track days, but I recently did Mallory Park with the club and had a blast.” He continues.“ at the intro day, I just thought‘ we can do this for relatively
“ I LEARNED A BIT MYSELF, SO IT WAS VERY INTERESTING. IT WAS GREAT TO HAVE THAT‘ DAD AND LAD’ TIME AGAIN. COMPETING TOGETHER IS GOING TO BE A LOT OF FUN”
small money, and I can bring Will along and we can have a bit of fun.’ That was the trigger.”
Earlier this month, the pair went to a track day at Donington to see how they would get on. The day began with some sighting laps behind the pace car – so, for the first time ever, it gave Derek the chance to sit alongside his son on the racetrack.
“ It was just amazing being in the car with him,” enthuses Derek.“ I let him drive and as soon as the pace car pulled in, he was on it. He’ s won races at Donington before, so he knows exactly where to put the car, and he was using every bit of the track.
“ I learned a bit myself, so it was very, very interesting! It was great to have that‘ dad and lad’ time again – but this time, rather than me watching at the fence, I got to see him at the wheel. Competing together is going to be a lot of fun.”
The pair are starting with two of the Caterham Club rounds at their local track, Curborough, but Derek adds:“ After that, we’ ll see – maybe we’ ll end up loving it so much we’ ll start going all over the country together again.”
For Will, it will be a first go at sprinting, but he concludes:“ It’ s difficult to get away from circuit racing, because that’ s what I’ ve grown up doing, but if I have my licence anyway, why not try something different and see how it goes?”
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Revolution Magazine 17