NEWS
Celebrating Women of the VSCC - Q&A with Annie Peake
Wednesday 21 February 2018
In our next installment of Q&As with Wonder Women of the VSCC, we spoke to active Trials Competitor and Club Member Annie Peake.
How did you get involved with motorsport?
I have been bouncing for hill trials for a few years and loving it. Wilkie Collings told me often that I needed to get an entry level vintage car (Austin 7) before I was 40 (!) to take part myself, otherwise I’d be leaving it too late. I finally heeded his advice.
How long have you been competing with the VSCC and how did you get involved with the Club?
2 years. The only way to take part in hill trials seems to be via the VSCC and I was only too happy to oblige.
Motorsport is traditionally a male-orientated sport – what are your thoughts on this, and do you feel that it impacts your involvement in the Club?
It is an advantage being a female in a male dominated sport. I get a lot of useful advice, and because vintage car driving is full of courteous people, I will also get help when something goes wrong. It must be known that I understand little about my car mechanically!
What is your favourite VSCC event of the year?
Without a doubt it is either the Welsh Trial or the Herefordshire Trial.
Tell us about your competition car...
If you could call my Austin Chummy a competition car, it is 1928 Standard Tourer. Bright yellow. I’ve spent about 18 months getting her to go smoothly and one day I shall see the brow of more than 2 hills…
Tell us about some of your VSCC highlights...
The best thing about the VSCC is that it is full of interesting, can-do people, who own an extraordinary array of cars from the 2-a-penny model like mine, to multi million pound Bentleys and Bugattis. What attracts me is that I can join in at the bottom of the pecking order and have just as much fun, if not more, than anyone else.
What is your greatest achievement so far with the VSCC?
Not to come last in the 2016 Welsh Trial in a borrowed Austin Ulster! The 2017 Welsh was pretty good too – our daughter Minna joined me in my Chummy, her first Trial. Minna is another enthusiastic novice, who turns out to be an excellent map reader. I hope she will compete as a driver in her own right soon.
Which VSCC events are you looking forward to this year?
Herefordshire Trial and the Cotswold Trial.
I have been bouncing for hill trials for a few years and loving it. Wilkie Collings told me often that I needed to get an entry level vintage car (Austin 7) before I was 40 (!) to take part myself, otherwise I’d be leaving it too late. I finally heeded his advice.
How long have you been competing with the VSCC and how did you get involved with the Club?
2 years. The only way to take part in hill trials seems to be via the VSCC and I was only too happy to oblige.
Motorsport is traditionally a male-orientated sport – what are your thoughts on this, and do you feel that it impacts your involvement in the Club?
It is an advantage being a female in a male dominated sport. I get a lot of useful advice, and because vintage car driving is full of courteous people, I will also get help when something goes wrong. It must be known that I understand little about my car mechanically!
What is your favourite VSCC event of the year?
Without a doubt it is either the Welsh Trial or the Herefordshire Trial.
Tell us about your competition car...
If you could call my Austin Chummy a competition car, it is 1928 Standard Tourer. Bright yellow. I’ve spent about 18 months getting her to go smoothly and one day I shall see the brow of more than 2 hills…
Tell us about some of your VSCC highlights...
The best thing about the VSCC is that it is full of interesting, can-do people, who own an extraordinary array of cars from the 2-a-penny model like mine, to multi million pound Bentleys and Bugattis. What attracts me is that I can join in at the bottom of the pecking order and have just as much fun, if not more, than anyone else.
What is your greatest achievement so far with the VSCC?
Not to come last in the 2016 Welsh Trial in a borrowed Austin Ulster! The 2017 Welsh was pretty good too – our daughter Minna joined me in my Chummy, her first Trial. Minna is another enthusiastic novice, who turns out to be an excellent map reader. I hope she will compete as a driver in her own right soon.
Which VSCC events are you looking forward to this year?
Herefordshire Trial and the Cotswold Trial.
