MotoGP correspondent Toby Moody normally reports on the record-breaking antics of the likes of Valentino Rossi, but he was celebrating a milestone of his own on Saturday night after setting a new class record at the Shelsley Walsh hillclimb.
Moody took his Force chassis to a time of 29.31sec, beating the previous up to 600cc single seater class record by 0.08sec.
Hillclimbing rarely gets a mention on autosport.com's pages, but at the start of the season Moody made a tongue in cheek request for a story if he succeeded in his quest to set a new record at Shelsley, the oldest motorsport venue in the world still using its original course. Autosport.com was naturally happy to honor that bet when Toby achieved his goal.
"After getting so close last September, it is great to get this record that has been bugging me all winter!" Moody said. "Shelsley is a special place for me as I did my first commentary there and it holds so much history. Hans Stuck, Auto Union, Stirling Moss, Peter Collins and Andy Priaulx have all been there -- and the fact is that this is as close to their achievements as I'll ever get!
"But taking a page out of the book of racing driver's book of excuses, there is still more to come as I didn't have a gearshift light nor flat shift on that run..."
Moody is now aiming to break the 28sec barrier in the Force. The car's builder Bill Chaplin has now built record-holding cars for the 600cc, 1100cc, 1600cc and sportscar divisions.