Chris Rogers had just returned from a two-week skiing holiday in Canada when he spoke to The Local Answer.

That’s pretty much downhill all the way, of course, but since returning to his day job it’s been very much uphill all the way, although not in a bad sense.

You see, Rogers is general manager and club secretary of Prescott Speed Hill Climb, the home of the well-established Bugatti Owners’ Club, and this year is even more special than normal because the club are celebrating their 90th anniversary.

Not that the Bugatti Owners’ Club have always been based at Prescott, which can be found just a short three-and-a-half mile drive west of Winchcombe, as Rogers explains.

“The club were formed in 1929 but they didn’t have a home at that time,” he said. “They used to hold several meetings all-over South-East England and one of their more regular venues was at Chalfont St Peter in Buckinghamshire.

“In those days their members were mainly London and South East based.”

That all changed just before the outbreak of World War Two and, as so often happens, it was a case of right place, right time.

“Around 1937/38 the club decided they wanted a permanent home,” continued Rogers. “The Gloucester Dairy was selling Prescott estate and it was bought by Colonel Godfrey Giles and his brother Eric on behalf of the club in 1938.”

These days the club has some 2,200 members and is run as a limited company so it has come a long, long way since those pre-war days.

The first ever recorded hill climb at Prescott was in 1938 and it was won by Arthur Baron in a Bugatti in 50.07 seconds.

And if that seems slow in comparison with today’s speedsters, it’s even slower when you consider he was competing on the short course, not the long course that is used now.

“It wasn’t until 1960 that the Ettore’s bend was added in and the track increased from 880 yards to 1,227 yards,” Rogers explained.

“Today the fastest single-seaters are recording times of 35-point-something – the fastest is by Jos Goodyear who clocked 35.51 in a GWR Raptor Extreme.”

For the record, the quickest time over the short course is 33.21 seconds set by Dave Harris in a Pilbeam MP50 during the 1994 season, an equally impressive stat although the short course is rarely used these days.

Times are the lifeblood of all competitive motorsport, of course, but Rogers is keen to stress that hill climb provides so much more than that.

“Spectators can get closer to the cars than in any other motorsport,” he said. “Every ticket provides them with access all areas, they can touch the cars.

“They can go into the paddocks, talk to the drivers. Young lads can sit in the racing cars, it’s a friendly, no pretensions, day out.

“You can still walk up to the British champion; we’re very grassroots, down to earth.

“There’s an old-fashioned feel about it, it’s not corporate.”

And while that is obviously one of the sport’s big attractions there’s a competitive side too.

“The very top cars are Formula 1 standard cars,” continued Rogers, “and they are probably quicker off the mark. The technology is state of the art.

“We’ll kick off this year with the British Championships at the end of April when we’ll have the cream of hill climb completing.

“We’ve also got the Midland Championship in June as well as a good number of themed events.”

Two of the highlights of the coming season for Rogers are the La Vie En Bleu/La Vita Rossa and 90th Anniversary Celebration meeting on the weekend of 25th and 26th May and the Anglo American Autumn Classic on the weekend of 5th and 6th October.

Both will be special occasions of course and while there will be many Bugattis on show throughout the season – “We’ll have more Bugattis than you can shake a stick at,” laughed Rogers – there will be a special one on display, one that was driven by the great Jean-Pierre Wimille back in the late 1930s.

Students of motorsport will know that Wimille was also a famous GP and Le Mans driver, but it is for his exploits in hill climb that he will be lauded at Prescott in 2019.

“The car is a 4.7-litre Bugatti, it was part of the works team,” said Rogers. “We managed to secure it for the summer, that’s a big thing for the Bugatti Trust.”

Rogers has been in his current position for about 12 months although he has been a member of the Bugatti Owners’ Club for some 20 years.

He is one of two full-time staff and there are half-a-dozen part-time staff, one of whom is his wife Fiona, and a whole host of volunteers.

Fiona, like her husband, has done a bit of speed hill climbing over the years, and it is something she is very good at.

“She’s a three-times Isle of Man ladies’ champion, she’s absolutely bonkers,” he laughed, “she’s quicker than me by far.”

And when she’s on the ski slopes she snowboards – and for those unsure that’s not for the faint-hearted! – with Rogers adding, still laughing: “She’s a fast driver so she likes to do something extreme!”

Rogers prefers to stick to two skis – it’s not a competition after all! – and he says there is also no competition between Prescott and Shelsley Walsh Hill Climb, which can be found just over the county border in Worcestershire.

“We work very well together,” said Rogers. “We’re the top two. They say they’re the oldest, we say we’re the best. We have the most technical track.

“We have more hairpins, more bends – you have to be very accurate to drive our track quickly.”

Indeed you do and you don’t have to own a Bugatti to be part of the fun.

“We’re a club that open our doors to anyone,” added Rogers.