Arrived in the wet and it just continued to get worse. No cones, no tents and no grip! Oh well......it got better. It got much better.
I got lost on the way there but arrived after 8am and made my way around to a massive area, fenced off and flanked by a hangar, lots of heavy steel rollers and a large grass expanse. The loos were close and the burger van was within 100 yards
Oh yeah........A few phones to organisers and still no cones. Nik had a great idea of getting some tyres from the back of the compound and making the circuit up from those. Between Nik, Dan, Russ and myself we had a rough track laid out by about 11am. With a few tweaks thanks to our test pilot Trev, we adjusted the layout a bit and then got started. No sooner had we laid the last tyre and then the cones turned up. Awesome
Practice runs started after a laughable ducks and drakes run which saw a multi-car traffic jam.......Pete with the stunning Camaro couldn't get enough lock to make the corkscrew bit at the top so he needed to do a three point turn!! Oops. It was still raining at this point and the first few runs were very sideways. Dan and Jon were especially cavalier and then Christian rocked up and started drifting most of the track
As the day wore on, the jobs of timekeeping and marshalling changed hands a few times. I would like to thank Nik especially who was excellent and dependable as always. Thanks also to Ben who felt like shit and still turned up to help, Dan who stood in as time keeper and Lolek (Lloyd) who helped out too. Ian waded in later on as they swapped drives on the hardest used VR6 I know of
The times tumbled as the lads got their eye in. A bit of competition helped and we have plenty of people chasing one another. Jason Sharpe from Silverstone was wragging around a 50k Cosworth Impreza and set a cracking time of 39 something. Jon and Russ were neck and neck all of the way through the day just a shade slower, with Eddy following close behind. Christian managed a high 39 in his Monster R32, both beautiful and brutal (the car
) and he lead up until the lunch break. One of the other demo cars, an Impreza 320R, was doing passenger laps and eventually managed a 39.55!!! An immense time considering he was sideways for most of the lap We had crowds of around 60 people watching and when you had cars as diverse as Berg Cup MK1's, a Supra, a 'proper' R32, a 69 Camaro and a tuned Metro, it was no wonder that they loved the action.
Things were getting ultra competitive hundredths of a second splitting the likes of Russ and Jon, and tenths of a second between the two Impreza demo drivers..........and then up steps Christian with his 32, cheeky grin plastered on his face and an intention of having a laugh. None of us that watched that run thought it was especially fast. It looked quick, don't get me wrong, but in no way that fast. When the stopwatch stopped at 38.77, nearly 0.75 faster than anyone else I knew it was pretty much game over for the record. He still managed opposite lock and he still produced two bloody great thumps with flames out of the back
Christian was presented with his prize of Subaru merchandise, very much deserved for crisp driving with no small amount of flair.
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It was a memorable day for the club. Lots of friends there, all having fun, no bitching and no nonsense. A very cheap day out for all with a good cause getting the benefits. The organisers were delighted with the money raised and we get to do it all again tomorrow.
For those that are going back tomorrow, or even there for the first time, make sure you walk around the rally pit area. Stunning
So many really nice cars (think working man's Berg Cup) No photos from me but there will be a tonne of footage and pictures.
Thanks to all of you that came along
Ok when you dropped into the 39`s you had me. But upto that point fook was n`t it close?:D I have to be honest and expected a tighter finnish with Eddy, But i think with the longer straights i had an advantage?
