Who said that a Westfield is not a family car?  Both of my sons were dead keen to join me at Castle Combe so we pushed the passenger seat all the way back and arranged the harnesses to cover them both.  The crash helmet and rucksack were strapped to the roll over bar ready for a 30 minute drive from Bath to the circuit.

On arrival at Combe at 8:45 we went straight to the WSCC area stand.  There was only one other Westfield there at the time.  Frank McManus had arrived earlier and joined the queues for noise testing before going on the circuit.  I went to the drivers safety briefing and then got straight into the queue - by now (9:20) it stretched most of the way round the paddock & took about 40 minutes to get onto the circuit.  Just before I got to the sound test I met up with Frank who had already been out & spun at Quarry!  With my new Dunnell silencer I sailed through the sound test at 96Db - the limit for Combe is 100Db.

After my first session out I went back to the WSCC club stand.  By this time a few more from the Bristol and Bath and the Cheltenham & Glos clubs had arrived.  I discussed the twitchy on the road handling my Westfield has and Gavin Tarrant from the Bristol & Bath club said I should soften the ARB & dampers.  So as lunch came & went I backed off the front shocks & ARB (easily) and then crawled underneath to have a go at the rears.  Eventually I softened the rear dampers to 3 clicks and the rear ARB to as soft as it would go ready for my drive home.

After lunch I decided to go out for another session.  The track had been closed for an hour whilst the wreckage from a big shunt was cleared up.  Some nutter in a BMW Z3 M had ignored yellow flags and smashed into a beautiful Lotus 23 just about totalling it.  In my next session out I joined Frank in spinning - this time at Tower corner.  The softer back end settings (which I'd adjusted thinking I was next going back home on the road) were not so good on the track!  Apart from pride nothing was hurt as I span to the inside of the track onto the grass & could easily drive away.  Back into the WSCC club area and after much tyre kicking & chewing the fat I left at 4pm - having had a great day out with the club.  Next up - Keevil!

Chris Bradley