- Old Events / Reports -

Santa Pod (RWYB) - 22nd May

Pete (our new AO) had the route all worked out on his GPS but still managed to get us lost but not by much.  Stopped for petrol just around the corner to Santa Pod and got asked directions by somebody in a very tasty TVR.  We said he could follow us but he said that we would slow him up - bloody cheek. Arrived without too much hassle at around 09:30 BEFORE the TVR which made us all smile.

Entrance fee was £10.00 and to enter your car on the track was £15.00 for the day.  We were expecting more Westfield's from the Northampton boys to show up but alas, they called it off as they didn't have as much confidence in mother nature as we did!

Booked in and sorted out the cars for the first run not forgetting to tie ourselves up.  Julie must have been in the Girl Scouts (or into bondage) because she managed to tie both myself and Pete up in a flash. Apparently, as we were driving open top cars, you have to have rope around your wrists to prevent your arms falling out in a role ...... as if we would roll?

Whilst lining up, we were given a pep talk by one of the RS200 drivers explaining the light sequences, little did Pete and Graham know but they were pitted against these 500bhp monsters on the first run. Kevin had a Sierra Cossy and I had a Supra.  The other guys had done this before but I was very nervous having had visions of axle breaking, sliding into the wall, all sorts really. Pete was a bit disappointed at his first run, just over 15 seconds, he has much better in the past. Graham and Kevin did very well but then V8 power is always a good advantage, loads of grunt.

My go, well the lights turned yellow to green in what was a blink of an eye and I seemed to sit there for what seemed an age. the track was slipperier than a wet fish on a platter (or so it seemed). Lots of wheel spin later, I was sailing down the track flying past my opponent .... did I say that? I mean the other runner as this is not a race apparently - lol.
Got to the end of the track and didn't see the very subtle exit on the left and neither did the other guy (also a newbie).  The exit was something the guys forget to tell me about, maybe that was intentional?
So we both went off to the right, down these bumpy, pot holed dirt track roads. It didn't seem right at the time but he was following me so I thought it may be. About a mile down this track, we were getting into more rural areas, fields and  we both decided to turn around and eventually found the proper exit at the end of the strip.  I was COVERED in muddy water and my nice clean new bodywork was a shame to look at - doh!
The other guys thought this was hilarious, I'll never live it down.

Attempt number 2.  Pete, Graham and Kevin all had better times than me 2nd go (in fact first go too) but my excuse was they had done this before! (excuses, excuses).
Kevin had a great sideways slide at first and he was against an Evo VIII but by the end of the run, he had beaten it which was a good result.
Graham somehow had a run all by himself. He pulled up to the line and was surprised when the lights went green, the marshal had to tell him to go - lol. Pete got to go against a Golf this time, this looked rather plain but boy did it move, however, Pete did manage a very respectable 13.8 1/4 mile which I can only dream of and all this without the car being mapped correctly, heaven help us when it IS set-up properly.

 I ended up about 15 cars behind them for the second run and we had to wait about 2 hours for that to happen as somebody in a Snowmobile, YES a Snowmobile with tracks managed to knacker one side of the track so there was a tremendous hold up.  Some of the Nitro Funny cars were ok though, they seemed to take ages to run one at a time.
 

By the time I got around to my 2nd run, I was bored silly.  I managed to pull a TVR as my next victim - NOT, 4.5 litres of muscle against my little yellow Westy was not a fair match but hey, it's not a race.  This time I missed a gear and hit the rev limiter but I did find the exit this time :-)

We all decided to call it a day as we didn't fancy waiting for hours on end for one more run so off to the next venue we went.  The weather was still holding up so Pete got the GPS out again and off to Leighton Buzzard we went.

We got to L/Buzzard but couldn't find the venue as the address was not that clear, so a quick phone call and 15 mins later we arrived but guess what? it started raining a bit. By the time we got out of ours cars, it chucked it down so out came the roofs/covers and we headed for shelter that the Herts crew kindly supplied.

A few cars had already done the Grass event and the field was looking very soggy but after about an hour, we managed to persuade Pete to give it a go. It was great fun to watch him sliding about even though he had a passenger as a course guide. Once the rain gave in, I had a go and so did Kevin.  Lots of laughs believe me, if you ever get a chance, give it a go. Don't know how but Graham managed to get out of this, Hmmmmm.

One of their members then turned up in a Can-am Ultima, WOW, what a car, my next project if I ever win the lotto. The Herts guys 'n gals were very friendly and made us very welcome, we have invited them down to Essex so hopefully they will oblige soon.

Just before we left, I had to fix a fuse on my brake lights and would you believe it, Kevin's brake lights also gave up the ghost, spooky that, also his fan belt slipped off but thankfully he's like a boy scout and had his tools with him. We had an un-eventful trip home, dodging a few rain showers but it gave us a chance to wash off all the grass from the last event.

It was a great day out even though we didn't get a lot of runs on the track and the fact that it rained a bit. Anybody who missed it lost out, maybe next time though eh? Many thanks to the Herts group and for all who attended the trip, see you at the next meeting.

Times for the Runs below: