In glorious sunshine, it was pick up Lampy and go off through the valley of the windmills, and down into glorious Cornwall for your Mayday fix of stox. It was also 12 months ago, that en route to the same meeting, that someone rammed Das Golf up the backside....
It wasn't a good day for loud noises, after a drinking session with my mate on "Old Rosie" dirty filthy scrumpy! Feeling a little tender from abusing apples, I believed like Paul Butcher (189) that I could win the final!
There were a fair amount of cars in the pits on the Sunday at St Day, including a fair few visitors, including Bradders (886), the new king of comedy in the pits, Rich Mead (596) along with Jack Aldridge (921). Also in the pits, making a return to Saloons, were the Flying Jones Brothers, Murray and Todd, out to cause more mischief in the tin tops!
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| Thats scratched it.... |
Heat 2 saw a flop over, as Marc Rowe (526) tripped over track debutant, former Grimley track champion, Danny Withers (437). Chris Mikkula (522) took the win, from his blue grade, and his vinyl tape effort at regrading as "a shit job"
The consolation was a good old fashioned affair, plenty of whites and yellows, a sprinkling of blues but no one else. Charging PJ Moss (979) strolled away, but it was the Dairy Farmer Andrew Bennett who got the cream, and took the consolation.
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| Not a Cabtec wing. |
MONDAY...
A decent night's kip was what the doctor ordered from the Sunday, as thanks the apple abuse and general lack of sleep over the past couple of weeks, I was surprised and almost had a Hugh Grant moment as I checked my phone and it was 9:40am. Fuck. Fuckety fuck. If I'm to get to Bristol in good time, I'll need to be on the road by 10:30 at the latest. The Sh's done, it was time to do the pre flight checks. Oil, Check. Radiator. Check. Washer fluid, bit low, not surprising after the dusty St Day. Then the bonnet catch wouldn't go down. Cue much fiddling and scratching between me and dad, who joked that if it was a Vauxhall, then the bonnet would never be down, always up. Much mumbling about cars being unnecessarily tidied away and hidden (Dad works with tractors) later - the catch was closed, and off I went on my merry way. 11:10am. Fuckety, fuck, fuck, fuck. With a swish of the side parting and an awkward chatting up of an American film star in only the way that happens in Richard Curtis movies, it was onward. Very, very slow progress, as I joined the tide heading away from the Westcountry, as every caravan was causing chaos on the A30. I arrived at track at 1:05pm, five minutes after the scheduled start time, but there was one thing I could be assured of, that Bristol never runs on time!
The Rookies Reward saw a nice little battle between Matt Linfield (464) and Richard Beere (254) with the added incentive of a set of shocks donated by Shocktec. It was Linfield who took the win on the last lap from the veteran Beere. Heats went the way of Chris Mikkula and The Tiger, who once again made Bradders think if he had made a mistake in selling him his old car! After the newly nicknamed (see the Dominator) Dicky Pintof (254) made up for losing the Rookies and throwing away a large lead in Heat 1 with a spin, by taking the Consi.
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| Thunderpix pic. |
When the race got going again, it was Jimmy Halfpintof (954) who led away his dad. Indeed Daddy Beere took the lead, just as the scrapping Bradbury and Hooper (676) fresh from moving house, which caused his absence from St Day. Races are often won and lost with a single move, and Bradders move on Hooper was telling and decisive, gaining the place and space to go on to yet another Bristol victory, reinstating him as one of the favourites for semi glory.
Jamie Avery(126) in the national showing again that the national points is an arse, by taking the win from Mikkula (522). Avery has been one of the stand out consistent red tops both home and away in the first grading period...
POINTS OF ORDER
Autospeed honcho Crispen Rosevear taking his camera out for the first time in eons. Past Life regression anyone? Or recapturing his youth. Will we be seeing Mr Rosevear growing a set of curtains next?
Come the next Bank Holiday, the opportunity to report at both the next St Day and Bristol is unlikely to happen unless time travel or rapid cloning happens in the next three weeks.
Now for the last couple of years there have been extraneous bank holidays tacked on for Royal celebrations which have solved this problem.
Westcountry drivers have no local meetings for 3 weeks, then bank holiday, bang bang bang with the meetings and boom nothing more then until the next Bank holiday, then another gap of 2 weeks. It seems total madness that both tracks attract the same drivers, and we are left with 2 sub standard meetings rather than potentially a classic.
From a promoters point of view, Bank Holidays are usually the biggest cash cow of getting an audience, and to Joe Public likes to go out on a Bank Holiday, and it's great entertainment, but from the drivers and spectators, we want to maximise race meetings and opportunities, especially in busy grading periods. Drivers also want to maximise there diesel budgets, and to get as many meetings they can from a Bank Holiday weekend.
The arguments are clear from the promoters that distance is a deciding factor, as you don't tend to see Bristol drivers at St Day or vice versa, but all seem to race Taunton. When there is a lack of meetings generally to compete with our Scottish and Midland brethern, to have a clash, which most of the top drivers will attend one or the other, plays right into the hands of uneven grading.
Bristol seemed very hesitant to bring out yellow flags for cars abandoned on the dip bend... Maybe the steward was asleep? Sad to say but Bristol is getting a bit of reputation amongst drivers as a damage track, and some, in these fiscally challenging times are foresaking Bristol in favour of more driver friendly tracks (aka Dull)
But wasn't it a blooomin lovely weekend. 2 ice creams and a BBQ, can't be too bad.
Cheers'n gone!
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