Billing Fun Run 30th and 31st May 2015

 

Well what a fantastic weekend this turned out to be. The Billing Fun run is an event that has been going for over 40 years and is at Billing Aquadrome, a holiday park with all sorts of entertainment for all the family.  Dave went to some of the early ones and I've been to many of  them since 1978 but we both became regulars once we had Paul. Every year we would camp with the Stapletons and have a great weekend together along with many of our hot rodding friends. The only thing that was different this time was that we are not daft enough to camp any more when we have a perfectly good, warm bed only 18 miles away and the cars the boys drive are now big ones instead of Tot Rods.

We arrived on Saturday, just in time to join the cruise to Rockingham Speedway 25 miles away. Paul and Zoe were in the back of our Model A, Ricky had decided not to risk driving his Victor as the brakes had stuck on earlier so joined Brady in the dickey seat of Russ and Vicky's 32, while Dani and Lee were in his mighty mouse of a 100E.

Photo by Andy Sawyer

Photo by Ricky Stapleton

The cruise there was fun although we didn't catch sight of anyone else in front driving mostly along the A43 which was surprisingly deserted around Corby and so a bit of side by side tomfoolery was in order to catch some good photos. We needn't have bothered though, there were ample photo ops at Rockingham itself. Initially we parked up outside the arena with 70 or so other assorted cars and went into the stadium to watch some pretty powerful minis race. Once they had their break it was our turn and we joined a procession to enter the stadium via the tunnel and in doing so entered a competition to see who could create the most decibels. The winner was Justin's rat rod but Russ was a close second with 124dbs (he did take the silencers off though!) Driving through the tunnel revving the engine was a definite high moment for all of us. And it just got better and better. We all lined up in three rows at the start line and once the signal was given we joined a sedate procession around the track, everyone taking photos of each other and generally enjoying the atmosphere. If we thought that was as good as it was going to get, it was already an awesome experience but no, once we got to the straight, the throttles were opened and we sped along to the finish line, not once but three times. What a great experience, one of the highlights in the Model A so far. Paul and Zoe had an amazing time too and were glad they dragged themselves out of bed in the end.


Sorry about the wind but you get the gist.

Then we cruised back to Billing and went into the petrol station only to be joined by Wendy and  Brian Lucas in their proper '29 Phaeton, an immaculate specimen which was a lot like ours was before we started our 33000 mile journey. We parked up next to each other on the showground, which unusually for a Saturday, was packed.

 We did our American thing and set up our lawn chairs behind the car and ate our picnic lunch while enjoying the sunshine on a warmish afternoon. Later we wandered over to the American Auto mag stand where there was an array of 70s Rods. Cue much nostalgia among the men of Dave's age for whom these vehicles were full of memories at a time when they could only dream of owning one. Particularly poignant was the newly restored  "Revenge" built by Nick Butler who was there to talk a little about it, start and drive around it the field in the absence of its current owner Roger Fulkner who tragically and suddenly died earlier in the week. "Revenge" would not be complete without  another of Nick's builds, "Andromeda", owned by Roger's and our own very good friend Ed Brown. We didn't realise at the time that the unwashed but otherwise perfect 70s styled Model T was Mr T. (Dave is cross with himself for not realising.)

Paul got a taste of hot rodding when he took the car round the Park to get used to it. I don't suppose it will be long before he's taking it out for the evening. Later on it got really chilly so we wandered across  the Park just as the Chopper Cruise (push bikes not motorbikes - more seventies icons!) was starting and went to Frankie's Hamburger restaurant just over the bridge. I'm not a great fan of hamburgers but these are excellent as are the chips which are bottomless and all for £8.50 too.

We all went back to see the band. It was good to be there with our own car again. It makes all the difference to your enjoyment of the event. Once the band struck up we realised it isn't our kind of music. However, it was definitely to many others taste as the marquee was packed. So with the cold evening and rain forecast to be arriving any time we decided to be sensible and go home.

The rain did arrive and we woke up on Sunday wondering whether we should go or not but decided not to be woosies so we set off during a dry spell, togged up for the Arctic under very grey skies. When we arrived we were intending to go over to Tootall Paul's stand to have the pin striping reinstated on the back fenders but we got ushered into a precious front row spot right in front of the marquee so that was where we stayed for several hours. The rain came back in force and so we took shelter in the marquee taking the opportunity to chat to various committee member somehow found themselves temporarily with little to do and also John Price who as always keeps us entertained and even managed to  encourage the sale of a few NSRA umbrellas. Once the rain stopped more and more cars found their way onto the show field. In the end there weren't as many as on Saturday but there were some beautiful cars and trucks to be seen as well as plenty of the old faithfuls we know and love.

Eventually we took the car over to Tootall Paul's and it really was quite a thing watching him work. For the first 25 minutes he appeared to be just doing his own thing, eating, chatting , this and that but all the time you could see he was eyeing up the car giving it consideration. Once he started it was done in minutes exactly as we wanted it. To see him working with such a steady handy was incredible. The way my hands shake at times I'd be useless even if I had the talent. So if anyone is thinking of having pin striping done I would definitely recommend him and he won't do anything to your car that he doesn't think will suit it so be prepared for having your grand ideas toned down.

We were surprised and delighted to find out we had been chosen for an award but embarrassingly when Dave tried to start the car to go over there he couldn't . This was going to look good, 33 000 miles around the USA but not able to cross the show field at Billing. Luckily Dave realised that the choke had stuck on when we came over to Tootall Paul's there and so quickly cleaned the plugs etc and we were on our way just in time for the start of prize giving. Ricky won the best uner 25's award, we won a top five award which was marvellous. We know the current quality of the car is not to such a high standard as many others on the show field so we imagine it was picked because if it's back story, so thank you to everyone who voted for us.

Photo by Ricky Stapleton

Best in show

And so it is over for another year. Another fantastic weekend. Our verdict on the car in the UK so far is:- Fantastic but would like to see some blue sky!
Links:
Video footage of cruise around Rockingham Raceway.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ze02GtxvDIY -
More photos
 https://www.facebook.com/dave.brown.7334/media_set?set=a.829218587156369.1073741843.100002047078348&type=3