A chill in the air- 3rd to 6th September 2015

With some pretty cold weather this week, it hasn’t been a good time to take the car out. We did take it to Oakley Club on Thursday so that Dave could show Steve Easton how to drive it but unfortunately Dave had left the choke on (it's very technical, you have to blip the throttle to release it!) and so flooded the engine when he tried to start it. It refused to play ball and the car had to be ignominiously towed home.

After the rain had cleared and the roads dried on Saturday we took the car to Sharnbrook Hotel where it was to be used as a prop for Darren and Colleen Spencer’s wedding. They didn’t need a wedding car as the wedding and reception were in the same place and they had stayed there the night before but it was nice to have something for the photos. I thought the car was a perfect colour to show off Colleen’s beautiful white wedding dress.

Photo by Richard Spinas

When we came back later to collect the car, we got to talking to a group of Swedish FIA officials who had spotted the Supercars in the car par park for the car show the next day. I had a nice long chat with Lars Pettersson about a number of things while the others were having photos taken in the car. He told me he was commentating at Santa Pod. What he didn’t tell me was he is the Vice President of the FIA! It’s amazing the people you get to connect with when you have a beautiful Model A Phaeton to start a conversation.

 

 Friday and Saturday had been a really cold couple of days at Santa Pod where Zoe and I were really questioning why we go. The racing was good but there were a lot of stoppages. By 5 o’clock our faces were turning blue with the cold even though we were dressed for winter. However all was forgiven on the Sunday when we had a perfect day of drag racing for the European Finals race day. The sun shone, it was warm, there wasn’t a single accident or oil down and the racing was full of drama, not least with the Top Fuel event being won by the number 9 alternate car Jari Halinan who had failed to qualify the previous day. It's looking like Stuart Doigne has all but mathematically won the Super Comp championship and a very worthy winner he will be too. We took the Hot Rod with us and parked it in a prominent place in the crew car park where once again it was the centre of much attention. 
 

Photo courtesy of Martin Quince

  Martin Quince showed up when we were there that evening with his grandson. He’d been hoping to sit in Paul’s dragster but I think the Model A was a pretty good substitute for now.