Drag Racing, Beetle September 2017 and Barrowden

With Hot Rodding finished for the season we only had Paul's racing left. He didn't race at Shakespeare County Raceway (which unfortunately turned out to be the last opportunity as the Raceway closed the following year due to house building on the site) so he didn't stand any chance of winning the National Championships this year but we knew that at the start of the season. He had hoped to sell the dragster along the way but it was not to be so instead he decided to spend some money on the car over the winter to hopefully improve the speed and consistency. Meanwhile at Euro Finals he qualified 11th and beat Carla Pittau in round 1, a good scalp to have but the rain prevented any further progression. National Finals he qualified 5th and went out in round 1 to Dave Cherrett finishing the season in 4th for Santa Pod and 8th in the Nationals I think.

Eurofinals

              

Packing away for the winter

 

Meanwhile our neighbour offered us his 1970 Beetle which has been off the road since 1982. We took it to a restorer for new parts to get it back on the road.

Our last car fix for the year or so I remember was at Barrowden in Northamptonshire a typical village for the area complete with a duck pond. On Sunday 15th October this was only two weeks after Dave had a complete knee replacement from which he was already recovering well. I drove him there in the Astra and we met up with Shirley, Paul, Janet and Andy.

 

I found this picture dated 12th November 2017. Dave is obviously only just back driving and it was  a cold day but I have no recollection of where he or we were going!

Pendine Sands and South Wales June 2017

Monmouth

Adrian Smith at Pendine Sands

Pendine Beach

                                                         

Ricky and Brady

St David's Cathedral 

Pentr Ifan Burial Chamber

Pwelli National Park

Walking along the coastal path at 6 am in the rain.

Laughurne Castle

Dylan Thomas' Boathouse

I can't find my notes on this trip so I've just told  this story mostly in photos. Vicky Stapleton found us a gorgeous house overlooking Pendine Sands for our week's holiday with her family. Probably the most memorable event of the trip was our experience with the beautiful wild horses in Pwelli National Park. We didn't know they were there in the first place so we were fascinated to see them but mostly it was incredible when they decided we were part of their herd and galloped alongside us, stopping each time we stopped and trying to keep up with us when we were moving. They obviously understood our tribe had a lot of horsepower too!


Meanwhile Paul was racing back at Santa Pod. He obviously missed Dave's dial in skills and my cooking as he only qualified 16th and went out in round 2 but at least had the satisfaction of knocking Mike Lacey out with a red light in round one after losing to him in the final of the Easter Meet.

Sunday 21st May until the end of the summer season.

Sunday 21 ^st May 2017 A602's Breakfast Meet

We met up with some of the A602’s at Baldock Services for a short cruise up the A1 to the Shuttleworth collection for their monthly Breakfast meet. It was a good turn out on this sunny day.

 We popped into the Classic Car show at Sharnbrook Hotel on our way home.

Friday 26^th May 2017 Main Event Santa Pod

We drove the Hot Rod to Santa Pod on the hottest day of the year so far and parked it with Paul’s dragster in the pits. As always the car received a lot of attention. Later on Dave took the car over to Peterborough to the Best in Britain show at the fairgrounds where it was displayed on the NSRA stand for the weekend. This was a mistake really as it put Dave under a lot of pressure for the weekend with only a few days before setting off the Great Yarmouth for the Fun Run. Dave’s knee was starting to give him some serious jip so we ended up ducking out of Brands Hatch the week after the Fun Run having overdone it during the previous weeks.
Paul hadn't entered the Spring Nationals as we were at the pre 49 weekend. Meanwhile the Main Event was a mixed bag. Paul grabbed the number one qualifying spot after 5 goes which earned him a bye into the second round. Unfortunately the rain came in on the Monday and that was that! We had a successful weekend with Paul and Zoe's Speedz simulator and the spectators loved it but unfortunately they were not invited back again which was a shame as it had been successful as well as educational and a good showcase for drag racing.

Friday 16th June 2017 Ruaridh's School Prom

Dave took Ruaridh Hart to his prom from his home in Wellingborough to a hotel in Kettering. He looked great and arrived in style. We broke down on the way home. Good job it didn’t happen on the way to the prom.

Sunday 18^th June 2017 AACI Kelmarsh Hall

The fuse board was broken on the Phaeton so we ended up going in the Astra to the AACI meeting at Kelmarsh Hall on a very hot day. We were not impressed with the venue. It was nothing more than a field with no shelter from the sun and the Hall (which actually wasn’t anything special) wasn’t even visible from the show field. At one time this was being mentioned as a possible venue for future NSRA events. I hope not or we definitely won’t be going.

A week in Wales 
See separate post.

Thursday 2nd July 2017
The annual OMC American Night at Oakley Club was busy again and of course we had all our cars there too.

Dave went to Harpenden on the train for the Classics on the Common at the end of July. He was finding it too difficult to drive by now. Juliana and I were originally going to go with him in the car but decided to do something else instead but he did take her out another day which she really enjoyed. Juliana is my friend from New York and we spent three weeks seeing lots of places in England - Stonehenge, Highclere Castle, Gt Yarmouth, Windsor Castle, London, Oxford, Stratford upon Avon, as well as lots of theatre shows. Most of these trips were in the Astra. We also went to Paris for a few days and even saw a Hot Rod there!

ESRA Euronationals and NSRA Supernationals Old Warden Tuesday to 8^th August to Sunday 13^th August 2017

Both of these events were at Old Warden on consecutive days. Approximately 400 participants were registered for the Euronats and despite all the planning the weather for the first two days was atrocious, so much so that the weekend event nearly had to be cancelled but for the free draining sandy soil at Old Warden Park. It was a shame because “the village” format didn’t really take off but as always we made the best of it. The meal for all of us in the marquee was very good, quite an achievement for the caterers to pull it off. Luckily the weather improved on the Thursday and we had a beautiful day for the cruise to the Sharnbrook Hotel. In our opinion this was the best cruise we’d ever organised. Somehow all the cars managed to stay together through the Bedfordshire countryside and through Kimbolton before parking up on the grass in the hotel grounds. An excellent all you can eat buffet pizza and pasta was laid on for £10 per head. We also had an afternoon performance by the Blues Brothers there before cruising back to Old Warden.

Usually we go home every evening from here but with such a long event we pushed the boat out and for 3 nights had the Queen Anne’s cottage which is nestled in the trees at the back of the Park. It was  really special and we loved both the stay and the convenience of not having to drive home and so for once we really entered into the spirit of the evening events and were even last out of the marquee on one evening.

 

The Saturday cruise of 200+ cars which we had once again organised went on the public road through Woburn Abbey where the deer could be seen and on to Milton Keynes Museum. This was an excellent little museum documenting a lot of MK’s history as well as transport and other curios to look at. Most people had a really good time apart from a few who objected to paying the meagre £5 to get in! Back at Old Warden Voodoo Larry, the pin striper from USA gave full value for money for his visit by being available a lot of the time and clearly enjoyed being there.

 Later on American Graffiti was shown on a big screen with people watching it from their cars drive in movie style. This was followed by Si Cranston, very short and sweet and generally the evening was fun. Paul and Zoe had their SPeedZ simulator there which got pretty competitive once a few beers had been sunk by the contestants.





























Sunday was the usual show and shine and once again it was heaving with high quality show cars as well as spectators. The traders who had moaned and groaned about the lack of business at Great Yarmouth certainly made up for it this weekend. Most people had gone home by 6pm leaving us to the peace and quiet of Queen Anne’s cottage. We’d eaten fish and chips from the Red Bus just after prize giving and very nice they were too.  We hadn’t realised it at the time but this was to be our last outing in the Hot Rod that year. Dave was now waiting for an operation to replace his knee and the pain meant he could no longer drive.

Sunday 27^th August 2017

NASC Nationals Rutland

This was the first time we’d been to this event in many years. It had just moved from Ipswich at the request of members who wanted the event to be more centralised but unfortunately it was not that well supported which was a shame as the new venue was very good. It is a sports field just outside Rutland with a clubhouse and proper toilet facilities, good entertainment, a big cash raffle as well as being close to the beautiful Rutland Water which would have made for a great cruise route if they’d had one.

We only went for the Sunday in the Astra because Dave could no longer drive. We felt sorry for the organisers who had worked so hard to put the event on for the disappointing number of cars that turned up. It turned out to be the NASC’s final event as the club folded shortly after due to lack of support and  mismanagement by the previous committee.