Festival of Power

Festival of Power Friday 19^th to Sunday 21^st April 2019

Paul had intended to have this season off from racing but having won the championship last year he is entitled to free entry this season and also to run number 1 on his car. It would have been rude not to race and boy would we have been mad if he hadn’t. The weather was so fabulous, the first time at Easter for many years that we would have been sick at missing this event when we’ve spent so much time in the past sitting in the trailer for hours on end!

Test day on Thursday with interesting. Paul laid down some good runs but also suffered a total brake failure resulting in him being towed out of the field. Luckily there wasn’t any damage to him or the car and the brakes were easily fixed. Qualifying went pretty much to plan with him finishing 2^nd out of 27. Some excellent racing on eliminations saw him through to the finals but he was overcome by Ben Newsome leaving Paul still awaiting a Pro ET event win, the only trophy available to him that he has yet to win. National Championships, tick. SPRC and APIRA championships, tick. Number one qualifier, tick. Perfect light and perfect ET, Super Comp event wins, tick. Oh well you always need something to aim for.

2019 Winners Board

Photo by Callum Pudge

The Team

The Runner Up

Skegness is Bracing

 

Skegness - Friday 15th to Monday 18th March 2019

Mid-March and our first road trip of the year was a hundred mile drive in the Astra to Skegness with our friends Jackie and Steve Hukin for a “We Love the 70’s” weekend at Butlins. We had a great weekend watching lots of bands including:
Brotherhood of Man- winners of the 1976 Eurovision Song Contest and who still have the same line up today.
Phil Bates (of ELO 2 fame) and the Berlin String Ensemble performing the music of ELO and who were brilliant
Slade with Dave Hill - great fun
Les McEwan's Bay City Rollers - no comment
and a number of Tribute bands most of whom were excellent - Jean Jenie, Alter Eagles, The Jam'd, TooREX, Bootleg Blondie, Bootleg Bee gees, The Rolling Clones and let's not forget Lionel Vinyl. The music timetable always meant we had to make choices between one band and another and on the whole we chose well. We also found time for some fresh air and exercise walking to Ingoldmells and around Skegness, eating good fish and chips at the Clock restaurant (too chilly to sit by the beach.), quaffing a few drinks and having lots of laughs mostly at the expense of our fellow "campers" and their amazing choices of fancy dress. Our accommodation was excellent- a far cry from Butlin's of old. We were given a quiet, comfortable, modern and spotlessly clean apartment. Great company too.

 

Bonnie and Clyde

With the Phaeton safely tucked up for the winter we weren’t expecting to be giving it an airing so soon but at the end of February we received a request from The Bedford Drama Company to use the car to promote their production of Bonnie and Clyde which of course we were more than happy to do. Here are some photos.

 

In return they gave us free tickets to see the musical at the Place in Bedford and it was excellent. Great acting, singing and the orchestra played the score brilliantly. The Place is a small and cozy theatre in Bedford. They have different productions on several times a week and I love going there.