2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | ||
| 3rd - 5th May 2008 SPRING SPEED FESTIVAL at SHAKEY | ||
This was our second event this year at Shakespeare County Raceway, and the weekend was the third round of the Real Steel Series as well as the first of the APIRA Series. I was one of 5 Slingshots in a field of 9 Wild Bunch cars taking part. We were pretty excited as it was going to be a 3-day event, so hopefully lots of time for qualifiers. And the best part was that it wasn’t at all cold!! And no sign of snow anywhere! Me and Claire had the afternoon off, so drove up around 2:30pm, arriving just after 4:15 pm. We were due to be pitted in a different place this time, on the left hand side, just up from the concessions and toilets, so a lot nearer the track than before. The only thing was, this meant we did not have much space for each team. When we got there, two of the Riot racing cars were at one end of our pits and Phil had his bus at the other end. We ended up just driving the whole bus and trailer rig straight onto the grass, so that just the dragster would be on the tarmac. We also tried to leave room for Terry’s “Ratcatcher Resurrection” slingshot between us and Riot Racing. This ended up working out really well, as Darryl and Sarah parked similarly next to us when they arrived and Ed set up the Dog’s Bollocks trailer and awning next to Phil’s. This meant that by the time we were all in, there were 7 cars all in a row, with the 3 Riot Racers with “Destiny’s Angel”, “Pony Express” and “Wicked Lady”, and then the four slingshots in a row, “Ratcatcher Resurrection”, “Backdraft”, “Chemical Reaction” and “RamRaider”; with Phil’s “Bone Idle” between the DB trailer and his bus and Keith Crampton’s new slingshot, “Soultown Shaker” on the other side of that under his awning. What a great display! Many of the Bunch couldn’t help but take loads of pictures of this over the weekend! We were all looking forward to the racing! And it was really great to see Darryl’s and Terry’s cars back out after the incident at Easter, really chuffed. Also, our pits were opposite the NFAA pits, so this was good, as we had a few friends amongst the teams there. And we were talking to Pete Radcliffe with the “Burning Desire” altered and casually mentioned something about firing up, when he asked if I would like to fire his car up! Well, of course I said yes, straight away, but waited to ask Fay if it would be okay by her too! We arranged to do this sometime on the Saturday, depending when we were all racing. Saturday morning was not too bad for temperature, and there was some cloud, but the weather was settled all day, so this was good news! After the last event, where we had only had one run, we were keen to see how well “Backdraft” would run in the slightly warmer weather, without the headwind. We fired up in the morning and everything sounded fine. This weekend we were also towing Terry’s car, as Ruth was the only crew, so we teamed up, and this worked out pretty well. They had arrived on Saturday morning so were not quite ready for the first round. We towed down for the first qualifier, which was around 11am. We decided to Dial-in at 9.30 and hoped to be thereabouts. The car pulled a real small wheelie, going into 2nd gear on the launch, and I ran a 9.654 @ 141.74 mph. Back in the pits, I re-adjusted the shifter, and it seemed fine, so again we dialled in at 9.30 for the second round. We had been in two minds whether to lower this a bit, but decided to keep it the same. We went down for the run at around 2pm. I was paired with Phil Sweeney who ran a 9.219 on an 8.80 Dial. On the burnout, I pulled a small wheelie, and that seemed to get some people’s attention, not to mention Mark and Claire! We were all really chuffed when the car launched really well, and pulled my biggest wheelie for over a year! (Many thanks to several of the photographers, who got some really good pics of this, and thanks to Grace Roaf for choosing it as one of the pics on the Eurodragster ‘end of day’ gallery! (Thanks to the guys at Eurodragster, for what has to be now one of my favourite captions “Chris Hartnell carried the front wheels forever”! Wow, what a line! And what a buzz to be back doing a wheelie like that one!). We were even more pleased when the car recorded a 9.284 @ 142.46 mph! (If this had been heads up, it would have been really close with Phil, as I had a small reaction advantage! Don’t think that’s happened before!). I really enjoyed everything about this run, and we were all happy that the car was well and truly back!! Later in the afternoon, we were called for our third round, and were in the pairings lanes around 10 past 5 with the sun shining. Unfortunately, Kev Slyfield went out of shape on the burnout with his Pro Mod and crashed into the tree, showering bulbs everywhere, and sending the tree about 40ft down track. He ended up in the barrier of the other lane. We were all relieved to hear that he was okay, and from what we have heard, the damage is not as bad as it might have looked, so hopefully he can rebuild soon. Good luck to him and his team! After this, there was a lot of clearing up to do, so the organisers called time on the day, as it would have taken quite a while. This was a shame, but we were hopeful of being out early the next day to pick up where we left off. We retired to the bus for the evening and had a great night, with loads of friends popping in and out of the bus. Sunday dawned cloudy, but initially dry, so we thought there was a good chance of us getting on track as we were going to be first or second out. We waited around, but it started to rain so the track crew sprang into action. In the meantime, as we had missed the chance to fire Rad’s altered up on the Saturday, he kindly came over and arranged to do it on the Sunday morning, if we were not all out at the same time. So this turned out to be the best time. I got by suit, mask and helmet on and climbed into the car (via a chair!). It was amazing how much visibility I didn’t have in their cockpit! Fay went through some instructions with me, and Rad and the team fired the car, and ran it for a while. It sounded great, but they had been experiencing problems with drive, and they shook their heads as it still wasn’t right. I enjoyed the fireup, and many thanks to Rad and Fay for the chance – well cool! The track crew dried the track and it was nearly ready for action when another heavy shower poured down. The crew again set to work, and put in a lot of effort. Then a really strange incident happened when the jet track dryer crashed into the Armco near the start line! Luckily no one was hurt, and the crews then tried to modify it to get it back into action. This they did and everyone of the marshals and crew worked hard again. We were then pretty excited to get called out around 4:20pm, and were sitting in the fireup road ready to go around 4:30, only a few minutes away from starting, when it started to sprinkle with rain again! Tony Smith, who had been Assistant Race Director for the weekend, came over and said that they would have to call it for the day, and it started to rain a bit harder! What a shame after everyone’s hard work, and with all the potential of all the racers hoping to have that third qualifier! Many thanks to all at Shakey for trying so hard! With the results after the first two rounds, I ended up qualifying in 4th place overall, so that was not too bad. But guess where that placed me in the ladder?! Facing good buddy Darryl in the first round again! Oh well, it would be a good race! We packed up for the night, and had heard the weather was due to be good for Monday, so we were hopeful of a full day’s racing. We had another good night with friends, and were really pleased that it was no longer cold weather! On the Monday morning, to everyone’s disappointment, it had started off wet overnight and was still raining! With the cloud cover so heavy, and not much breeze, things were not looking too good around 11am. But the officials remained optimistic, and once the rain stopped at 11:30, they all started to dry the track again. This they did by around 2:20pm, and racing started then! We had heard that they might have an extension after the usual 5pm curfew, so became hopeful that we would all have a run. It turned out to be a long day and a long wait, but we were called down, and in the pairings lanes for our first run at about 10 past 5!! Me and Dar were the first pair, and just as we fired up and drove round, we had to shut down for a track check from one of the fuel bikes. This didn’t take long and we were back on! Darryl had dialled in a 10.10, for what would be only his second run on our old Enderle injection system, which now looked great on his slingshot. We dialled in at 9.20, so we hopefully wouldn’t break out. Darryl had a slightly better reaction than me, and went off first, recording an 11.603 @ 120mph. I managed to get past him and backed off, recording a 9.389 @ 130.50 mph. I was real surprised it had been such a good time, as the speed was over 10mph down. It was great to be back racing Darryl again, and real glad they all got the car fixed in time for the event! We got back to the pits and waited for the next round, where we were due to meet Darren Law, which would be a re-match of the Semis we had at the Easter Thunderball. Darren had been having trouble with his transbrake at the weekend, but was always good on the lights, and “The Wicked Lady” had been running really well lately, with Darren running a PB at Easter, so it would be a good race. We got called out around 6:30ish, and got down to the pairings lanes. Whilst we were half way down, the call came over the tannoy that the fireup road was now shut for the day, so we knew this would be the last round for everybody! I decided to just ‘go for it’ on the run, even if I was going to break out! We kept the 9.20 Dial-in as we thought that would be achievable, given I’d backed off on the last round. This time, unusually, I beat Darren off the lights, as he still had the transbrake problems. He recorded a 9.856 @ 131 mph on his 9.54 Dial-in, whilst I ran a time close to my last round, with a 9.386 @ 140.32 mph, taking the win! I was real chuffed as it was some time since I have won a couple of rounds! It was then a shame that we all ran out of time, as in the Semis I would have paired up with Ed, and that would have been a great race, with us running similar times this weekend. Because the eliminations were cut short, and there were 3 of us who had made it to the Semis, the WB results were based on which of us was the closest to Dial-in without breaking out, in the quarter finals. This meant that Ed took the win, and I was second, with Mark in the “Pony Express” third as he had broken out on the last round! Congrats to Ed on the win on that great run! I was real pleased with the second place, and it means I am now second in the Real Steel Series, so real chuffed with that too. But most of all, we are all happy that “Backdraft” is back on form, and I am back doing the wheelies that I love! Thanks to Mark and Claire for crewing and towing, and to all the marshals and officials and track crew for their hard work throughout the weekend in the difficult conditions! And congratulations to all the Wild Bunch racers who put on a great show over the weekend. It was great to be part of the lineup! Welcome also to newcomer Keith Crampton, whose car really looks great. Sure he’ll get a handle on it quickly and have a great time racing with the Bunch! We’re now really looking forward to the June Shootout at Shakey on 31st May and 1st June, where we hope to be carrying the wheels some more! | ||
| 19th - 20th April 2008 SPRING NATIONALS RWYB at SHAKEY | ||
This was our first event this year at Shakespeare County Raceway, and the weekend was the first round of the Wild Bunch Series, and the second round of our Real Steel Series. I was one of 5 Slingshots in a field of 11 Wild Bunch cars taking part. Mark and his friend Joey went up to the track early afternoon to sort out his caravan, and me and Claire drove up in the bus around 6:00, arriving about 7:45pm. We unloaded the car, and set up in the pits in the middle, opposite the loos. There were not that many cars there, and this may have been down to the poor weather forecast. Saturday morning was pretty cold and there was quite a lot of cloud around. I had been looking forward to putting in some more improved runs in Backdraft after the encouraging start we had in the cold and windy conditions at Santa Pod at Easter, running two and a half tenths better than the whole of last season! On Saturday, we towed down around late morning, whilst Mark drove down, trying to get some heat into his engine. We paired up to run together for the first time in ages. The car did not leave the line that well on the cold track, and I put in a run of 9.907 @ 138.74 mph. Not too disappointing. Mark was out for his second event of the year in his Awesome 4-Some slingshot. He had not raced at Shakey since 2006, since he only made the York round last year, where he destroyed his clutch. Before that event he had installed a new Pinto/Cosworth hybrid engine in the car, and made a lot of upgrades to other equipment, including rear wheels which he bought from Daz Selwyn in the Pandemonium gasser. He had been at the previous Shakey test and tune two weeks earlier, in the the snow and put in 6 test runs, including a couple of 12.4’s which he was quite pleased with. On our first run together, Mark’s car seemed to bog off the line, and he only ran an 18-second pass at 91 mph. A closer look at the top end revealed he had broken a half shaft! He then drove the round trip home to Bristol to collect a spare, and fitted this by about 4pm, during the rain delay, and only for the rain to rule out his chances of a test run. He did drive the car around the pits to check it out, and it seemed to be fine. That was it for the day, and we had an early tea. It was again real cold on the night, so we just hibernated in the bus, and had a fairly early night. We then looked forward to Sunday’s rounds. We Dialled in at 9.80, hoping to be thereabouts, as the track was still gonna be pretty cold. Mark dialed in at 12.20, hoping for improvement. There was real low cloud Sunday morning and a lot of damp in the air after some early rain, and it proved to be too cold and damp to run slick-tyred vehicles that day, so this was pretty disappointing. We packed up early and headed for home, with the cars both now still race ready for the next event. Thanks to Claire for towing and crewing, and to Dean for assisting and Helen for photographing. Thanks to all the marshals and officials and track crew for their hard work! And congrats to Scottie and Gina on the debut of their cool new Austin Ruby body on the Tiki Munki altered - it looks well wicked! We’re now really looking forward to the MSA Spring Speed Festival on 3rd to 5th May at Shakey, where we hope to be able to make some good runs! | ||
| 21st - 24th March 2008 EASTER THUNDERBALL at SANTA POD | ||
This was the third time that the Wild Bunch had raced at the ‘Easter Thunderball’ as a class. And we were really looking forward to this event after the long winter layoff! We were scheduled to do 8 qualifiers over the first three days, and the forecast had mentioned there was a possibility of some snow on the Sunday, with some rain on the other days, so any runs we had at all would be a bonus after this report. Me and Claire left home about 11:30am on the Thursday, towing “Backdraft” up with the bus, and arrived around 3pm after making good time. Mark and Joey had just got a new caravan, and they left earlier, stopping along the way and arriving about 4:30pm, and getting stuck in the muddy camping field! Meantime, we had set up with the Wild Bunch at the back of the pits, towards the middle, opposite the Junior Dragsters. We unloaded “Backdraft” and started to get our reconditioned awning sorted. Darryl and Sarah had arrived earlier with “Chemical Reaction” and were really looking forward to testing their new fuel injection system (which had been our old Enderle system). They had repainted the chassis and had a new front axle, and chromed up all the axle and steering arms and everything. Ed had then arrived with “RamRaider” and Sarah kindly towed us all down to sign on and get scrutineered. Luckily there wasn’t much of a queue when we got there and we were done in no time, and back at the bus, with the awning set up, just before a small rain shower. We then had tea and a fairly early evening, and hibernated in the bus because of the cold. We hoped the weather might be better than expected the next day, so we could try out our old Sherpa axle and the freshened motor and see if “Backdraft” would run as well as we hoped. We had a restless night due to the heavy wind, and the awning was flapping about so much we thought the bus might take off! Chris nearly got out in the middle of the night to do this, but we put up with it in the end! Friday dawned very cold and cloudy and with a strong wind. We fired up the car in the pits. She sounded fine, so I went over to Darryl’s pits for his first fire up. We were called up before we expected it, as there was a heavy head wind and cross wind, which meant the bike classes could not run. For the first qualifier we dialled in at 9.50, which was quicker than all our runs in 2007, so we wouldn’t mind if we broke out! I was paired with Darren Law on this run, and he ran a 9.608 on a 9.62 Dial-in. On our run, I had a nice wheels up launch, and the car pulled quite well. I was really chuffed when Claire and Mark told me I’d run a 9.234 @ 141.24 mph! That was well worth all the off season wait, and we were all happy with that one! Never mind the breakout! Back in the pits, we fuelled up and got ready for the next round, and I then went back over to Darryl’s pit to see how he was getting on. He did another fire up, going through the gears, and did not have reverse. Meanwhile, the next round crept up on all of us, as they were really going through the schedule quickly, with no bikes or Pro cars running. We hurried back to get hitched up, and were towing Terry Clifford in his “Ratcatcher Resurrection” slingshot, with Ruth as single crew extraordinaire. Darryl got all his bodywork back on and hitched up with Ed to tow down behind us. This time we raced Ed, who recorded a 10.251 on a 9.43 Dial-in, as he had a gear change problem. We dialled in lower on this one, with a 9.15, as we were trying to get a run in on the right side of the Dial. The car launched well, but to my surprise, the rev limiter cut in about half track, and I slowed to a 10.081 @ 113 mph. Back to the pits for some headscratching. But then, a really bad incident occurred. Darryl had paired up with Terry behind us, and fired up the car okay, and blipped it to clear it. But when he put it in gear and moved forwards, the throttle stuck, and no matter how hard he steered and braked, he couldn’t avoid Terry’s front wheel. Luckily Terry braked too, otherwise he would have been hit on the side. “Chemical Reaction” then hit the new garage doors on the new barn at the back of the collecting area! This did a load of damage to the wheels, brand new front axle, steering arms and rods. Thank goodness no one was hurt though! Claire stayed behind with Sarah, while Mark drove up to get me at the top end. It was a real sickening moment for all concerned. The Santa Pod crew were brilliant, and got the two cars safely stored away in the garage to be collected after racing. Once back in the pits, everyone rallied round, and went to check if Darryl and Terry, and Sarah and Ruth were okay. It was all a shock, and a bad incident. But the positive side is that nobody got hurt, and by the time of writing this, both cars are well on the way to being repaired and restored to their former glory, with help from friends. The Wild Bunch is a really great group of people! Best wishes and best of luck to Darryl and Sarah, Terry and Ruth. After this, we were a little shell shocked, and kept busy trying to find the problem with “Backdraft”. I went looking for Steve Johnson with the Super Pro ET “Motor Mouse” dragster, to see if we could borrow his MSD tester again, just as we had done at last year’s Thunderball! He attached his tester to the unit, and once again, we found out that the MSD was working fine! He was kind enough to lend us his spare coil, which I installed and we then fired the car up. The car now ran well, so we found the problem! Many thanks to Steve for taking the time to do this, and saving me from going and buying a new unit! We had heard there was an MSD seller on site at the weekend, so prepared to go look for them to see if they had a coil for sale, when we happened to mention the problem to Bob Callander from the Wicked Lady team. He had a spare coil the same as my old one, and said we could borrow it for the next run to see if it worked. I then pondered whether to do it then, or take down the awning. Claire suggested we get on and do it in case there was time for the third qualifier. So I did, and we proceeded to change the oil. We were just finishing adding the new oil when they called the Wild Bunch down, so we quickly put the panels back on and towed down to the fireup road. It turned out that we were the only ones to make it to this round, so I had a solo! We dialled in at 9.05, thinking the new coil would improve the performance. That it did, and the car left well and picked the wheels up, though I had to back off away from the wall somewhat, so recorded a 9.348 @ 142.40 mph, but we were chuffed with that one, as she was back on form again, and amazingly high speed of the Bunch for the weekend – haven’t done that for a while! (The 9.2 was low E.T. as well, and we would have been pleased with just that run over the whole weekend!). Big thanks to Bob, as he later kindly donated the coil to us! Much appreciated! And luckily, and surprisingly, this last run had put us into the #1 Qualifying Spot at the time! So we were pleased with that too! There were scheduled to be 3 more qualifiers on Saturday, but the day dawned cold, windy and cloudy again, and developed into snow during some parts of the day. This didn’t stay around, though gave everything a good soaking, and racing was called off for the day, despite the best efforts of the track crew to get everything in a go condition. In the mid afternoon, they had realised that the track temperature would just be too cold to hold enough traction. There were scheduled to be yet 2 more qualifiers on Sunday. But on Sunday we awoke to 2 ˝ inches or more of snow covering the whole of Santa Pod. We took loads of pictures of the car covered in snow. And watched some giant flakes still falling, then some small hail, horizontal blizzard snow, and large hail throughout the morning. There was so much snow around, the race director had to call the day off early. But the track crew got to work with the tractor clearing off the track, and with many crew also on shovels and brooms to get the snow off, so that it did not freeze overnight. By midday, there was starting to be a bit of a thaw. I decided to have some fun, and fitted a plastic box lid, taped up and cable tied to the front of the bar stool, so we could go do some ‘snow ploughing’ in the pits! We drove around for a while and took some pictures on the start area, by the snow marshall that had been built, complete with extinguisher! There were a few more like him around the pits, and a bit of random sledging going on, so everyone was making the best of the unusual conditions. The track team worked hard throughout and got the track cleared enough, so that they could concentrate on it again for finals day! Ever optimistic! We had a chilled afternoon to say the least! And later Helen and Dean kindly brought us back some delicious fish and chips, on their way back from a visit to Sharky’s. (Sharky had been at the track this weekend, for a few hours each day, taking photos, so it was great to see him back). We had a nice relaxed evening in the bus and went to bed pretty early. At least the wind had now dropped, and the weather forecast said that there may be some better weather the next day. On Monday, we knew we would have a long wait to the start of our eliminations. Five Wild Bunch cars had qualified for eliminations and we were still qualified in the top spot, so had a Bye in the first round, the quarter-finals. This was a relief, as we still had no idea what to Dial in. The snow flurries in the early morning had delayed the start of racing, so we just tried to relax and wait. We then contacted Brian Taylor, who is writing the “Crazy Horses” book about the history of British Drag Racing. We had arranged to meet for a chat if there was any downtime (!). We showed him our history books of “Malibu Express”, “Pink Panther” and “Backdraft”, and had a good talk about nostalgia drag racing in general. We also talked about the project that he is supporting to get the Beaulieu Allard dragster restored and turned into a ‘cackle car’. This would be very exciting, so we hope that all works out well! Just after Brian left, Antony Billinton of G-Max arrived, with some copies of a magazine with articles about “Malibu Express” that Claire had thought we might not have seen before. They turned out to be from a familiar old article, but we really appreciate them, as they are in a very nice condition. We had a great chat about ‘The Commuter’, the old days, our car, nostalgia racing and the great Sammy Miller. It was really good talking to Antony, about stuff we are all so interested in, and a good way to pass the time, whilst we were hoping for a run. By about 2pm, we were starting to get a little edgy, as we hoped we would be out on track soon. We had a bit longer to wait, as we didn’t get called til shortly before 4pm!! Claire and Mark braved the cold, and put on our new crew jackets for the day (on top of a few layers!). These are some nice red jackets we bought from RT Retro, with white racing stripes down the front. We sent them off to Karen of Busy Bee Embroidery, with our Backdraft cartoon logo on a picture, and a design of the font we wanted. She did a brilliant job, and they really look great, and stand out a treat, with Mark and Claire wearing those white jeans again, like they did for the flag start run at the Thunderball in 2005. Helen took some nice pics of these in the fireup road, so cheers to her! (As it had been too cold to pose for group shots back at the bus!). For this run, I had the Bye, so was really pleased, as we still were not sure what to Dial-in. We chose a 9.05 again, as with the new coil, the car might run well. On this run, the car launched hard, but off to the right, so I had to feather it away from the wall steadily, so lost a bit of time, and recorded a 9.409, but still at 141.64 mph, so I was pleased with that. And the track temperature still was not very high, and in fact by then, was cooling down again. We then went back to the pits, changed oil and fuelled up and waited for the Semi-finals, where I was due to face Darren in “The Wicked Lady” rear-engined dragster, and his reaction times are always good! We got called to the pairings lanes around 5:30ish. This time, Dave Rowlands had the Bye, and he ran an 11.153, making it to the Final for his first ever MSA event. Well done, Dave! For the Semis, we decided on a Dial-in of 9.40, as that was what we had run on the last round, and the track was getting even cooler. True to form Darren had a good reaction of .139 and ran a 9.602 on his 9.45 Dial-in. I ran a 9.466 @ 141.55 mph and was pleased with the run, as I won the “Closest to Dial-in” of the day. But I had lost out due to Darren’s holeshot. Well done to him and all the Wicked Lady team, as they really put on a great performance over the whole weekend, and went on to win the event! (Well, later after yet another snow flurry!). And well done to Dave for making it to the final on his first MSA event. We’re really chuffed with the car’s improved performance again! Thanks very much to Mark and Claire for crewing, they really did me proud, and thanks to Helen and Dean for their support, and for managing to weather the whole event, despite the cold. Also many thanks to all the marshals and officials for their hard work all weekend! Looking back it is even more amazing, given the weather, the fantastic job that the track crew did, and that they and the marshalls and officials managed to complete the whole event – a great feat, even into the late evening, clearing up oil downs so the last few pairs could race. We thank them for their dedication and determination. And thanks to everyone at Santa Pod for making us feel so welcome! Well done to all at Riot Racing for also sticking it out in the cold wintry conditions! Our Mark is still working on his slingshot, trying to get ready for the RWYB at Shakespeare County on 5th & 6th April, to do some testing. And we’re all now looking forward to the “Spring Nationals” at Shakey on April 19th & 20th, for the first Wild Bunch round of the season. Hope the weather’s better! And we can do some more tuning for consistency. Can’t wait. | ||
| 16th & 17th February 2008 BRISTOL CLASSIC CAR SHOW | ||
Phil Mitchell of the Bristol Hot Rod Club has asked me a number of times before now, whether I could take Backdraft to the Bristol Classic Car Show, held in February, at the Bath & West Showground, near Shepton Mallet, to display with a dozen Bristol area Hot Rods. In the past, our car has always been apart at this time of year, so I haven’t been able to do it! But this year, as I only had routine maintenance and a few other jobs to do, I made sure I was ready in time! This time the show was to be held on 16th & 17th February. I towed the car down to the showground on the Friday afternoon, and got there about 3:30. (Thanks a lot to Ed, who let me borrow his Chevy van for towing duties - the bus does not like hills, so this made the trip there a lot easier!) I got to the Exmoor hall, and set Backdraft up at the end of the hall by the door, jacking up the front, and putting her on axle stands to simulate a wheelie! I put the big Wild Bunch banner behind on the wall, and set up a table with some Shakey and Pod handouts and our flyers, and Claire had made a poster with some of the car’s history and pictures on it. The 10 Bristol Hot Rods were along each side of the hall, and they looked great, so I was real chuffed to be part of the display. I gave my son Lee, partner Sarah and grandson Liam tickets for the Saturday, and they thoroughly enjoyed the show. As soon as Liam saw the dragster, he wanted to look after Gramps’ car! Claire and I drove down on the Sunday at about 11:30, and went to the hall to check on the car first. Most of the flyers and handouts were gone, so we re-stocked them and dusted off the car. We then went for a wander round the show, which had hall after hall of cars, with all the classic marques represented. We returned to Backdraft after lunch and sat down to chat to the public. Claire did her usual PR job, and answered a lot of questions, including the standard 'How much are the tyres?' One person even asked how much the driver got paid! (If only they knew!). But the best quote of the day was by three different groups of people who said that they had 'never been so close to ‘one of these’ before!' This made our day and made it all worthwhile! So hopefully we reached a new audience, and interested some of them in going to the tracks to spectate or even join in! We had loads of fun, and really enjoyed the show. Many thanks to Phil for the invite! | ||
| That was the News | ||