Well, that was quite a day! I thoroughly enjoyed seeing most of you again. A huge thanks to all those whose organisation behind the scenes makes for a slick operation at our gate. AndyK for getting us involved in the first place - this event is non-moveable in my diary every year; Drew and Susie for providing drinks and snacks etc and for running the gate with great efficiency. My son was helping at the gate and remarked on how well Susie handled the punter who told her to f-off because he couldn't get a ride in the car of his choice!!! A massive thanks to Mr Beans and Mr Crud for coming out to my stranded position on track to see if I was OK (as well as the texts and calls from others) and Adrian for escorting me off the track behind a Land Rover. Further thanks to Frank for driving me to Leicester where we got caught up in the carnival and loads of blocked roads so I could collect my hire car.
The 'biggest effort to get to Brunty' award must go to Adrian who flew in from his holiday in Spain to be there. He drove his M4 most of the way to Brunty from home before realising he'd left his necessary paperwork in the dining room. He returned and started driving back, stopping to get some petrol. Unfortunately he got a little impatient and managed to smack the front of the car into a lump of concrete, rendering the car undriveable:
A low-loader back home again, he dumped the BMW and luckily had a back-up Aston Martin N430 he could use, eventually arriving at the hotel at half a past midnight.
I'm gutted my car didn't make it past the morning session, but glad it went out in style being hammered round a track for pleasure and charity. I still managed to get a lot of laps in from almost 3 hours of driving. An entire family went out in my car individually, one of them coming back for a second ride. I felt really bad about the lad who was with me when my clutch expired. He'd tried to get a ride in my car for 2 years, queueing up especially for it. If he's there next year I'll make sure he gets a full lap next time! My car still managed to win the sound off when broken, being tested just before the recovery truck came. I was amazed to see the reading - 128.8db. No track days for me, then!
It was sad to see a couple of other broken cars, but at least I was in good company:
I felt sorry for the Morgan owner who was leaving the circuit to go home after his laps. Not sure what happened, but it involved a load of oil, a wing coming off and a mangled exhaust...
Sign me up for next year please!