Category: At The Track 2014

1. Festival of Power 18th- 20th April 2014

   Posted on 6:08pm Sunday 25th Oct 2015

    

   With the body freshly painted in its official colours, new push rods fitted and a thorough check over the engine, we headed up to Santa Pod on Wednesday afternoon. Thursday was Pro test day and the 1^st opportunity for Steve to put a few check out passes on the car before Sarah being unleashed in it. Thursday morning was spent giving it the once over and Sarah being towed around the pits to make sure she was comfortable with it all, the only thing left was to get it on the track.

   We towed down to the start line just as they stopped for lunch, 20 minutes later, a pep talk on a nice and steady first run and we were on, this was it. Steve pulled round in the left hand lane, I headed towards the lights and gave him the thumbs up as he pulled through the water box and then it was all over.

   A slight miss hap as he drove through the water box, saw the left hand tyre grip and the right hand tyre not. The results were devastating and pretty hard to comprehend at the time. The car hit the Armco upright, cutting the front axle clean in half and taking the Armco out of the ground.

   Rapid response from the lovely St John’s Ambulance crew and the track crew who I’m sure to this day say to each other here they come stand clear (much appreciated guys), saw us parked up in the shed and utterly devastated, no racing for us this weekend then.

                     

                       

2. Fast Show 25th March 2014

   Posted on 8:25pm Saturday 17th Oct 2015

   The 1st test and tune date arrived and it being the only one left before the 1st official meet saw us still trying to get the car together at 2.00am, by 5.00am we were ready to load up, the plan was to meet Sarah and Daryl Howells from DASH Racing at the track for 8.00am. And then disaster struck, the tail lift refused to work on the lorry. A call was made to DASH HQ to say it was all over we would have to reschedule by this time lack of sleep had taken it's toll. A very dispondant husband and equaly unhappy wife admitted defeat and headed for home to sleep.

   Ha!!Ha!! the DASH team had other ideas and a telephone call from them 20 minutes later informed us that they were on their way down from Derbyshire to assist.
   

   A quick shower and more coffee saw us heading back to the workshop to await their arrival. By 10.30 the car was loaded and we were on our way.

   On arrival at the track we parked up next to "Ellies in Trouble Now" unloaded and set up. The rest of Saturday was then spent towing around the pits getting a general feel for the steering etc.
   

   Sunday dawned and found us full of excitment, this was it "Launch Day". And then we opened the truck door to say it was busy was an understatement, there were cars everywhere, never having been to this event before we were totaly gobsmacked. Good for the track but not good for us, it was totaly impossible to tow the car any where let alone the start line, so that was us done thwarted at every turn we finally admitted defeat and headed for home with the intention of running at the peak performance day on the Thursday before the Festival of Power.

   On the plus side all things happen for a reason, on checking the engine over when we got home we discovered a broken pushrod, severe damage had been avoided.