Greetings race Fans!
 
Well the season got off to a shaky start with the Donington licence problems keeping us guessing right up until the last minute.

In the end we had the prospect of racing with permanent yellow flags at McLeans and Coppice which was the cause of considerable concern for all.

The day itself was blessed with fine sunny weather and we had a packed grid with the exception of the Silver Fox car 71 and The Trombone player car 76 who had pulled out at the last minute. Surprisingly though I saw Mr Rigg’s car at the track but it did not race with us.

We were also joined by a lot of new faces and several old ones:

Blaine Neaves looking like a giant Tomato in his new oversized race suit. He said he plans to grow into it or rent it out to a needy family during the winter. He then went one better than that and donned  an even bigger set of overalls to work on his car after practice….it just goes to show you not to believe all you read when buying on Ebay.

Long Haired Dave had retained his short hair style but concerned that like Samson it would sap his strength he was to be seen constantly munching his way through energy bars as he toured round the paddock.

I met new to our series Andrew Barker in his pale blue Roadster out for his first ever race (8B). He will quickly join our rogue’s gallery and will be nicknamed Catweasel. He will need to forget his old rallying habits though and try to keep off the grass and spend more time on the tarmac.

Sadly for him he was allocated the garage next to Burchill and would do well to ignore any advice from the Loonies!

Pat Fenn was out in his new V8 which as expected looked and sounded superb.

Weasley was out in the yellow peril as his V8 is not quite finished but we look forward to seeing this later in the season.

Beaker was out as a spectator feeling pretty sorry for himself and touting for a drive if anyone failed to turn up.

Alan the Loony photographer was out having helped put Ewart Kitsons car together. I am being especially nice to Alan as he will be marshalling at Oulton!

 
PRACTICE

29 (or 33 I cannot be sure) cars set out for practice but as normal Miss Daisy decided she would prefer to qualify during the parade lap, far more suited to her turn of speed.

Michael Piggott (60) had backed a winner with his Halfords spark plugs and shaved 5 seconds off his personal best compared with last year, while Mr Walpole had simply shaved his head.

For my part I had a reasonably uneventful practice until my throttle jammed open which resulted in me qualifying third in class but with several more grey hairs.

Simon Cripps pipped Short Haired Dave to pole with Sandbag coming in third. In class A Dr Evil  was pole closely followed by Simon Tinkler in ‘Primrose’ with Jonesey third…sadly this was not to last.
 

THE RACE
 
We were treated to the regular haranguing by Ron Gammons at the pre-race briefing who bemoaned the driving of everyone as usual…if anyone needs a chill pill its Mr G. 

Then we all trooped off to begin the first race of the season with a good grid of 33 if my calculations are right.
  
No split grids this year although I must say I was disappointed to be placed next to the Blue Streak  James Darby in car 38 who had returned from a year’s sabbatical with his newly rebuilt engine.
 
After a long hold on the reds we were off, or rather most of us were as I clumsily dropped the clutch and spun my wheels as the rest of the field zoomed off.

Through a crowded first corner space was tight, but we all got through and scrabbled towards the Old Hairpin, everyone vying for position and determined to get to McLean’s to use the yellow flags to their own advantage.
 
I was falling behind the class A guys as the blue streak streaked off having ditched the sandbag he had borrowed from Mr Ludlow in practice. Primrose was also going well and the 3 frontrunners remained several lengths in front for the entire race.
 
Meanwhile I was engaged in a gargantuan struggle with Alan Brooke in car 44. His Metro seemed to be glued to the track and able to corner at full speed with ease. We swapped places constantly with a very hard fought race. I took some very ragged lines at times in a desperate attempt to keep ahead only to see the little Metro zoom past with only a whisker to separate us. 

It really was racing at its best hard fought but clean. I managed to zip past in a do or die lunge through the chicane (Or the Esses to be accurate) on the last lap and was just able to keep ahead of Alan, aided by both the yellow flag section and the race leaders who had begun to lap us, but in all honesty had there been one more lap it could easily have been Alan in front. Great fun!
 
In the end class A finished up with the two James’s back together again in 1st & 2nd closely followed by Simon Tinkler in his newly lightened car to clinch 3rd, with Jones & Brooke some way behind in 4th & 5th respectively.
 
Simon Cripps achieved a life-time ambition of beating his mentor Vic Reeves look-a-like Barry Holmes and also winning the race.

Second in a very workmanlike fashion went to Blaine Neaves and third to Sandbag in car 70.

All in all despite earlier misgivings a good days racing was had by almost all and it was a great start to the season.

The prize giving was well attended but sadly delayed due to the lodging of a protest by Car 98 Nick Ashman against car 45 Alan Jones.

The facts as I understand them are as follows:

Car 98 alleged that car 45’s driving was such as to have impeded his progress causing him to leave the track. 

The results of an inquiry found no evidence to substantiate this claim and no action was taken against car 45. Car 98’s claim was dismissed and his fee was forfeited.

This allows me to introduce a new column in my report entitled My 10 pence worth, much in the vein of Jerry Springer.
 
In my view we are here to race and enjoy ourselves. My motto being racing should be fun. I think it is a shame that a driver who finished 27th out of 29 finishers felt the need to lodge a protest against a driver who did not finish the race at all due to mechanical failure. We are all adults and hopefully good sports. If we have differences it is to be hoped that we could settle them amicably and not feel it necessary to lodge protests until the last resort. Let’s hope that this does not become a frequent occurrence and we continue to enjoy and enhance the friendly atmosphere and reputation that the PBIC has become known for resulting in the excellent grid we saw at Donington.

I have added a new photo album, which I hope will include some more Alan F photos soon.

Looking forward to the next outing at Oulton.

See you there!

Jonesey