Alfashop Championship Anglesey 9/10th August 2014

[PETROLHEAD]

Sadly, as there was barely enough phone signal to text air sea rescue, i was unable to do any kind of commentary or pictorial on the weekends racing and events, but, i'll recap it all for you here and now.

As the current choice of transport for the BLS race car and team, my humble Movano and trailer had some lugging to do for this one. To avoid taking more than necessary vehicles all that way, i had the race car behind us, and the usual fuel, tools, tyres, etc etc in the van aswell.

Also, as it was my youngest's 7th birthday, we were making a bit of an adventure weekend of it, so along with Tom in the front with me, i also had my better half, now known as Shellwin following her finding her Welshness for a weekend, Alannah, one of my stroppy teenagers , and of course birthday boy himself, mini me, Jixxer, and all the usual accompanying camping equipment, food, clothing, mountain bikes, kitchen sink etc etc The van was chokka and working hard!


Now, Anglesey is an odd kind of place, right on the edge of Snowdonia, so mountain range one side of you, Irish Sea the other, and being an island about 25 miles across, i suspected we'd be in for all sorts of odd weather. The forecast was actually pretty accurate, predicting sunshine on the saturday, and less so on the sunday, detriorating to rain at some point, which threatened to stay with us once it arrived.


Upon arrival Friday evening, following a healthy and slow journey of about 250 miles, we got the car off, set up the tents and briefly pondered the qualifying to come saturday morning.

Mountain bikes ready, my little crew did a lap of the track to suss it out a little, and do a little bit of exploring of paths that may lead down the cove riddled beach right on the edge of the track, hopefully sussing out a bit of adventure on the way.

Tom and Bryan did the same on foot, but probably with a bit more seriousness than us, and few less bumps and bruises!



Enough adventuring, time for some scran and think about getting our heads down, afterall, it had been a long day, so the last thing i needed was a sleepless night, but, thats pretty much what Shellwin and i got, after we discovered that the airbed we pinned our camping enjoyment and luxury hopes on, was missing its inflate/deflate bung, so it simply acted as a lame sort of vinyl ground sheet instead, not comfortable, not sleeping, so not happy


However, saturday morning came around soon enough, and we were all greeted by the sun and a slight breeze. Qualifying therefore would be a dry affair, and go great. A close fought battle, between Graham Seager's 3.2 supercharged GTV, Andy Robinsons 156 GTA, and the BLS 33.

Bryan got into a final position of 2nd closely behind the GTV, and this was to be an indicator for the weekend overall.

[PETROLHEAD]

Race 1 saw allsorts of action down the field, Andy Robinson not doing too well out of it, so it was to be Graham's GTV, BLS 33, followed by Roger Evans 156 GTA on the podium spots respectively.

Really not much in the lap times of Grahams big powered GTV and the giant killer 33 of Bryan and Tom, just as in qualifying, but a class win and a close 2nd overall was a great result to for saturday, so more than made up for being knackered due to uninflatable airbeds! lol!



In the prelude prior to race 1, myself and gang ventured further around the island to see the scenes, hit the shops, and treat mini me to as much rubbish as he could say yes too!

A visit to the Holyhead Morrisons store secured two single airbeds, so a good nights kip ahead of us, guaranteed by a small tipple of desperado tequila lager surely?

NOT!


Now this is a moan, that may make me sound like a party pooper, but there is something of a hypocracy and a safety concern to be considered too.

To begin with, saturday evenings weather was certainly starting to take a downward spiral, as the clouds rolled in, got thicker and darker, drizzle turned to spitting turned to persistent rain, and pretty heavy at times too, helped sideways by a decent wind aswell. But that was to pale into insignificance when compared to the goings on in the Anglesey Circuit bar and cafe, The Pitstop.

By day, a lack lustre greasy spoon cafe at best, but by this particular saturday night, it had become the scene of a birthday bash, held i think for one of the Mazda MX5 drivers, that became the loudest and latest gang karaoke piss up i have ever witnessed in a paddock environment.

All the years i have either been racing or accompanied racers, 11pm has been the understood and agreed time for generators off, revelry reduced, and let folk get some kip, and this was no different, as reinforced in the circuit instructions, 11pm, as usual.

Now its not a curfew, and i'm not a kill joy, but by 1am in the pooring rain, and having heard a bunch of drunks murder Living on a Prayer for the 5th time, most folk had kind of stumbled wearily back to their tents and caravans, and the remainder decided they would redecorate the paddock with toilet paper, sick, or worse!

As if that wasn't bad enough, imagine the risk of sharing the track with one these goons, or a car prepared by one of these goons, drunk as lords only hours previously?

To compound matters, this wasn't just some adhock gathering that carried on and on, and got out of hand, it was actively held by the Anglesey Circuit Organisers, the very people who would normally come and click your generator off for you and bring the bar shutters down at usual closing time to ensure a safe and sound night and days racing ahead.

Not very good at all tut tut

[PETROLHEAD]

Now as if THAT wasn't bad enough,

our tent was leaking, badly, and we were now getting wet through!


Myself, Shellwin, Alannah and jixxer, now all huddled into one 2 man tent, and getting rained on as the tent just couldn't withstand the rain, wind, and terrible karaoke anymore!

Deep joy, another sleepless night, and an awesome back, shoulder, and neck ache all round in the morning from being damp!


Eventually, a hot shower made things marginally more bareable for the time being, and with race 2 approaching, a bit of indecision from the weather, it finally looked like it was going to be a dry race afterall.


An even worse race for poor old Andy Robinson's GTA, lap 1 saw him spun and nudged off track into the banking, wall, and back again, and his poor 156 was looking very very secondhand

Which meant it was a repeat battle up front, Bryan leading initially after a great start, but eventually the power and slipperyness of Grahams GTV was able to overcome the prevailing headwind better than the 33, and managed to pip ahead. The final result being a repeat of race 1, Graham Seager 1st, Bryan Shrubb 2nd, and if i got this right, due to the disqualification of Robin Ayre Maunsell's 3rd place achievement as the main cause of Andy Robinsons early demise, the 75 of Keith Waite was promoted to 3rd overall in the final standings, which was great to see on his first visit to Anglesey in many many years of racing!

[PETROLHEAD]

Tiredness and tempers aside, it was still brilliant, as Tom, Bryan, and the 33 had achieved the very best they could for the weekends events, so hats off and pats on backs all round,

Well done fells, great effort and results as usual


But, as i mentioned earlier, its was my Jixxer's birthday, and this his 7th year will certainly be remembered for a variety of reasons, but most of all, and certainly most importantly for this

and this

Many Many thanks again go to Bryan, who very very generously gifted Jixxer his Class Winner trophy!

Jixxer was as amazed and gobsmacked as he ought to be, and the rest of us, and it already has a pride of place in his bedroom.


Mind you, he did give you a Disney Cars eraser character for good luck, so you must be about square?




After a swift repack and reload, we were all on our way home again, and thankfully a painless and much swifter drive back it was too.


All's well that ends well, and apart from the lack of sleep and throwing away of tents and beds etc, we're well up on the weekend, and we all thoroughly enjoyed it really! lol!

[KevJTD]

i hate tents

[PETROLHEAD]

[BS25]

Nice one Shrew - I think you captured the true horrors of the karaoke nightmare on Saturday night! Whilst my tent was water and wind proof, it sadly leaked shoddy renditions of power ballad classics at a massive rate of knots!

The racing itself was good - its a great circuit with a significant change in relief and of course has the proximity of the sea/mountains as an added backdrop for the photographers (too busy driving to see the view during the race!).

As Shrew mentioned, the supercharged 3.2 GTV (circa 400bhp) just had too much grunt and driveability out of the slow corners for me to catch him - though the fastest laps were only 0.2 seconds apart.

Rockingham is next (20th/21st September) - the first of a midlands mini-season as Silverstone International is the location of the following meeting in October.

I'll post up some photos from Anglesey this evening.

Shrew - glad Jixxer had a great birthday!! He told me he'd like a 33 with a 1950cc 16v engine for his 8th birthday please.....wheel style to be your choice

[PETROLHEAD]

Good job there's nothing like that for sale then, he'll have to make do with my 16v qv instead,

but he can chose his wheels safely,

No problem there

[Brovold]

Good story

Pål