In Pole Position - Castle Coombe Racing, Chippenham, Wilts

12-15th July 2007

Dave Morphey must be looked at as a future treasurer. We had a rally at Castle Coombe which cost us less, including the pitch fees, than it cost for the spectators who bought tickets for the event. I don’t know how he managed it but what a bargain for those who attended. The marshals to this rally also must also have a direct line with him upstairs. We have not really had a good summer weather-wise to date, but we arrived with blue skies and warm sunshine. This bode well for a good weekend. We did have the odd shower but in general it rained overnight and decided to stop as we were breakfasting, so we generally had dry days. A number of the members suffered red faces on the Saturday not from embarrassment but from the sun.

We were pitched right next to a grassy bank which was one of the viewing areas of the race course, from the top of which we had a good view of most of the circuit. The furthest we had to walk was approximately 100yards. Having got up the bank we were immediately in front of one of the chicanes, a good place to view as this location caused much amusement to members as some of the cars did their dance routines and pirouettes, sliding around especially on Sunday when the track was still wet first thing. A weekend full of thrills and spills.

Saturday afternoon we had tea and cakes put on by the marshals again, in the sunshine. These were excellent and were followed later by a communal barbeque where for one of the few occasions this year we were also able to eat and enjoy early evening sunshine and warmth, tremendous!

It was a special rally for a lot of the ralliers as it was Laura and Tony Hennis' first rally as members in their own right. Whilst both have been around the club with their parents for some years it was great to see them in their own Swift caravan the very weekend after their wedding (a very happy event which a lot of members had been thrilled to witness).

Members were reluctant to leave on the Sunday as there was a full packed racing programme and no one wanted to leave until racing had finished for the day but unfortunately work beckoned on the Monday morning. We were quite envious of those who were staying on until Monday.

The treasurer was caught in his usual pose, can anyone tell me his secret as to how he does it. To fall asleep where he did three or four yards from the side of the track with cars hurtling past making a lot of noise at speed takes some doing

My grateful thanks to David and Barbara Morphey, ably assisted by Len and Dot Field, for a superb weekend. They couldn’t have done anymore for members, the siting of vans was good and seeing us off was well organised as Dave pedalled up the lane to stop the traffic to see us safely up the lane and back onto the main road.

A number of members asked for it to be repeated in the future, I’ll second that just give me the dates and you can and you can have my slip now.

Seymour Swift

Pics © & Courtesy Sharon Horn & Seymour Swift

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