Mini Cooper racing at Rockingham

Andrew and I set off nice and early, having read of five hour traffic jams in the papers during the week, I was concerned not to arrive late. The excitement was building up. At last! It's taken 18 months to get to today. We had the event booked a couple of months back (read the section Cancelled - Thursday in the 19 Feb entry), and have had endless difficulties in finding a date.

I have a camera, some borrowed film, lots of sun tan lotion, and lots of water. It's a very hot, still day. So off we go! A couple of miles into the country roads, and I have my foot stamping on the brake as I round a bend to find a queue of cars. There was a loud squeal of tyres, then the unpleasant smell of burnt rubber. I stopped in plenty of time. Perhaps I was going faster than I should have been or just overreacted - who knows. My first thought was, "Oh no, we're not going to get there!". The remainder of the journey was uneventful, and we arrived about an hour before the latest arrival time. We booked in and walked down and through the tunnel under the track. Starting to wander around, we found other groups of people at the pits area preparing to drive Ferraris and Porches. Discussing what we would like to drive, and how we might drive, we wandered round looking slightly enviously at the cars and drivers. It was now beginning to get quite windy, and soon after very windy. The dust stung our legs as we walked, then the rain drops started. Standing under one of the sets of stairs to the viewing gallery to avoid getting too wet, I remembered the weather forecast for the day. It seemed to be 100% accurate. Eventually we went inside, the rain was too heavy, but it would pass in an hour or so judging by the speed that the clouds were moving. We waited and waited. We'd seen the single-seater guys get taken out of their cars on the grid because of the high winds. They announce that the track was closed. We waited and waited. We watched the lightening, but it was a difficult storm to see as it was coming from behind the building, where there were no windows. We listened to the thunder. The room was full of people waiting. Then they announced that some events were cancelled due to standing water on the track. Finally, the announcement came. All remaining events were cancelled. There was just too much water on the track. We left dejectedly, grumbling about the lack of organisation and wanting someone to shout at. The rain had almost stopped as we left the track. The sky now dark but the temperature still very warm, we retraced our ‘steps’ and headed for home. The excitement of the day had yet to come. Somewhere on the 6616 a long almost straight section of road we were overtaken by a big BMW, he’d been desperate to get past, and he disappeared in a cloud of spray. The guy behind, in a red Toyota(?) followed him past, and then decided he wanted to take the next left. Having passed us at over 80MPH, he swerved in front and braked sharply. I braked too, but the Micra is not as good, so I was catching him up – quite quickly. He tried the turn, but couldn’t complete it. A Volvo was on the other carriageway waiting to turn right (across our path). The red Toyota skidded across the grass triangle that formed the T-junction, and ended up stopped on the curb, blocking the exit of the road he had tried to turn into. He came to a stop in probably the same second I passed him on the main road. A luck escape? Apart from braking sharply, my journey had not been impeded. Within the next couple of miles, we had discussed a number of other scenarios, most of which ended up with parts of three cars strewn across the road as a result of multiple high speed impacts. The remainder of the journey was completely uneventful – just the usual jams and insults from passing drivers when you dare to occupy a piece of the tarmac which they believe is theirs for just the seconds that you are on it.

This morning the sermon spoke of God's grace - His unmerited love for us - that will be why I am still here to write my blog. Now on Monday the booking process starts again!