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Doune in June. Guess what. It rained. And rained and rained. It was nice and
warm though, even when it was raining.
I've never been to Doune and had it not rain. This year the forecasts I chose to
look at were positive, I got it into my mind that it would be dry and
consistent. It would be possible to gradually build on the times from last
September and actually get some confidence going.
Never mind.
On the positive side we ran most of the weekend on wets. This means we have
sufficient good dry wear for Harewood. The set of front tyres we scavenged from
the BMTR dustbins last Friday will do nicely for second or third practice.
Should it not rain...
It was nice enough on Friday afternoon and evening though. Doune is very near
the Arctic circle so in mid June it never gets dark. A major topic of
conversation in the Scottish end of the camping area during the late twilight
was mechanical midge harvesting. If only midges mulched into a rare delicacy...
Three pounds I heard as a typical garden yield. The camp site at Doune would
raise a good ton in the course of a weekend.
Doune was the fourth weekend away on the trot. This is too much. Many wives
agree. And having to spend time on the weekend 'off' contributing to essential
maintenance adds to the spousal ammunition. Valentino Rossi was grumping about
having to race on three consecutive weekends, "By the third race the riders are
tired mentally and physically, and begin to lose concentration.", and all he has
to do between meetings is relax and travel (and occasionally heal of course)...
Hmm.
The Masons were back following Tim's minor off at Gurston. The return of the
chaos aura was welcome. The Woodside fantasies of how one could launch a car in
the complete absence of a clutch by dropping it from a trolley jack and whether
that would actually be legal were definitely funny at the time.
 I
like everything about Doune except driving the hill. My preference is to drive
up slowly and come back at a reasonable pace. For the double drivers in my batch
traffic is always a problem on the return. It's a simple technical fact of life
that we're struggling at much below 40mph with the engine running but any speed
is fine when coasting. And it's quite possible to coast back from the top of
East Brae with a dead engine. Unfortunately not enough seem prepared to try.
The event itself was rather low key. The conditions were consistently wet,
although the assembly area dried out from time to time. Martin has a bit of an
edge at Doune in the wet and duly took the first round. To win the second all he
had to do was repeat his qualifying time, but true to form he pushed a bit
harder, and uncharacteristically put a wheel off at the top of East Brae.
Somewhere in the ensuing bounce the left rear pushrod broke at the top which
basically put the car onto the left front, right rear and the floor. This lead
to a minor adventure under the trees on the way to the Esses followed by a
wobble to the line. Good enough for third though. And the onboard video will be
a highlight. The rest of the major placings were shared by the Morans with Simon
Durling consolidating fourth.
I'm pretty sure the Masons didn't have to resort to rapid deployment of the jack
to launch. Will was immediately up to speed scoring well in the first round but
the gremlins were back for the second. He did enough to win the class though. A
fine performance.
Tim Wilson has now finished eleventh three times in a row. Trevor scored twice.
There was a healthy supporting cast of travelling OMS regulars, and of course
local Scottish Speed hero Jonathan Rarity.
The Leaders scoring arrangements are far too complex to enumerate but Tom New
needed the Masons to start so that maximum class points were on offer, in the
event he was pipped for the win by Banzailliam but ended up scoring better than
if neither had run and he'd won.
It's often been said that Martin drives so fast because he has a bug in his ear
urging him on. I can now confidentially disclose that a large mosquito like
insect was professionally removed from his right ear last Monday evening. There
may now be a chance for us all at Harewood...
Paul
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