Vroom vroom

We've had some great motorsporty weekends recently: the bikes at Castle Combe a couple of weeks ago; Thruxton and then the Castle Combe Rally Day earlier today.

The CSMA Big Weekend at the Dunlop Great and British round at Thruxton on the August Bank Holiday weekend was great fun - well anything with a 'Jazz and Ale Tent' has got to be good hasn't it? With our tickets we got a 15 min karting session and a trip on the 4X4 track. We flipped for it and Jon got the Karting. The track was great with bridges, underpasses, etc and he had a great time. The 4x4 track was awesome - I thought I'd be terrified but it was brilliant. Note to self: I must buy myself a driving session at the Castle Combe version.

Today's Rally Day at Castle Combe was excellent and this time the weather was perfect. Tony Mason was doing the interviews as usual - and here he is interviewing Jari-Matti Latvala. What a glamorous life these rally stars have: last week 3rd in Rally Japan, this week Chippenham! Stig Blomqvist, Gwyndaf Evans, Guy Wilks and Russell Brookes were also in attendance.

Speaking of Mr Brookes; there was a parade of his cars which included one I'd last seen in about 1979 at a Wigan and District Motor Club show - I believe it was the Mark II Escort TWC 234R. As you can see it was fresh from a rally, and yes, that really is me inside. I seem to remember that his manager, who accompanied the car, got rather merry on the hospitality.

As if to prove that it really is a small world: another link to the Wigan and District Motor Club (of which my Dad, an amateur rally driver/navigator, was a member) was this car, a little black Nissan Micra, which - it turns out - belongs to a friend of a friend. Sadly, it didn't go home looking like this as they rolled it about 20 mins before the end of the day. Sorry, I didn't get a photo of it on its roof before the marshalls pushed it back over, but here it is on the trailer. After a really quite accident-free day everyone seemed to get a bit leery at the end and no sooner had they been allowed back on track than two others
spun off and halted the proceedings again. I wouldn't be surprised if the Castle Combe faithful had photos up on here soon. All my photos are, as usual, over in the photo album on the right - look in 'Motorsport Summer 2010'. There'll be a 1 hour programme on the Rally Day on Motors TV 22nd October at 21.15 - set your videos!