Man cheese, SCAT & wasps...an epic weekend

[Speedman]

Where do you start with a weekend of such awesome proportions? At the beginning that's where, so strap yourselves in with your beverage of choice and enjoy a Speedman tale.....

Got overly excited and decided to bypass the SE convoy and head off mid morning friday taking a lunch stop at Middle Wallop to watch the helicopters flitting round


Arriving at Haynes there was a drift photoshoot going on and the campsite was open for business, I missed out on being first in this year, but it was pretty empty at 3pm


Spying Mark on the far side of the field with a pile of poles and gazebo I thought it rude on to pitch in, several metres of gaffa tape later and we had a cinema ready for its audience


I took a stroll to see the cheery RR staff tent, hats off to the guys once more for pulling together a great location, add a few more toilets and I'd say it was perfect for The Gathering


While HW buggered up rebuilt his bike....


....I headed back to the camper for some grub and waited for the masses to arrive. Corking idea to bring the two piece suite


Some random helmet bashing ensued


And a few tried SOC big wheel, with varying degrees of success





The MM BBQ was fired up for the first of many meat sessions


And we started a wander of the campsite, picking up odd people on route


Before settling in the cinema for some Vanishing Point and The Italian Job.....

...I like em Big!

After a long day for some, tents were zipped up and camper doors shut for some Zzzzz

[Speedman]

Saturday morning dawned damp, so the cinema became a breakfast bar


Many attempts were made to stir JS



And I caught a novel Taxi to the gents and back


RR took over the Fleet Air Arm museum just up the road, the camper making an ideal tour bus for the short hop


Lots of planes


I think its meant for kids


Some of the Euro group learning about carriers


Giant seaplane swallows RRers Alan and Ben


Fabric moon discs...the next big thing?


Amazing engineering


If I undo this will it lop my head off?


Theres a car...quick take a picture!


Money no object, what would you fit a Merlin in?


On the flight deck


Random signage





The last hall and the tiny Concorde


With the museum viewed we pile back to camp for the day ;D

[Speedman]

Painting on camp is becoming popular


The cinema camp grew ever bigger


I took a wander to get some snaps


But only got as far as the Oldbus camp before being forced to eat a fine steak roll and drink more beer ;D When theres a vehicle just sitting there its the law that somebody should crawl under it!


Back by the camper I jumped at the chance of a rail ride



Hitchhiker



Beer time


Spanner time


Man cheese time


curse word in a hat


Want...

...especially with the leccy rear window


As the evening went on it became a mixture of chat, beer, meat and riding round





As darkness fell I thought about some arty shots, but was too chilled to bother much




With more cinema and some star gazing it was once more time to hit the rock'n'roll bed ;D

[Speedman]

Sunday is show day, we had a quick bacon sarnies round and packed up and joined the queue




The sprint guys formed the first of many lines


I watched the first few sessions snapping the crazy antics of the drivers

















Is that bonnet secure?


Brake



What was the smoke Bryn?

[Speedman]

Stopped watching on track to have a trawl of the show

[Speedman]

More track action




Well done BC for keeping things running smoothly with your hard working team


happy sprinters






I was surprised how well the mighty Tina coped on the tight track


Ice cream time!


Datsun action





Bumped into the Family Seth


;D

[Speedman]

Massive thanks to Ian for the chance to take the camper round at lunch time











Something much bigger playing



Someone much faster playing

[Speedman]

I've been round the museum many times now, so took a quick tour to get out of the sun for a bit
















;D

[Speedman]

A little more track action


Ouch!






The crowds gathered for the awards


Well done to the winners, all very worthy


The Ks inspected the rotary


With the day getting on, I decided to make a break for it, the goodbyes took me an hour to get round, and the drive home wasn't as bad as I thought, the 100 miles took me 2.5hrs in all

;D

[Speedman]

Thanks for reading, the rest of the snaps are here ;D

A huge thanks to all the organisers for their hard work putting on such a great weekend.

Thanks to the South East/West massive for a fine camp, BBQs, rides and laughs

Roll on 2010

[ben711200]

Brilliant pics, summed up the weekend perfectly.. Man cheese, 'planes and poo'. Great to meet you as well

[skinnylew]

brilliant pics really captures some of the atmosphere, which makes me feel worse for missing it lol

[purplevanman]

my pics are still loading
what a crackin do

[dollywobbler]

Aug 16, 2009 20:50:57 GMT Speedman said:

What was the smoke Bryn?

Fear not, t'was merely the fire extinguisher! Great shots and thanks for the healthy dose of meat, even if I wasn't brave enough for Man Cheese...

[craig]

Cheers for the pics, i fell in love with this....

[PhoenixCapri]

Great photos of a great weekend, glad someone got a shot of me getting it all wrong! Remember kids smoking is bad for your health

[tonycocacola]

great pics and write up steve.
i expected nothing less.

[Colonelk]

I got back in @ 10.20 after dropping my friend off.

Excellent do as per usual, great show, great camping, great cars.

Cheers to BC for sorting the track, was tricky but great fun!

And cheers to Hotwire and all the other hard workers for making everything happen

[datman]

120y van running flawlessly (its so little trouble its borderline boring!) Brilliant people-pics Speedman!

[rmad]

I laughed all the way through the thread. I wish I'd come to the museum now!



TAXI!