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July 2004 Excursion Report

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Lydden Festival, Kent
11th July 2004
9am-6pm

In the weeks preceding the Lydden Festival we had five members confirm that they wanted to exhibit their cars. A couple of days before the event however, two members had to pull out. We managed to persuade the Chairman, Mike Hope, to clean his 9000 Aero as he had planned to attend the event anyway. So with only two days to go we had four cars that would definitely attend.

It was an early start for most of us on the day as many of us had at least two hours driving ahead of us as we had intended to arrive by no later than 9am. On the way to the circuit, the weather looked promising even though there were a few occasions when spots of rain could be seen on the windscreen. Finding the circuit was the first challenge of the day. Although we had local maps of the circuit, there were no signposts for it, unless you were coming from the A2. Once we had found it, we proceeded into the circuit and headed for the paddock to find where we had to set up.

We lined up the cars in our allocated plot and made sure we left room on the end for our newly acquired branch gazebo. We then set up the gazebo and completed our stand for the day. The next task was to put the finishing touches to the cars on display as they had accumulated quite a bit of road grime on the journey up to the circuit.

Although the first race of the day was to be held at 12.30pm, there was a driver’s parade at 11.30am. Three of us decided to participate in the parade lap and Toby led way in Mike’s 9000 Aero followed by Rob’s 9-3 SE and Mark’s 9-3 Viggen.

Because it was also the day of the British Grand Prix, many of us were prepared to record it and watch it once we got home. Fortunately Richard, branch treasurer, had brought along a hand-held TV. Although small, it was just big enough to watch the race. The excitement turned to disappointment as Michael Schumacher managed to win yet again! On the plus side, Kimi Räikkönen did finish second.

Although we had the pleasure of watching Formula One on the day, there was plenty of spectacular racing on the Lydden Circuit that day too. The most memorable of the day was the Super Modified class. Jamie Hickman’s Vauxhall Corsa and Phil Collard’s Ford Ka were out performing a Porsche 911 run by Barry Stewart. The speed of the cars was quite phenomenal.

All in all, we had a great day. The weather held out for us and there were some really nice cars on show. There was the suggestion that we should look into whether or not we could hire the circuit for our own track day. Watch this space!

Next Meeting: Tuesday 20th July at the Horseshoe Inn. < DETAILS >

Lydden Festival - 01 (262kb, Windows Media) *