Once again Cadwell Park was the first event of the season.  This is a lovely circuit in the Lincolnshire Wolds, sited on former parkland across a steep-sided valley with dips and crests.  The circuit features sharp changes in gradient, and its mix of challenging corners has led to its nickname as the Mini-Nürburgring. 2.175 long miles almost all of which is used it is ideal for sprinting.

The entrants were the family double drives of the Baileys, Clarkes and Frows accompanied by Paul Bryan and Simon ‘The Baron’ Baines, making a grand total of 8. We were not in our usual sprint car as when loading the car into the trailer on Friday afternoon Chris noticed that the brakes weren’t working properly.  After a couple of hours of fettling the brakes still weren’t working properly, and we had some decisions to make; go tomorrow after an evening of more fettling and hoping that they were working (a possibility), not go at all (not a possibility) or go in a different car (also a possibility).  After a bit of a discussion the decision was made and ‘Gromit’ my Class 6 Plus4 race car was loaded into the trailer and off we went. It was dark by the time we arrived at Cadwell, with the vans of the Baines and Bryans already parked up.  We unhitched and headed off to our salubrious Premier Inn in Grimsby.

The following morning was clear and cold, plenty of layers of clothing were required to keep warm, along with hats and gloves.  The Clarkes arrived and promptly went off to walk the circuit.  We had only managed half of it, as did Paul C, but Simon C must have walked very fast as he managed all of it – most important on his first visit.

We had only 1 practice run which saw Dave get off to a good start recording almost the same time as The Baron, and Simon C faster than dad Paul.  Ella was already pushing hard resulting in a spin whilst Chris and I were finding it hard to warm up our tyres.

First timed runs saw everyone improve their times, with both Simons going under 100 seconds, Paul B taking 3 seconds off, and Dave continuing to lead the pack.

Run 2 had some slight improvements from both Simons, whilst Ella was 1.5 seconds faster, and the rest of us were slower.  The weather wasn’t getting any warmer and neither were the Bailey tyres, and Dave was still beating us all despite misplacing one of his gloves in the assembly area.  He found it after the run had finished – in his helmet which of course he had been wearing!

The final run arrived without the Clarkes participating, as they had a dead battery on the car.  Chris, Paul B and I were all slower, whilst The Baron posted his fastest time of the day.  Dave was a bit faster than run 2, but not as fast as his first run, whilst Ella proved to be the final run bandit and snatch the prime podium spot from her dad with Simon C in 3^rd in his first visit to Cadwell.  Well done!

Results:

1 Ella Frow

2 Dave Frow

3 Simon Clarke

Photos by Brian Lee