Bristol Hotrods, England: Events page

Mendips Raceway Visit, May 2008

Thunder in the Hills		Late in 2007, I received an e-mail from Julian Sayer, promotional agent for Mendips Raceway. Julian had come across our web page, and as they held Hotrod racing at Shipham, asked if we'd like to visit and promote our cars and hobby at one of their meetings. Trying to find one of their meetings which did not clash with one of ours proved a challenge, but eventually May the 4th was chosen. At first only limited tickets were available, so people who had attended the previous Classic Car shows were approached to see if they were interested. Quite a few said they were, but as the date approached the numbers were dropping off. This meant a few late phone calls were needed.



		The day before, the weather looked menacing enough to put off Spence and John with their roadsters, leaving a hard core of four cars. Due to my usual slowness in getting the coupe ready, I was to be a passenger in Reg's Dorset - so at 10.15 on Sunday he called to pick me up. From my house we made our way to the Griffin for the 10.30 meet. Just after we arrived so did Rich Roberts in his A coupe, followed by lan Walker in his A sedan. Ian had been due to fly out to the USA that day but had postponed his trip so he could attend.



		Within a few minutes a slight drizzle came down, but luckily enough this faded almost as quickly as it had appeared, and the three cars drove across town for the second meeting at 11.00am in the car park of the Townstalk Motel. We stayed for ten minutes to see if anyone else might turn up, as this was one of the designated meeting points. One car did stop, but only to ask if there was a local show going on, as he hadn't heard of anything arranged for that day. We explained our plans for the day, he wished us luck, and went on his way. With no-one else arriving, we left the motel and made our way towards Churchill traffic lights from where I had to phone Colin Bennet's mobile so he could join up with us - Colin travelling down from Gloucester in his Fordson, via the M5. After a few words and realising Colin and his passenger had no idea where they were, a meeting at the track seemed an easier proposition.



		We had been warned by various friends to watch out for the state of the roads around the track, but upon arrival we found them to be alright, so we teamed up with Colin and were directed toward the pit area. Here we were greeted by Julian and introduced to Graham Bunter, who with his wife, own and run the circuit. Julian took us to a ringside vantage point where the four rods were put on static display until they would join all of the racers for the parade lap of the oval circuit.







		Whilst waiting for this, a nice touch was our host enquiring whether we would prefer tea or coffee. With the orders in hand Julian disappeared and returned about 10 minutes later with not only the liquid refreshments but a choice of bacon butty or burger. Needless to say this was much appreciated by us all.







		Once the parade lap was completed, we found our original parking area had been taken over by spectators, so we were escorted to a different part of the circuit. From here we watched a good afternoons mixture of hotrod and banger racing - and it never rained once. Our thanks go to Julian Sayer, Graham Bunter, and all of the organisers of Mendips Raceway for an enjoyable and dry afternoons fun. Phil

		Visit the Mendips Raceway site at: http://www.mendipsraceway.com
		Check out some more photos of our cars at the Raceway on this Mendips Raceway photo album